Somatic Symptoms & Conversion Disorder

Official designations and names for a condition change over time. But what many call Somatic symptom disorder and conversion disorder have been understood as two separate conditions. Still, it may be helpful to discuss them together because they have much in common: Both involve the mind contributing to or even creating physical medical problems for the body. 

And health anxiety (or "illness anxiety") is somewhat similar, except that it does not involve actual significant physical symptoms, and instead involves worries and fears of serious illness.

Somatic symptom disorder

Sometimes a person becomes hyper-focused on their pain or fatigue or other physical discomfort, that their subjective experience of it becomes magnified, and they are much more negatively affected by it than would be the average person.

The suffering of a person with somatic symptom disorder is real. It is not imagined or made up. But the mind is powerful enough to affect the body, and to stimulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that make the pain and suffering worse.

Signs and Symptoms of Somatic Symptom Disorder

  • Physical symptoms, of pain or fatigue or any of many possibilities.

  • Magnified sensitivity to the symptoms, as compared with most people

  • Even in the case of a serious illness, being more worried about and incapacitated by the illness than the average person with that same illness.

  • Negatively interpreting normal bodily sensations as being dangerous or signs of disease

  • Being unsatisfied with medical treatment, and believing it is insufficient

  • Condition may be made worse by frequent doctor visits

  • Frequent self-monitoring or self-examination, being worried about serious illness

 

Now let's discuss what has been called conversion disorder.

Conversion Disorder

Conversion disorder is the name that’s been given for what's happening when anxiety or psychological distress shows up in the body, as physical symptoms...even though the physical symptoms don't seem to have a physical cause. In dramatic cases, a person may lose their sight, hearing, or ability to walk, etc., even though medical tests cannot find a physiological basis for such changes.

Signs and Symptoms of Conversion Disorder

Symptoms of conversion disorder, when they develop, tend to follow a traumatic experience, either physical or emotional, or by excessive stress or depression.  The specific symptoms vary by individual, but the common denominator is that the physical symptoms cannot be accounted for by medical tests of physiological functioning. Some examples of symptoms:

  • Paralysis, or inability to walk or use an arm or leg or other body organ

  • Convulsions or seizures

  • Loss of balance

  • Swallowing problems

  • Blindness or problems with vision

  • Deafness or hearing problems

  • Speech difficulties or inability to speak

  • Numbness or inability to feel normal sensations

  • An emotional problem may improve after the physical symptoms begin

  • Significant symptom begins suddenly

  • No physical cause is found for the condition, even after testing

In conjunction with possible medical treatment for the symptoms of either somatic symptom disorder or conversion disorder, many people are helped by being treated for emotional stress, the anxiety or trauma or depression, that may underlie the distressing physical symptoms.

If you would like to begin working on these issues, please call Michael Posner, MSW, LCSW at (918) 830-3750.