Psychophysiologic disorders (PPD) are stress-related, brain-generated pain or illness. The resulting symptoms are completely real. That is why the term we use is a blend of Psychology (the processes of the mind) and Physiology (the processes of the body). It is why we support both in Befriend.
Conditions such as extreme anxiety, chronic pain (not linked to damage or disease), migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, and pelvic pain syndromes are just a few of the dozens of very real conditions we see with PPD. Linked to this are often OCD type thoughts or behaviours, ADHD type symptoms, alternating cycles of anxiety and depression, but most often, intense health preoccupation and anxiety, and constant vigilance.
Danger can be perceived by the brain from current stressors, sensations, personality traits (being self critical, perfectionism, over helping etc), scary thoughts/beliefs, unexpressed or suppressed emotions, social factors. When danger is perceived, nerves are activated to produce a physical/stress response. This is to protect you from further danger. Not your body betraying you or going ‘wrong’. Unfortunately this stuck on protective response can cause a lot of symptoms.
This physical response could come in the form of muscle tension or contraction, panic/anxiety, inflammation, anxiety, pain and many other symptoms (see our mind-body education for more on this). Over time this impacts every system in our body until we come in to help ourselves. Some impacts are shown below:
This activation of nerve pathways will be remembered by the brain indefinitely and can be re-activated by a variety of triggers. For example a certain place, weather, food, emotion, movement will remind the brain of unsafely and will trigger a threat response, think of it as an alarm, leading to symptoms. This is how the brain “learns” to keep us safe and teaches us to seek safety. It is not our body betraying us or going 'wrong'. Unfortunately when this alarm keeps going off, we begin to feel chronically unsafe - leading to over focus on symptoms, and no real way of feeling safe other than avoidance, or safety behaviours like restricting activity, foods, etc.
Fear of pain and attention/over focus on the pain from fear keeps the danger signal turned on and lead to worsening symtpoms, resulting in a vicious self-reinforcing cycle of symptom-fear-attention-symptom. Hence why we teach you skills in Befriend to reassure your system, shift your attention to building health, and re-engage with life bit by bit. We want your attention off the symptom and much more on paying attention to what feels better and what is right with you (not what is wrong), whilst also downgrading the alarm with the practices we teach like embodied mindfulness, somatic tracking and brain retraining.
When then help you get to know your unique triggers, and how to feel safer and more at home in your body. Our modules in Befriend for healing the deeper roots - Befriending Personality Parts, Befriending Emotions and Needs, Somatic Experiencing.
Studies have shown that the danger signal in the brain and these symptom pathways can be activated not only by acute physical injury, but also by memories of past physical or emotional traumas, perceived threats, and even imagined threats (catastrophising anyone?!) and our personality patterns if they are stressful.
Unresolved emotions (fear, anger, shame, grief, guilt) are major factors in producing chronic pain and other stress-related conditions. Often, we suppress painful thoughts and emotions because they are unacceptable to us or others (family, society, religion). Once suppressed in our subconscious, physical pain or other symptoms can develop. A common source of suppressed emotions is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and adverse community environments.
We work through this gently class by class without any rush or anywhere to 'get' to. Safety is a felt experience that comes at the pace of trust. We also need to care for our physical body with good nutrition, movement, play, and pleasure - we encourage this too in our classes.
The Way Out Is In
Recovering from chronic conditions often leads to more happiness than the person ever experienced before because they will be undoing harmful thoughts, they are in touch with emotions and needs, and they build new behaviours that support these and lean into the small pleasures in life, which are the big ones we come to realise over time. The person will no longer be a ship without a sail being tossed and turned by life’s inevitable stressors. They can learn to be at the helm; they can find their sail. Life does not get easy. We get more adept at meeting it in the moment and riding the wave with choice and agency.
The good news is that after years of clinical research, we can help people heal PPD with:
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