Re: Friend thinks I have Somatization Disorder
From: Tara (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Mon Jan 30 20:22:31 2006
Thank you for writing about this Kristy! I think most of our problem
with endo comes from trying to convince people of real symptoms, or
trying to convince them that we have something at all. It is not all in
our heads! It is real!
Somatization disorder is writing off a patient or a friend as "mental"
to me. I may be wrong. I feel bad for all the women in here who's laps
turn out negative and they may resort to that type of (I believe
worthless) psychological diagnosis. Depression can cause pain. Pain
can cause depression. Not finding an answer to pain can cause
depression and then pain again. See where I'm going with this...in
circles. There are so many things that pain can be, not just endo, it
can be your bowel, bladder, nerves, or any kind of pain. It can be
unknown, but please don't clump it in a nicely and properly termed
"Somatization Disorder" diagnosis. This is the type of diagnosis and
thinking that starts many endo sufferers down the horrible spiral of
thinking they need to end their lives because the diagnosis is "all in
their head".
At Mon, 30 Jan 2006, Kristy wrote:
>
>One of the reasons that we are having a hard time getting successful at
>promoting awareness about endometriosis is b/c of the fact that the
>symptoms of endo also fit with what Kristina's friend said according to
>the book that she read Somatization disorder.
>
>There was a big write up in the Endometriosis Sourcebook about this very
>issue and to see the similarities between the two explains why so many
>drs automatically think this about women. The other thing I found out
>when I did some research on the phrase "it's all in your head" was that
>not only did it talk about this but it said that it primarily affects
>women under 30.
>
>I was 25 when I was officially diagnosed with endo and at the time one
>of the symptoms I had was that my uterus and ovaries and such fell
>foward. I actually felt them do it. And when I told a dr I had at the
>time about this he laughed at me in disbelief. But sure enough in April
>of 1997 when I had a CT Scan done, guess what they found? An anteverted
>(meaning that it was tipped forward) uterus. It was about 6 months
>after that that I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis.
>
>Thing is though, that endo isn't my only problem. When my endo acts up
>each time not only do I get many old symptoms going on to tell me that
>it is but I always get a bunch of new symptoms too.
>
>It's amazing the difficult task we have getting others to understand
>just what endo can do to a woman's body.
>
>During my research on the phrase "It's all in your head" I also wrote to
>the NIH to ask about this and they gave me a good book recommendation.
>The book is called "It's Not All in your Head". I didn't see any
>mention of endo in my copy (maybe there's a newer version of the book
>out that might mention this) but it was very interesting reading. And
>it touched on a number of other illnesses that have what is classified
>as psychological disorder symptoms but relate to a physical illness such
>as being low on B-12.
>
>--
>=====
>Kristy :)
>
>http://www.geocities.com/sokokl/Kristysstory.html
>
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