Psychosomatic complaints

Psychosomatic complaints may benefit from this ritual and where health resources are restricted - as in South Africa - may save the State millions of rands in health costs Chan [7] supports this view and mentions that in many developing countries, traditional methods of treatment (as opposed to the conventional western style prescription methods) are the only affordable and available forms of health care for the majority of the population. 

Negative emotions may cause psychosomatic complaints that are also attention-demanding and reduce performance efficiency. 

Alternatively, stress theories are adopted fiom industrial, social, and persortality psychology (Kahrr, 1981 Karasek Theorell, 1990 Lazarus Folkman, 1984). Stress theories describe the relatiortship between person and envirorrmerrt. The evaluation of the sitrration (Lazarus Folkman, 1984) or the perceived controllability of the sitrration (Karasek Theorell, 1990) is central in these theories. Stress research examines the work-health relationship by investigating the influence of the work envirorrment on well-beirrg, psychosomatic complaints, and health risks. 

The ideas about the relationship between work and health have changed dramatically since the 1980s. In the classic view, the employee, in particular his or her "weak" personality, was held accountable for stress problems such as psychosomatic complaints, sleeping problems, and an unhealthy lifestyle. It has now been demonstrated (see Karasek Theorell, 1990, for a review) that some fectors in the work environment have negative effects on health and well-being. In a longitudinal study in which more than 7,000 Swedish employees were monitored during a 9-year period, it was found that the risk of cardiovascular diseases increased and life expectancy was estimated to be shortened by 7 years due to unhealthy psychosocial factors in the work environment (Johnson, Hall, Theorell, 1989). 

Under normal working conditions, the energy mobilization is tuned by the demands of the task. This task-induced activation is sufficient for a proper execution of the task. Because the task is data limited, devoting more energy to it via mental effort does not improve performance. Given a balanced work-rest schedule, the employee does not experience psychosomatic complaints or feelings of fetigue and health risks remain unaffected. 

The actual needs assessment process can propel advocacy efforts. Because conducting a needs assessment requires face-to-face interviews and discussions, it helps facilitate relationship building and the establishment of trust among advocates and school personnel and administrators. A critical part of this process is giving people an ear. For instance, in interviewing teachers, Acosta (2001) found it helpful to ask them, What concerns do you have about students that you would want mental health services to address Later these concerns can translate into services that help establish more permanent buy-in firom school personnel. For instance, a concern that students fi uently report psychosomatic complaints (e.g., headaches and stomachaches) as a result of stress could be addressed by advocates through the creation of stress reduction workshops. 

In nondepressive patients whose complaints are of predominantly psychogenic origin, the anxiolytic-sedative effect may be useful in efforts to bring about a temporary psychosomatic uncoupling." In this connection, clinical use as "co-analgesics" (p. 194) may be noted. 

Eventually, you will become an expert on your body s rebeUions. The people who know the most about an illness or condition are the people who have it. They may not know it by aU its technical names but they know how it looks and feels and what has worked and not worked. You will have to teach your doctor about how your body works. Try and be patient. Most doctors are trained to apprehend symptoms as signs of an internal disease entity codifiable by a medical nosology that, in turn, is captured by linear cause and effect ways of connecting bodies with the world. When you describe your symptoms, biomedicine will likely find them too numerous to correspond to any known disease, too subtle to count as illness in themselves. Paradoxically, it is this plethora of minor complaints that led biomedicine to conclude that mcs was psychosomatic. 

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