Psychosomatics of meteorism in children and adults
Flatulence is very common in children and in the elderly, but middle-aged people often suffer from excessive gas accumulation in the intestines. Not always treatment and diets help, moreover, it is not always possible to establish the cause of this phenomenon. In these cases, it is worth considering the possibility of the psychosomatic nature of excess intestinal gas formation.
general information
Meteorism in medicine is called bloating caused by a large accumulation of digestive gases. In all healthy adults, up to 0.5 liters of gas is formed and painlessly excreted in the intestines per day. We do not feel this, it is a normal physiological process. If the accumulation of gas exceeds 3 liters, talking about flatulence. The composition of intestinal gases contains substances that are released in the process of metabolism: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, oxygen and hydrogen, as well as some amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.
Filling the intestine with digestive gas causes the characteristic symptoms: stomach twists, puchitis, an unpleasant belching appears, hiccups can begin, there is a feeling of fullness in the stomach, there can be quite severe pains that recede immediately after discharge of the gas through the natural (anal) opening.
The very process of the discharge of gases, which is popularly called a rude word, has the harmonious Latin name "flatus". And the sound, which is formed at the same time, is called sphincter resonance.
Often, flatulence is a sign of a violation of the gastrointestinal tract. It is one of the symptoms of dysbacteriosis, pancreatitis, enterocolitis. Healing of the stomach can occur in acute intestinal infections, helminthic invasions, as well as in violation of the intestinal patency. If a person eats hastily, swallows a lot of air with food, he also often develops flatulence.
If no pathology is found, doctors recommend looking for the cause of unpleasant sensations in the diet: avoid foods high in carbohydrates, legumes, cabbage and apples, carbonated drinks, black bread, beer and kvass, as well as dairy products, if there is lactose intolerance.
Treatment usually consists of eliminating the cause of increased gas formation. If it is a matter of worms, antihelminthic therapy is given, probiotics are prescribed for dysbacteriosis, etc.
When is a psychosomatic problem?
The psychosomatic nature of flatulence can be suspected when there are no objective reasons for increased gas formation: the examination does not reveal any abnormalities in the gastrointestinal tract, no helminthic invasions, dysbiosis, or human nutrition does not contain products that promote fermentation and gas formation in the intestines. In this case, the doctors to whom the patient refers, usually say that "stress" is to blame. The cause of these stresses and help find psychosomatics.
Also pay attention to the situation where the prescribed treatment does not bring relief, gas formation decreases slightly or does not decrease at all. In this case, the cause of the disease can also be psychogenic.
If bouts of flatulence appear with enviable regularity, it is also worth thinking about what emotional and psychological causes can cause it.
Psychosomatic causes
Psychosomatics treats a symptom or disease in combination: physiology, anatomy, and psychology.So it is possible to establish exactly which stresses and emotions can influence the likelihood of the development of a disease.
From the psychosomatic point of view, just as from the physiological point of view, the intestine performs two important functions: it participates in the digestion of food and the assimilation of useful substances. When applied to metaphysics, food should be understood as information that a person receives from outside. Learning in this case means accepting certain information from the outside.
Informational “food” is events, impressions, problems that a person faces. If he easily accepts information, processes it in a timely manner, does not hide from problems, gladly accepts new ideas and trends, criticism and advice, learns something useful for himself from all of this, then he usually has no problems with the intestines.
When violation of the acceptance and processing of external information a person experiences stress, unwillingness to accept something, unwillingness to "digest" (he says so - "I do not digest something or someone"), the body quickly responds and creates a real problem with digestion in particular, excess digestive gas production.
The basis of meteorism, according to researchers in the field of psychosomatics, is fear, the fear of a person to face reality and problems. Stress hormones, which are produced every time when he consciously or unknowingly refuses a useful proposal, a piece of advice or a solution to a sore problem, cause metabolic disturbances at the cellular level, resulting in disturbed intestinal motility, spasms appear. These feelings are very accurately described in literature and folklore: he who fears something in a stressful situation says that "everything inside is compressed from fear." This is not just a beautiful comparison - it really is.
The world communicates with us through certain events, people. Even a phrase by strangers passing by by chance at a bus stop or in a store can be a hint for you. People who often suffer from flatulence are characterized by inflexibility and conservatism. They do not want to accept and "digest" everything new (therefore, the disease is so widespread among older people, who are almost impossible to convince).
The problem remains unresolved, information and prompts are not accepted, the body has no choice but to draw the attention of a person (his conscious part) to it with acute pain.
Psychoanalysts pay attention to the following prerequisites for the development of chronic flatulence:
- constant scrolling in the head of the details of negative experience, unpleasant events, the mental existence of a person in the past, not in the present;
- discomfort due to the impossibility or unwillingness to complete a business, task, job, task;
- a person has accumulated a lot of ideas, but he cannot realize them, afraid or not sure that his ideas will be successful (they literally bursting at him from the inside);
- a person excessively feels his own importance, he is bursting with contentment and pride for himself.
Another category of people suffering from flatulence is people who are used to experiencing a fear of society before it will be accepted or rejected. They are ideal members of the "extras", ready to agree and go where all the rest go. The main thing is not to stand out, not to lose reputation, not to be the subject of another's condemnation.
In children
Psychotherapists believe that those who “eat everything in a row” are subject to increased intestinal gas formation, that is, people who take absolutely everything from the world that comes in: the necessary, the unnecessary, the useful, and the harmful. So very often do teenagers and children of secondary school age. They are not too picky in dating, music, movies, absorb everything.The children's mechanism of meteorism usually differs from an adult: gas formation develops because the intestine is overloaded, there is too much information, it is impossible to digest and assimilate everything, and the child does not have the necessary life experience, knowledge and readiness.
Please note that in infants so-called infant colic, to which medicine still cannot find a rational explanation, begins at birth and ends at 3–4 months. It is to this age that the first, most informative stage of adaptation is completed. After birth, the baby is struck with such an abundance of sounds, images, tactile sensations that it simply cannot process and digest everything that it feels and perceives. When a baby gets used to this world, starts recognizing a mom, smiles for the first time, gets used to food, day regimen, light and sounds, colic usually disappears without a trace. Therefore, infant colic can be considered the most striking example of psychosomatic meteorism.
Schoolchildren often have a puffy belly before important events, for example, before competitions or exams. This is a typical psychosomatic gas formation, which is caused by the fear of not coping, not winning, and the child refuses to accept and “digest” the very idea of losing or poor grading. Children who are able to accept the idea of both their own victory and the possibility of losing usually do not suffer from stomach pains before decisive events.
Treatment
An adult needs to think carefully and understand that not all events are sweet, like food, they are sour, bitter, and even poisoned. You try to eat only what you like, for example, only cakes. The diet should be balanced. The information ration also requires different “food”: begin to perceive criticism more calmly and more constructively, to be interested in the offers of others, in novelties.
It is important for a child to learn to accept a limited amount of information, not to overload oneself, choose several priority areas and receive new information in them.
Separately, you need to work with fears in both children and adults. Psychosomatic abdominal pains will recede if a person is confident in himself, in his abilities, in his ability to solve all the problems coming from outside.
About what gymnastics will help with flatulence, see the following video.
