How Worrying Can Actually Make You Sick
I&#x27;m currently enjoying a book called <i>It&#x27;s All In Your Head</i> by an Irish neurologist called Suzanne O&#x27;Sullivan - review at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;07&#x2F;all-in-your-head-review-o-sullivan-suzanne-osullivan" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;2015&#x2F;jun&#x2F;07&#x2F;all-in-your-he...</a>. Summaries of some of the clinical stories themselves are at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;society&#x2F;2015&#x2F;may&#x2F;16&#x2F;you-think-im-mad-the-truth-about-psychosomatic-illness" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;society&#x2F;2015&#x2F;may&#x2F;16&#x2F;you-think-im...</a><p>It&#x27;s mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis. I was never familiar with the idea of repressed memories and psychological trauma causing physical illness before and initially dismissed it as arm-wavey pseudoscience, but the amount of evidence is striking even if our level of understanding is poor. This also explains why so many people with undiagnosable pain disorders seem to get referred to psychiatrists here in the UK - people misinterpret this as doctors thinking their illness is all imaginary, it&#x27;s not, but the <i>cause</i> of it often well can be.