In the 30s of the XIX century, the German doctor Karl Ideler expressed the idea, fresh for that time, that fear and anxiety have an indirect effect on the occurrence and development of many somatic diseases in the human body. In doing so, Ideler also identified the differences between anxiety and fear.
He believed that the factors that cause fear are outside the person, and that causing anxiety are within him. And if a person can at least guess about the possible reason for the fears that have appeared in him, then he is not even able to guess what exactly caused his anxiety.
Something bothers him, torments him, interferes with normal work, prevents him from falling asleep quickly, taking a carefree walk. But what it is, he does not know.
And ignorance creates even more anxiety. Over time, it overwhelms a person's thoughts, becomes unbearable. But he cannot leave her, he cannot hide. But he could not continue to withstand such a painful mental torture. At some point, he realizes that he needs protection.
And with the understanding of this fact, his feelings begin to change, leading to a reassessment of internal values. In the end, a person tries to abandon the world that torments him and to which he could not adapt, and begins to build a new one. As a result of these psychological perturbations, he has hallucinations, the main duty of which is to protect a person from certain virtual phenomena that have generated anxiety and anxiety in his inner world.
Once stepping on this path, the sick fantasy begins to interpret the events in its own way and at the same time tries to find the enemy, who, in her opinion, caused such a painful state.
At the same time, the search for the enemy is carried out not in order to find the reasons for their suffering, but for aggressive actions against him, by showing which, you can extinguish the boiling anger and at the same time achieve a nervous release.
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But since the object of anxiety, and therefore aggression, is usually inside a person, but is unknown to him, the subconscious mind begins to direct its aggression to certain internal organs that act as an enemy. As a result, the gradual destruction of its own organism begins. That is, latent anxiety leads to internal aggression, which, being suppressed, leads to illness and self-destruction of the body …
And suddenly, more than 150 years later, Ideler's thoughts were unexpectedly continued in the works of modern psychiatrists. In many experiments and studies, it has been shown that there is indeed a clearly observed connection between mental anxiety and physical illness.
Doctors often cite heart disease as an example of such addiction. Indeed, in fact, almost all feelings experienced by a person are reflected in a certain way on the state of his heart. Apparently, it is not by chance that they speak of "heart excitement" or "tremors in the heart."
And a number of modern cardiologists generally believe that the heart sometimes becomes a symbol of a loved one, and all those feelings that cannot be expressed openly are transferred to this organ. And if these feelings are negative, then you will not envy your heart in this case.
Gallstone disease is another example of the influence of the mental component on the state of the human body. This disease is fairly widespread in the Western world. At the same time, in the East, in particular in Japan, it is found much less frequently than on the European continent. Even less common are gallstones in blacks, and the inhabitants of the island of Java do not have them at all.
Experts do not have an exact explanation for these facts, although they suggest the existence of some connections between the disease and the characteristics of the character of these peoples.
However, the ancient Greeks already drew attention to the existence of a certain relationship between the human psyche and the functioning of the liver and bile. Indeed, when a person begins to show impatience, worry and get angry, his sensory state immediately affects the work of these organs.
In 1928, the American researcher E. Witkover decided to check how right the ancient Greeks were in their statements about the influence of various experiences on the liver. For this, the subjects under hypnosis were instilled in various emotional states: joy, sadness, anxiety and anger.
It turned out that in the first three states, the flow of bile increased. But anger and anger reduced its amount. Moreover, when the subjects were told that they were in a good mood, the yellow color of the bile became more intense. Moreover, the qualitative composition of bile also depended on the suggested ideas.
In general, as it has been found in the course of numerous studies, emotions, especially negative ones, affect the functioning of many organs and systems: in particular, the immune system, hormonal status, heart rate and blood pressure.
At the same time, a connection was noted between certain emotions and certain diseases. So, the emotions that appear in controlled situations - anxiety and a feeling of helplessness, as well as nervous overload, provoke the occurrence of stomach or duodenal ulcers.
Anger and hostility are most likely the main causes of high blood pressure, as well as angina and myocardial infarction.
Asthma and skin conditions are also associated with emotions. True, with which, it has not yet been established.
The American physician F. Dunbar said very well about the connection between psyche and disease: “Some people think that psychosomatic medicine as a specialty deals only with a known group of diseases, such as dermatology or ophthalmology. But in fact the adjective “psychosomatic” indicates a conceptual approach to the human body with all its diseases.
Perhaps this point of view is more essential for assessing some diseases than others, but, generally speaking, there should not be the former dichotomy of "psyche" and "somatics". The psychosomatic approach is stereoscopic; it contains both physiological and psychological techniques. It can be applied to all diseases."
But not only mental states provoke disease. The reverse processes are also quite frequent: when chronic somatic diseases lead to changes in mental activity.
Here is a curious chain that looms between chronic renal failure and the human psyche. With this disease, as you know, intoxication occurs, against which asthenia develops.
As a result of increasing asthenia, there is a narrowing of the scope of attention, a violation of the processes of imprinting and storing information. Further depletion and weakening of the body leads to the fact that, along with impaired attention and memory, other negative changes appear in the intellectual sphere. For example, the productivity of thinking decreases.
Along with the changes in intellectual activity, there are changes in the emotional sphere. In patients, irritability is observed, control over emotional reactions weakens. Anxiety and hypochondriacal traits may develop later.