{"id":152201,"date":"2024-03-03T14:48:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T19:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152201"},"modified":"2024-03-03T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T19:48:45","slug":"evidence-based-practices-for-health-anxiety-and-somatic-symptom-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152201","title":{"rendered":"Evidence Based Practices for Health Anxiety and Somatic Symptom Disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y6SMkw_LKws<\/div>00:00:02<\/a>Hey there everybody and welcome to this video\u00a0 on practices for addressing health anxiety and\u00a0\u00a0 somatic symptoms i’m your host dr donnelly snipes\u00a0 now obviously the title of this is evidence-based\u00a0\u00a0 practices however doing the research on pubmed\u00a0 unfortunately there was a devastating lack of\u00a0\u00a000:00:25<\/a>research on evidence-based practices for treating\u00a0 these issues so we’ll talk about what i did find\u00a0\u00a0 and we’ll talk about what i have learned\u00a0 over 20 some odd years of clinical practice unfortunately much of the literature\u00a0 still refers to somatic symptom disorders\u00a0\u00a000:00:47<\/a>as symptoms which have no physical\u00a0 cause and that is not true anymore\u00a0\u00a0 and i mean this was even after the dsm 5 was\u00a0 released that the research especially from\u00a0\u00a0 in medical journals was focused on symptoms\u00a0 that have no identifiable medical cause\u00a0\u00a000:01:11<\/a>the dsm-5 defines somatic symptom disorders though\u00a0 as one or more physical symptoms that result in\u00a0\u00a0 clinically significant distress it says nothing\u00a0 about whether there is or is not a physiological\u00a0\u00a0 cause and we need to really underscore that\u00a0 doctors must get away from assuming that something\u00a0\u00a000:01:36<\/a>is all in people’s heads when they cannot\u00a0 identify a cause fibromyalgia for the longest time\u00a0\u00a0 pots hyperparathyroid and chronic fatigue syndrome\u00a0 have all fallen into that category where for years\u00a0\u00a0 decades people were told that hey there’s\u00a0 no underlying physiological cause for your\u00a0\u00a000:01:59<\/a>complaints therefore nothing must be wrong and it\u00a0 must be all in your head and now we know that hey\u00a0\u00a0 there actually is physiological um markers there\u00a0 actually are physiological markers and something\u00a0\u00a0 is actually a miss in the body factory you just\u00a0 didn’t know what to look for before um and it’s\u00a0\u00a000:02:22<\/a>important for us as behavioral health clinicians\u00a0 and social workers to also really guard against\u00a0\u00a0 invalidating people’s experiences we want to help\u00a0 them improve their quality of life we don’t live\u00a0\u00a0 in their skin so invalidating\u00a0 their experiences is not helpful00:02:46<\/a>one of the analogies i make sometimes if you’ve\u00a0 ever worked with somebody who has a psychotic\u00a0\u00a0 disorder when they are in a psychotic episode\u00a0 no amount of telling them that their perception\u00a0\u00a0 of what’s going on is wrong is going\u00a0 to do any good it’s actually going to\u00a0\u00a000:03:06<\/a>break the relationship it’s important to join\u00a0 them in their reality their perceptions now i\u00a0\u00a0 am by no means saying that people with somatic\u00a0 symptoms are psychotic no i am not i’m saying\u00a0\u00a0 their symptoms their perceptions their feelings\u00a0 the way they are experiencing life is very\u00a0\u00a000:03:26<\/a>real and just because we don’t experience it\u00a0 that way doesn’t mean it’s not real to them\u00a0\u00a0 we’ve learned over the years that there are a lot\u00a0 of people with sensory integration and sensory\u00a0\u00a0 gaiting difficulties for example that experience\u00a0 things very differently what you may experience\u00a0\u00a000:03:48<\/a>as lukewarm they may experience as scalding the\u00a0 temperature objectively is the exact same but\u00a0\u00a0 their nervous system their sensory\u00a0 response is very very different and\u00a0\u00a0 by ignoring that we are causing trauma we are\u00a0 causing them to feel invalidated hopeless and\u00a0\u00a000:04:11<\/a>helpless and we’re promoting emotional\u00a0 dysregulation think about people who well let me go on with this before i before i\u00a0 make another analogy physical interventions for\u00a0\u00a0 somatic symptom disorders this person is having\u00a0 physical symptoms it’s going to be difficult to\u00a0\u00a000:04:37<\/a>address anything cognitively until we have\u00a0 the facts so they’ve probably already had\u00a0\u00a0 a physical and blood work in order to\u00a0 provide evidence of what is or is not\u00a0\u00a0 going on that we can measure at this\u00a0 point in time so let’s get that data00:04:59<\/a>this can help people rule out for example\u00a0 catastrophic physical concerns if they’re\u00a0\u00a0 concerned that they’ve got cancer for example you\u00a0 know let’s get the information that says we don’t\u00a0\u00a0 see any evidence of that right now doesn’t mean\u00a0 you’re not having symptoms but let’s rule out\u00a0\u00a000:05:18<\/a>anything that we can um relatively easily\u00a0 i’m not talking about sending people to\u00a0\u00a0 you know 16 different specialists but that\u00a0 can help us when we get to the cognitive\u00a0\u00a0 interventions because it gives us some foundation\u00a0 to evaluate so for example if somebody is having\u00a0\u00a000:05:39<\/a>pain in their back and i will use my example\u00a0 my mother died of kidney cancer for months she\u00a0\u00a0 thought that she had pulled a\u00a0 muscle in her back at the gym\u00a0\u00a0 turns out it was kidney cancer and that freaked\u00a0 me out um so then when i started having pain\u00a0\u00a000:06:02<\/a>in my back i got concerned and then i got some\u00a0 blood work that was a little bit off i got even\u00a0\u00a0 more concerned but then i looked at the blood work\u00a0 and i looked at all of the other tests of kidney\u00a0\u00a0 function and white blood cells and everything\u00a0 else and they were all within normal parameters\u00a0\u00a000:06:20<\/a>so what was the take home and we’re going\u00a0 to talk more about occam’s razor in a minute\u00a0\u00a0 the take-home or the most um logical\u00a0 explanation the simplest explanation was\u00a0\u00a0 hey it’s probably your scoliosis or you\u00a0 probably pulled a muscle in your back which\u00a0\u00a000:06:38<\/a>i do a lot you know working out on the farm\u00a0 moving bales of hay and those sorts of things cognitive interventions now if\u00a0 somebody is having somatic symptoms\u00a0\u00a0 we are not necessarily going to be able\u00a0 to address those very much what we are\u00a0\u00a000:06:56<\/a>going to need to look for is how can we improve\u00a0 your quality of life emdr i have on the top of the\u00a0\u00a0 list why is that a lot of people not everybody\u00a0 but a lot of people with somatic symptoms\u00a0\u00a0 have a history of trauma and vander kulk said it\u00a0 best that a lot of times trauma is remembered as\u00a0\u00a000:07:22<\/a>a sensation or a feeling as opposed to a thought\u00a0 or a memory and emdr may be able to help untangle\u00a0\u00a0 or identify a connection between a\u00a0 traumatic experience and a somatic\u00a0\u00a0 symptom so emdr can be very helpful people\u00a0 can also develop health anxiety and after\u00a0\u00a000:07:49<\/a>a traumatic experience where a loved one dies\u00a0 of an illness or after they have a particular\u00a0\u00a0 physical health problem like a heart attack\u00a0 then they may become hyper vigilant to\u00a0\u00a0 any sort of cardiac symptoms or any sort of\u00a0 related symptoms so emdr can be really helpful at\u00a0\u00a000:08:13<\/a>helping people integrate these memories in\u00a0 a way that it doesn’t always trigger their\u00a0\u00a0 fight or flight response it doesn’t trigger\u00a0 their anxiety at least not to the same extent\u00a0\u00a0 improving health literacy is very very helpful\u00a0 and there was a little research on this the more\u00a0\u00a000:08:32<\/a>people feel educated about a particular\u00a0 illness or condition the more empowered\u00a0\u00a0 they feel to either protect themselves from\u00a0 getting it or to deal with it if it happens\u00a0\u00a0 the key is where do you how do you improve\u00a0 health literacy and it’s really difficult in\u00a0\u00a000:08:54<\/a>today’s day and age of the internet where\u00a0 not everything is a hundred percent accurate\u00a0\u00a0 and a lot of things are written so generally\u00a0 that it can actually promote more anxiety\u00a0\u00a0 improving health literacy especially in people who\u00a0 already have health anxiety or somatic symptoms\u00a0\u00a000:09:17<\/a>in my opinion can best be done through\u00a0 guidance from a case manager a social worker a counselor or a medical professional\u00a0 who can gather the information that is\u00a0\u00a0 appropriate and accurate for that person without\u00a0 providing them information that might trigger00:09:44<\/a>unnecessary anxiety and we’ll talk about that a\u00a0 little bit more in a minute cognitive processing\u00a0\u00a0 and this is where that physical comes in cognitive\u00a0 processing encourages people to get away from\u00a0\u00a0 emotional reasoning emotion-based reasoning i\u00a0 feel scared therefore something must be wrong\u00a0\u00a000:10:06<\/a>and look at the facts what are\u00a0 the facts for and against my\u00a0\u00a0 belief that i’m in danger of getting this\u00a0 condition or that i have this condition\u00a0\u00a0 now cognitive processing doesn’t work as well with\u00a0 somatic symptoms because the facts are the facts\u00a0\u00a000:10:24<\/a>if the person is experiencing a symptom that’s\u00a0 what they’re experiencing and even if there’s no\u00a0\u00a0 medical cause or if there is it doesn’t matter for\u00a0 our purposes as behavioral health clinicians if\u00a0\u00a0 they’re experiencing a reduction in their quality\u00a0 of life as a result of a physiological symptom\u00a0\u00a000:10:49<\/a>then it is so what facts might we look at well\u00a0 we’re going to talk about backward chaining in\u00a0\u00a0 a minute but we might look at facts such as\u00a0 what makes it worse and what makes it better\u00a0\u00a0 control what aspects of this situation can you\u00a0 control once you’ve identified what makes it worse\u00a0\u00a000:11:08<\/a>and what makes it better then you can identify\u00a0 ways to try to reduce the intensity of the\u00a0\u00a0 symptoms once you’ve identified the risk factors\u00a0 for getting an illness then what aspects can you\u00a0\u00a0 control what can you do to keep from getting\u00a0 it or if you have it what can you do to help\u00a0\u00a000:11:33<\/a>yourself recover from it or live a high quality\u00a0 of life with it and p stands for probability and\u00a0\u00a0 we need to recognize it and again it’s really\u00a0 important not to invalidate people’s perceptions\u00a0\u00a0 but we also need to recognize if based\u00a0 on the facts that i have and if i do the\u00a0\u00a000:11:57<\/a>things that are within my control what is the\u00a0 probability i can have a high quality of life cognitive behavioral interventions those come up a\u00a0 lot i think it’s probably because it’s one of the\u00a0\u00a0 easiest things to do a study on quite honestly\u00a0 but addressing distortions can be very helpful\u00a0\u00a000:12:19<\/a>all or none thinking i’m either sick or i’m not\u00a0 sick i can either have a horrible quality of life\u00a0\u00a0 or a good quality of life jumping to conclusions\u00a0 like i said i have a back egg therefore it must be\u00a0\u00a0 catastrophic all right let’s look at the facts and\u00a0 same thing for emotion-based reasoning looking at\u00a0\u00a000:12:42<\/a>the facts and thinking you know what are three\u00a0 other explanations for why my back might hurt\u00a0\u00a0 or why i might feel like you know my chest is\u00a0 a little tight besides something catastrophic living in the and and heartiness are also\u00a0 interventions that can be very helpful recognizing\u00a0\u00a000:13:04<\/a>again that sometimes people have symptoms somatic\u00a0 physical symptoms that met current medical\u00a0\u00a0 knowledge can’t fully explain or can’t explain the\u00a0 intensity of the symptom however they’re having it\u00a0\u00a0 so how can they have their highest quality\u00a0 of life and be experiencing this symptom\u00a0\u00a000:13:29<\/a>people with chronic illnesses face this all the\u00a0 time how can i have a rich and meaningful life and\u00a0\u00a0 cope with the symptoms of my particular condition\u00a0\u00a0 similar to living in the and is hardiness\u00a0 and we’ve talked about this in other videos\u00a0\u00a000:13:48<\/a>heartiness is comprised of commitment control\u00a0 and challenge commitment means helping people\u00a0\u00a0 recognize all of the things in their life to which\u00a0 they are committed all of the things in their life\u00a0\u00a0 that bring it meaning and richness and each one\u00a0 of those things is like a bean in a jar or a\u00a0\u00a000:14:09<\/a>slice of a pie however you want to think about\u00a0 it recognizing that any one point in time\u00a0\u00a0 all of the pieces of your pie may not be going\u00a0 perfect but focusing or at least acknowledging\u00a0\u00a0 those things that are going right that you’re\u00a0 committed to can be helpful control what can you\u00a0\u00a000:14:34<\/a>do to continue to experience good things and the\u00a0 things that are going right and what things can\u00a0\u00a0 you do to maybe improve the things that are going\u00a0 crappy right now and challenge you know sometimes\u00a0\u00a0 life just keeps throwing us curveballs or\u00a0 lemons or whatever your life throws at you\u00a0\u00a000:14:54<\/a>and yes it sucks we can view these things as\u00a0 barriers that keep us from having the life we want\u00a0\u00a0 and just kind of sit down and go i give up or\u00a0 we can view them as obstacles things that we\u00a0\u00a0 need to either get over around under or through in\u00a0 order to get to that quality of life that we want00:15:17<\/a>now take drawing from dialectical behavior\u00a0 therapy we have backward chaining radical\u00a0\u00a0 acceptance and distress tolerance many people who\u00a0 have somatic symptoms or who have health anxiety\u00a0\u00a0 have experienced invalidation from significant\u00a0 others from health care providers even from\u00a0\u00a000:15:38<\/a>mental health providers and therefore they\u00a0 may feel very hopeless helpless demoralized\u00a0\u00a0 it’s important to give them a place where\u00a0 they can say this is what i’m experiencing\u00a0\u00a0 and be heard and believed we’re not saying you’re\u00a0 making it up we recognize we may not be able to\u00a0\u00a000:16:01<\/a>explain why you’re feeling it but we recognize\u00a0 you’re feeling it so let’s backward chain and see\u00a0\u00a0 what was it or what things may have added\u00a0 together to trigger this flare up to trigger\u00a0\u00a0 this particular um symptom episode that you’re\u00a0 having and this is something that lenahan\u00a0\u00a000:16:25<\/a>really promotes with people who\u00a0 have borderline personality disorder\u00a0\u00a0 and emotional dysregulation however it’s very\u00a0 very helpful for people who also experience\u00a0\u00a0 what i’ll call somatic dysregular dysregulation\u00a0 helping them identify what is causing this symptom\u00a0\u00a000:16:46<\/a>for them at this point in time it provides an\u00a0 immense amount of personal control to be able to\u00a0\u00a0 say okay i can see a couple of things that i\u00a0 might be able to do to prevent this in the future\u00a0\u00a0 radical acceptance is recognizing that hey i\u00a0 have this symptom maybe there is no medical\u00a0\u00a000:17:12<\/a>explanation or maybe there is and i can’t\u00a0 get rid of it for some reason like pots or\u00a0\u00a0 chronic fatigue syndrome radically accepting i’ve\u00a0 got this so back up to living in the end how can\u00a0\u00a0 i have my highest quality of life possible and\u00a0 also have this condition this symptom this fear00:17:40<\/a>distress tolerance is another skill that can\u00a0 be helpful when people start feeling a symptom not saying that it doesn’t exist okay\u00a0 i’m not saying that it doesn’t exist\u00a0\u00a0 what i’m saying is when they start feeling the\u00a0 symptom just like we do with anxiety sort of\u00a0\u00a000:18:00<\/a>developing a relationship with it and saying all\u00a0 right you’re back again well crap on a cracker once a person is able to tolerate the distress\u00a0 they don’t have to like it but being able to\u00a0\u00a0 tolerate it can prevent rushes of anxiety\u00a0 floods of adrenaline that can potentially\u00a0\u00a000:18:23<\/a>exacerbate or make make their symptoms worse so\u00a0 distress tolerance can be helpful when they’re\u00a0\u00a0 having a flare-up being distress tolerant for most\u00a0 symptoms that people present with can be helpful\u00a0\u00a0 because when we get stressed it triggers\u00a0 that stress response system and it can\u00a0\u00a000:18:45<\/a>increase inflammation it can impair sleep it can\u00a0 impair gi functioning it can cause all kinds of\u00a0\u00a0 symptoms that can make the original symptom even\u00a0 worse so distress tolerance can be a helpful tool\u00a0\u00a0 again and i know i’ve said this like 16\u00a0 times already i’m going to say it again\u00a0\u00a000:19:08<\/a>this is not to say the person is not\u00a0 experiencing xyz symptom it’s just help them\u00a0\u00a0 recognize okay i’m experiencing this symptom it is\u00a0 what it is what can i do next instead of getting\u00a0\u00a0 angry and starting to fight with it and try to\u00a0 get rid of it even though they know they can’t\u00a0\u00a000:19:32<\/a>another technique that can be helpful for people\u00a0 especially with health anxiety is to schedule in\u00a0\u00a0 worry what i call worry checking or research\u00a0 time depending on their particular diagnosis\u00a0\u00a0 if they have health anxiety tabling their worry\u00a0 tabling their focus on doing research to try to\u00a0\u00a000:19:53<\/a>figure out what’s going on to a prescribed 30\u00a0 minute period during the day can feel somewhat\u00a0\u00a0 liberating because then they don’t have to\u00a0 think about it the rest of the day when they\u00a0\u00a0 start worrying about it they can jot it down\u00a0 in their journal or on a little piece of paper\u00a0\u00a000:20:15<\/a>and say okay i will worry about this this evening\u00a0 right now i’m going to focus on these other things\u00a0\u00a0 checking during this time if they are\u00a0 concerned about particular issues instead of\u00a0\u00a0 spending a whole lot of time checking\u00a0 things scheduling time to do it or research\u00a0\u00a000:20:38<\/a>and research again can be a little\u00a0 bit dicey because people can find out\u00a0\u00a0 not so good or not so hopeful information\u00a0 i am not encouraging people to ignore acute\u00a0\u00a0 intense symptoms if they’re\u00a0 having them it is important to00:21:01<\/a>find that happy medium environmental interventions turn off the tv turn\u00a0 it off if you are hearing stuff on the tv that\u00a0\u00a0 is triggering your health anxiety triggering your\u00a0 somatic symptoms then turn it off this was super\u00a0\u00a000:21:21<\/a>true during the pandemic i almost didn’t watch tv\u00a0 during the pandemic and even like um prime time tv\u00a0\u00a0 especially when they started integrating the\u00a0 pandemic into the storyline i quit watching it i’m\u00a0\u00a0 like when i am watching tv i am trying to escape\u00a0 i don’t want this continually thrown in my face\u00a0\u00a000:21:44<\/a>i’ll do the same thing when i’m watching a show\u00a0 and they insist on weaving in this theme of some\u00a0\u00a0 character in the store and in the show having\u00a0 cancer there was a period there it seemed like\u00a0\u00a0 every single show i was watching somebody had\u00a0 cancer i’m like this is not what i want to have\u00a0\u00a000:22:03<\/a>to think about right now now obviously that was\u00a0 shortly after my mother had passed from cancer\u00a0\u00a0 and i’m like no i don’t want to have to think\u00a0 about that i don’t want to worry about that\u00a0\u00a0 so turn off the tv or find something\u00a0 that you know is safe to watch\u00a0\u00a000:22:22<\/a>a comedy a you know some other show\u00a0 where that’s not going to be woven in avoid and yes there’s a term\u00a0 for it now cyberchondria\u00a0\u00a0 many very benign as well as not so benign\u00a0 conditions share similar symptoms like fatigue\u00a0\u00a000:22:44<\/a>people may go on and and start searching for what\u00a0 would be causing my persistent ongoing fatigue\u00a0\u00a0 and there is literally everything in the alphabet\u00a0 that can cause fatigue but a person with health\u00a0\u00a0 anxiety is often going to hone in on the uh most\u00a0 catastrophic explanation oh my gosh it could be\u00a0\u00a000:23:16<\/a>this well okay how likely let’s go back to facts\u00a0 control and probability what is the probability\u00a0\u00a0 out of the 37 things it could be what is the\u00a0 probability it’s the one catastrophic thing\u00a0\u00a0 there’s a a theory i don’t know what to call it\u00a0 called occam’s razor which says basically often\u00a0\u00a000:23:40<\/a>the simplest explanation is the most accurate\u00a0 explanation so think you know if you have a\u00a0\u00a0 backache if you have a neck ache if you have\u00a0 um an itch what is the most likely cause of it\u00a0\u00a0 and then explore explore that and and that\u00a0 can really help allay some of your anxiety\u00a0\u00a000:24:09<\/a>and recognize click bait click bait is there\u00a0 and this is true for the media too they’ll put\u00a0\u00a0 out these little teasers but click bait and\u00a0 television teasers are there to motivate you\u00a0\u00a0 to go to their site to hear what they have\u00a0 to say so they can get advertising revenue\u00a0\u00a000:24:28<\/a>and it’s important to recognize that so\u00a0 they are going to probably put some very\u00a0\u00a0 generic benign stuff out there that everybody\u00a0 has or everybody can relate to because they’re\u00a0\u00a0 trying to trigger your anxiety people are more\u00a0 motivated when they feel like there’s a problem\u00a0\u00a000:24:48<\/a>if they’re saying oh watch this video\u00a0 of this this happy dog running around\u00a0\u00a0 they’re not going to get as many people to\u00a0 click on it as if they say watch this video\u00a0\u00a0 that may um help you identify five early warning\u00a0 signs of this catastrophic something something\u00a0\u00a000:25:06<\/a>um so do recognize click bait for what it is a\u00a0 organization’s desire to increase their views and relational interventions\u00a0 limit exposure to people who\u00a0\u00a0 dwell on their symptoms or people’s disorders00:25:28<\/a>many of us know people who are very very\u00a0 focused on these things and they want to talk\u00a0\u00a0 about these things constantly their friend’s xyz\u00a0 disorder or their xyz symptom or the possibility\u00a0\u00a0 of getting xyz condition and when you\u00a0 are immersed in that when it’s constantly\u00a0\u00a000:25:50<\/a>bombarding you just like every time you turn on\u00a0 the tv it can feel inescapable and you can feel\u00a0\u00a0 uh powerless and unsafe because you’re constantly\u00a0 being presented with the worst case scenario\u00a0\u00a0 and rarely are you hearing okay well here\u00a0 are all the other factors here are all the\u00a0\u00a000:26:14<\/a>ways to prevent it here’s the probability\u00a0 that it’s going to be an issue for you\u00a0\u00a0 so if you need to limit exposure to what\u00a0 i call chicken littles the one the people\u00a0\u00a0 who want to focus on the sky falling that is a\u00a0 healthy boundary to set find a trusted provider\u00a0\u00a000:26:36<\/a>mental health social work medical ideally\u00a0 medical that can help you get your get\u00a0\u00a0 answers to your questions somebody\u00a0 who can point you in the direction of\u00a0\u00a0 accurate understandable\u00a0 health literacy information\u00a0\u00a000:26:53<\/a>communicate with your significant others how they\u00a0 can best help you with your distress and this goes\u00a0\u00a0 back to some degree to those secure attachments\u00a0 being responsive to you when you’re in distress\u00a0\u00a0 reminding you of distress tolerance skills maybe\u00a0 helping you by turning off that tv you know what\u00a0\u00a000:27:14<\/a>this seems to be triggering your anxiety so\u00a0 let’s turn this off and go do something else\u00a0\u00a0 and not perseverating sometimes it’s important\u00a0 to remind people in your life that hey that’s too\u00a0\u00a0 much for me to hear i don’t want to hear about\u00a0 whatever it is validation of your perception\u00a0\u00a000:27:35<\/a>it’s important for people to understand that your\u00a0 reality is your reality they don’t have to agree\u00a0\u00a0 with it they don’t have to be experiencing it\u00a0 themselves but your reality is your reality\u00a0\u00a0 when um we’re at my house my my body temperature\u00a0 runs very different than everybody else in my\u00a0\u00a000:27:58<\/a>household and i can be like sweating to death\u00a0 and they’re all walking around in sweaters\u00a0\u00a0 does it mean that i’m not actually hot no clearly\u00a0 i am i’m sweating but their perception is very\u00a0\u00a0 different they’re like i don’t know how you can\u00a0 be hot or walking around in shorts in this weather\u00a0\u00a000:28:20<\/a>i am it just is the way i am is how\u00a0 i’m experiencing the world right now\u00a0\u00a0 so validating your perception and in our household\u00a0 i validate that hey you know i can see your cold\u00a0\u00a0 by the fact that you’re wearing a sweater i’m\u00a0 not going to be critical you do what you need\u00a0\u00a000:28:38<\/a>to do i do what i need to do and empathy empathy\u00a0 can be really helpful now that doesn’t mean um encouraging perseverating on the symptoms but\u00a0 empathy about how frustrating and disempowering it\u00a0\u00a0 must feel sometimes not to have answers and i was\u00a0 just having a discussion with one of my friends\u00a0\u00a000:29:03<\/a>the other day about how liberating it can be\u00a0 even if you are diagnosed with a chronic illness\u00a0\u00a0 how liberating it can be to finally have a\u00a0 diagnosis that says this is what you’ve got and\u00a0\u00a0 even if there’s not a treatment for\u00a0 it at least you know at least you have\u00a0\u00a000:29:22<\/a>something to call it at least you have\u00a0 you know an avenue that you can look for\u00a0\u00a0 clinical trials or something if\u00a0 you feel like you need to do that\u00a0\u00a0 but it’s very liberating as well because a\u00a0 lot of times unfortunately i know i’ve gone\u00a0\u00a000:29:41<\/a>through this entire presentation and harped\u00a0 on the fact that your reality is your reality\u00a0\u00a0 but a lot of our loved ones and providers\u00a0 and other people don’t understand and if they\u00a0\u00a0 don’t have a diagnosis it’s hard for them to be\u00a0 willing to empathize and the same thing is true\u00a0\u00a000:30:02<\/a>in terms of getting reasonable accommodations\u00a0 at work unless you have a diagnosis of some sort\u00a0\u00a0 a lot of times it’s really difficult to get\u00a0 reasonable accommodations so there can be a additional reason why somebody may\u00a0 be really wanting a diagnosis just\u00a0\u00a000:30:26<\/a>tell me what’s wrong or tell\u00a0 me what i’ve got that way i can\u00a0\u00a0 get what i need to get in order\u00a0 to have my highest quality of life there is a disturbing lack of research into\u00a0 the interventions to help improve the quality\u00a0\u00a000:30:43<\/a>of life of people with somatic symptom\u00a0 disorders and health anxiety the majority\u00a0\u00a0 of interventions discussed in this presentation\u00a0 are those that i have used in clinical practice\u00a0\u00a0 and or used personally one of the\u00a0 most important factors in addressing\u00a0\u00a000:31:00<\/a>somatic symptom disorders and health\u00a0 anxiety in my opinion is to balance\u00a0\u00a0 awareness of the current facts with the reality\u00a0 of the presenting symptoms for that person\u00a0\u00a0 and focus on helping them do what they\u00a0 can to improve their quality of life
Source : Youtube<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y6SMkw_LKws00:00:02Hey there everybody and welcome to this video\u00a0 on practices for addressing health anxiety and\u00a0\u00a0 somatic symptoms i’m your host dr donnelly snipes\u00a0 now obviously the title of this is evidence-based\u00a0\u00a0 practices however doing the research on pubmed\u00a0 unfortunately there was a devastating lack of\u00a0\u00a000:00:25research on evidence-based practices for treating\u00a0 these issues so we’ll talk … Continue reading Evidence Based Practices for Health Anxiety and Somatic Symptom Disorders<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1709495326-maxresdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}