The good news is that hundreds of millions of people do not have to suffer needlessly from stress illness. The solution will take time and effort but what needs to be done is clear.
1. Educating the public that stress can cause real physical symptoms in almost anyone and that effective treatment is available.
2. Educating medical clinicians that a stress history (explained in a future post) should be obtained in anyone whose symptoms are unexplained after diagnostic testing.
3. Educating mental health professionals about the range of psychosocial stresses capable of causing physical symptoms and how stress and symptoms can be linked diagnostically. They can then use therapeutic skills they already possess to reduce patient’s stresses. This will usually lead to relief of physical illness, at times quite dramatically.
Tags: Blind Spot, illness, medical education, stress, Stress History
