Psychiatric GERD

It is a well-known fact that a wide array of complaints can be attributed to mental or emotional causes rather than actual physical disorders. Psychiatric GERD is thought to be among those.

Psychiatric GERD is more accurately called psychosomatic GERD. Psychosomatic disorders are physical conditions that are influenced by psychological or emotional factors. To put it another way, a psychosomatic complaint is really a mental state that shows up as physical symptoms.

Psychiatric GERD is caused by, or worsened by, what is going on with the sufferer either mentally or emotionally. While laymen may refer to this as psychiatric GERD, the medical community is more likely to term it psychosomatic GERD. Since the author is writing to laymen, the former term will be used in this article.

Manifestations of Psychosomatic Complaints

Suppose you are sitting in a group of friends, feeling relaxed and at ease. As you sit there, someone begins to tell how the doctor diagnosed her son with head lice yesterday.

“Head lice are tiny parasitic insects without wings, and they live among human hairs,” she explains. “They suck extremely small amounts of blood from the scalp and live on it. They aren’t dangerous, and they don’t carry any disease, but they sure are a nuisance. Bobby has been scratching his head incessantly. The doctor says they are very contagious, but we don’t know yet where Bobby got them.”

Of its own volition, your hand wanders to your head, and begins scratching. When you realize what you’re doing, you slip the hand to your lap and glance around to see if anyone noticed. To your surprise, everyone is scratching. You all have psychosomatic head lice, but not real head lice. You have the itchiness of head lice - the physical manifestation of the problem. But you have no authentic head lice.

Psychosomatic GERD is like the head lice. The sufferer has no physical cause for GERD, but the strong subconscious mind creates the symptoms of GERD.

What might cause psychiatric GERD? Any strong emotional or mental factor could generate psychiatric GERD.

Psychiatric GERD and Stress

One of the main causes of psychiatric GERD is emotional stress. As the person responds to unusual demands on body, mind, or emotions, muscles throughout the body are affected. The body prepares for fight or flight.

In this state, many muscles are tightened or relaxed inappropriately. If the ring of muscle between stomach and esophagus is relaxed, it will open at the wrong time, allowing stomach acids to flow back into the esophagus and even up into the mouth - if the person is lying down.

Continued or repeated stress can result in psychiatric GERD. It will appear to be GERD, and will act like GERD, but will have no physical cause.

CAUTION: The above information is for educational purposes only. If you have been diagnosed with GERD, discuss this with your physician, but please rely on his or her advice.