What is somatization?
When physical symptoms are caused by mental or emotional stress it is called somatization’. For example, many people have occasional headaches caused by mental stress. But, stress and other mental health problems can cause many other physical symptoms such as: chest pains, tiredness, dizziness, back pain, feeling sick diarrhea, penod problems, etc.
Understanding normal sleep
A normal night’s sleep has three main parts.
- Quiet sleep. This is divided into stages 1-4. Each stage becomes more ‘deep’ Quiet sleep is sometimes called deep sleep.
- REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep REM sleep is when the brain is very active, but the body is limp apart from the eyes which move rapidly. Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep
- Short periods of waking for 1-2 minutes.
What is Depression?
The word depressed is a common everyday word. People might say “I’m depressed” when in fact they mean “I’m fed up because I’ve had a row, or failed an exam, or lost my job etc. These ups and downs of life are common and normal. Most people recover quite quickly.
With true depression, you have a low mood and other symptoms each day for at least two weeks. Symptoms can also become severe enough to interfere with day-to-day activities.
What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome and who gets it?
Imtable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common functional disorder of the gut. (The gut includes the bowels) A functional disorder is one where there is a problem with the function of a part of the body, but were there is no abnormality in the structure. So, in IBS, the function of the gut is upset, but all parts of the gut look normal, even when looked at under a microscope.