Constipation (constipation, obstipation) is a disorder of bowel function that manifests as difficult or systematically insufficient bowel movements, as well as bowel movements delayed for more than 48 hours.
One type of this ailment is situational constipation, which occurs during stress, changes in daily routine, pregnancy, taking certain medications, and therefore is not a disease and goes away without help.
Another type of ailment is chronic constipation, which occurs regularly for more than 48 hours and has additional symptoms.
Depending on the tone of the intestine, constipations are divided into spastic (with increased tone: spasms of the intestinal muscles occur, fecal masses are clamped and cannot move) and atonic (with decreased intestinal tone, there is a slowed movement of fecal masses).
Due to the cause of occurrence, such types of constipation are distinguished as:
- Hypokinetic (with a sedentary lifestyle),
- Toxic (when taking medications),
- Endocrine (with hormonal disorders),
- Alimentary (with a lack of plant fiber),
- Reflexive (with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract),
- Mechanical (with obstacles in the path of feces: polyps, adhesions),
- Psychological (under stress or disorders of the nervous system).
Common symptoms of constipation are bloating, heaviness and pain in the abdomen, flatulence, decreased or loss of appetite, worsening of sleep and performance, bad breath, etc.
Constipation: Psychosomatics
The human body is wisely arranged: everything that has been processed and has become waste is timely removed. To free up space for new food and so that waste does not harm the body. And the function of the large intestine is to remove from the human body what is no longer needed.
At the metaphysical level, the large intestine, by analogy, is also responsible for the release of waste, but of a slightly different nature. In this case, the waste is all negative and outdated thoughts and emotions of a person. Here, too, mental and emotional waste needs to be timely let go, to free up space for the arrival of new ideas and feelings, and so that obsolete thoughts and emotions do not poison the inner world of a person.
However, often a person for some reason does not want to let go of his beliefs and experiences, even if they are no longer relevant to him. So they accumulate, occupying his entire inner world. There is a traffic jam of old psycho-emotional garbage (hindering the normal movement of ideas and feelings), which manifests physically as psychogenic constipation.
Also, psychological constipation can occur as a reaction of the body to severe stress. Thus, the release of stress hormones disrupts the work of the autonomic nervous system in regulating the excretory system: the muscles of the intestine come into increased tone and provoke constipation.
Psychological Causes of Psychosomatic Constipation
According to Liz Burbo, problems in the large intestine in the form of constipation suggest that a person clings to old beliefs that are no longer needed. Or this ailment appears when a person often restrains the desire to say or do something for fear of appearing rude or displeasing, as well as for fear of losing something or someone.
The psychologist explains that the patient may be a petty person who is very attached to what he has and does not want to get rid of what he no longer needs. Perhaps a person suffering from constipation lives with the feeling that he is being forced to give (time, energy, money), and he gives it very reluctantly. It has been found that such people in childhood were forced by their parents to give their toys and things to others.
As Liz Burbo writes, people prone to constipation are those who love to dramatize some event from their past. Usually, this event is associated with some ideas that they cannot or do not want to get rid of. In her opinion, stress caused by the inability to let go of the past generates anxiety, fear of humiliation, gloomy thoughts, envy, and rage in a person.
Louise Hay sees the causes of psychosomatic constipation as an unwillingness to part with old ideas, a desire to stay in the past, accumulation of poison.
Dr. V. Sinelnikov believes that people suffering from constipation are those who believe in need and limitations, and therefore are afraid to give up something, even if they don’t need it. Hence, stinginess and greed for money also become causes of this ailment.
S. Freud found that people suffering from constipation are very stubborn and unable to compromise, as well as distinguished by excessive concern for money (bordering on stinginess), love of order, and excessive thriftiness, meticulousness up to scrupulosity.
V. Zhikarentsev asserts that refusal to free oneself from old thoughts, attachment to the past, sometimes torment can lead to this ailment.
Psychologists also note that people suffering from psychosomatic constipation are usually inclined to cleanliness, conservative, outwardly restrained, but inwardly experiencing personalities. Such patients are also distinguished by fear of the future, fear of responsibility, fixation on old grievances, attachment to the past, unwillingness to leave their comfort zone, lack of self-confidence, introversion, depressive state, excessive responsibility, greed.
According to A. Nekrasov, the causes of constipation in children lie in the relationships of parents. Thus, often constipation in a child indicates that in the parents’ worldview there is no dynamics, that they live in the old.
According to experts, the psychological cause of constipation in infants can be the mother’s experiences. Often in a small child, this disorder appears if he is forced to share his toys, and he does not want to, resists.
Ways of Healing Psychological Constipation
Every minute Life offers a person to taste all new and varied ideas and emotions. For a person to be able to accept and feel them, it is necessary to have free space in his inner world. How can he taste the emotion of joy if he is filled with resentment?
From this, it is clear that the main way of healing psychogenic constipation is the path of freeing oneself from psycho-emotional waste in the form of one’s outdated beliefs, principles, thoughts, ideas, as well as experienced and irrelevant feelings. Undoubtedly, this garbage also includes all negative emotions poisoning your inner world (envy, anger, resentment, rage, etc.) and excessive character traits (excessive stubbornness and resistance to the new, meticulousness, greed and stinginess, etc.), which hinder the natural movement: accept – process – let go.
For example, you live with your resentment (envy, fear, etc.), cherish it, accumulate it, like a collector, all the grievances caused to you (by parents, friends, husband-wife, etc.). Until when? Until there is space. Free space is over. What’s next? Traffic jam. Inside – everything is cluttered with obsolete relics of resentments, so much so that something has become heavy on the soul (and in the stomach too).
It’s time to remember one of the Energy Laws of Movement, which is reminded to us by proverbs (“Movement is Life,” “Everything flows – everything changes,” etc.), and which lies at the basis of our algorithm.
If you yourself realize the need for this action algorithm, then your brain will accept it as a command for execution and will begin to regulate the work of the central nervous system. And then the necessary signals will reach the excretory system, which will also begin to act according to this algorithm and restore the work of the intestine, namely, the large intestine.
You will greatly help yourself and your body if you additionally use various relaxation methods (meditation, breathing techniques, etc.).
If we are talking about psychogenic constipation in a child, then parents also work on themselves: they remove their excessive experiences, stop forcing the child to give his toys to another (as child psychology asserts, not giving one’s toys in early childhood is natural for a small child, as it is one of the stages of development).
If an adult gently influences his child (through his unconditional love, emotional warmth, fairy tale therapy, art therapy, etc.), then healing of psychological constipation will occur faster.
Remember, everything is in your hands, rather, in your head and in your heart!
Lada
