The gastrointestinal tract (digestive tract) is a system of organs designed for the processing of food and the assimilation of nutrients. This system includes the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum.
The main functions of the digestive system are:
- Motor-mechanical (breaking down food, its movement, and elimination from the body),
- Secretory (production of necessary enzymes for complete digestion),
- Absorptive (assimilation of fluids and necessary substances).
The most common diseases of the gastrointestinal tract include gastritis, colitis, stomach and duodenal ulcers, dysbiosis, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, and others.
- Psychosomatics of the Stomach and Intestines as the Main Organs of the GIT
- Intestine
- Psychosomatic Causes of Stomach Diseases
- Psychological Causes of Intestinal Ailments
- Psychosomatic Causes of Small Intestine Diseases
- Psychological Causes of Colon Diseases
- Colitis
- Hemorrhoids
- Appendicitis
- Cancer
- Paths to Healing
Psychosomatics of the Stomach and Intestines as the Main Organs of the GIT
According to Louise Hay, the stomach – a receptacle for food – also plays a role in digesting ideas. She writes that negative emotions such as horror, fear of the new, and an inability to assimilate new things are at the root of problems with this organ.
Psychologist Liz Bourbeau asserts that all stomach diseases are related to the inability to accept a particular person or situation. Thus, a person suffering from stomach diseases typically has aversion or fear of what they dislike, resistance to new ideas, inability to adapt to a situation or person that does not align with their plans, habits, lifestyle, presence of a strongly developed inner critic that hinders listening to one’s heart.
According to the psychologist, such a person strives to control everything, does not trust people, and does not listen to others’ opinions, feeling helpless because they cannot change a person or situation.
Such a person is dominated by thoughts like “This is wrong”. These thoughts block personal development on an energetic level, and physically, the stomach blocks the digestion of food.
B. Baginski and Sh. Shalila consider that the stomach, as an organ that receives and digests food, also accounts for the reception and digestion of all human experiences. This requires qualities of openness, the ability to accept and give.
If a person has expelled feelings from their consciousness, these feelings will act on the stomach. The person does not even trust themselves (thus cannot accept their feelings).
Dr. V. Sinelnikov calls the stomach a receptacle for food, symbolizing the ability to process, digest, and assimilate various ideas and situations. Therefore, he writes, when a person has problems with the stomach, it means that they do not know how to assimilate (accept) life. They become afraid of something new, unable to assimilate any events.
According to V. Sinelnikov, fear, anxiety, worry, aversion, and irritation immediately affect the stomach.
O. Torsunov believes that the stomach and its functions depend on a person’s speech and actions. He then explains how certain qualities of a person influence the state of this organ.
Rough speech and behavior lead to reduced absorption of nutrients in the stomach mucosa, while flattery leads to excessive absorptive activity.
Resentment causes excessive secretion of pepsin (leading to gastritis), while negativity gradually reduces pepsin production in the body.
Coldness in speech and behavior reduces the secretion of hydrochloric acid (gastritis with low acidity), while hot and passionate character traits increase hydrochloric acid secretion (gastritis with high acidity).
Insecurity reduces the tone of the stomach’s smooth muscles, confusion causes a significant reduction in their tone, while impudence excessively increases the tone of the smooth muscles of the stomach.
Idleness reduces the strength of the stomach muscles, leading to its stretching and an increase in the abdomen. Passionate work causes excessive enlargement of the muscular wall of the stomach, leading to excessive contractions and spasms of the vessels in the stomach.
Rigidity in speech and actions reduces the elasticity of the stomach vessels. Weak character gives excessive elasticity to the vessels, causing them to expand.
Melancholy reduces the tone of the vessels, and overexcitement in speech and behavior excessively increases their tone.
S. Konovalov also believes that the stomach processes, digests, and assimilates not only food but also any external information. Therefore, fear, anxiety, worry, and aversion, irritation immediately reflect on its condition. According to his opinion, people with a sick stomach are filled with various fears, both big and small. Fear leads to spasm, and spasm leads to pain and ulcers.
A. Nekrasov argues that problems with the stomach have deeper causes than is commonly believed. Thus, he identifies the general cause – a person is going the wrong way in life, they have lost the meaning of life or have taken the wrong course. Hence, such a person needs to fundamentally change their worldview concerning themselves, people, and life in general (namely, to accept the new and introduce changes into their life).
Problems with the stomach, writes A. Nekrasov, also suggest that the person does not accept a specific person (usually, the closest one) or a specific situation. According to this author, those suffering from stomach ailments have a highly developed all-criticizing mind, which prevents them from accepting life and enjoying it.
Luule Viilma believes that stomach diseases are caused by the obligation to start something.
Intestine
Since the intestine consists of the small and large intestines, as well as the rectum, which have different functions, the essence of their psychosomatics will be different.
It is known that the small intestine absorbs nutrients, and the large intestine serves as a reservoir for digestive waste and eliminates what is no longer needed. This means that the small intestine symbolizes the assimilation of new thoughts, ideas, and the large intestine – the ability to get rid of the unnecessary and old.
Many intestinal ailments and disorders originate from negative psycho-emotional experiences. For example, diarrhea indicates psychological problems related to fear, and constipation – problems related to greed.
The psychological cause of intestinal diseases is also anger, more precisely, its suppression (may be associated with an unwillingness to assimilate any useful experience, situation, event, knowledge, etc.). This destructive emotion, suppressed and driven inside, begins to “eat away” at the person in the literal sense.
Let’s take a closer look at the psychological causes of some GIT diseases.
Psychosomatic Causes of Stomach Diseases
Gastritis According to Louise Hay, at the heart of gastritis is a prolonged state of suspension or a feeling of doom.
According to Liz Bourbeau, a person with gastritis has experienced or is experiencing some strong anger.
O. Torsunov also believes that gastritis is caused by such negative emotions as anger, irritability, cruelty, despair, as well as apathy and laziness.
Stomach Ulcer According to Louise Hay, the basis of this ailment is fear, confidence that one is not good enough, flawed, worry, anxiety that one may not be liked. Something gnaws at the person.
Liz Bourbeau writes that a person suffering from an ulcer feels like the object of aggression and does not believe they can protect themselves independently. They feel helpless.
B. Baginski and Sh. Shalila note that when a person does not express their aggression and other feelings outwardly, but directs them inward, a stomach ulcer occurs. As this is one of the ways of tearing oneself apart – the stomach is eaten away by its acid.
According to V. Sinelnikov, the appearance of this ailment is due to a person’s prolonged feeling that they are not good enough (for their parents, superiors). The patient is convinced of their inferiority and inadequacy (thus constantly engaging in self-cannibalism). They literally cannot digest what they themselves represent. Such a person, according to the doctor, constantly tries to please others while forgetting about themselves.
Sinelnikov notes that this disease mainly affects men, as they find it hard to cope with blows to their masculinity and self-esteem (it is their “wounded” self-esteem that suffers). Such people constantly need to prove something to everyone, control themselves and others. They are thin, active, irritable, strive for power, always want to be better, hence they fear not being up to the mark, fear not being able to do things in time.
Another cause of ulcers, as Sinelnikov writes, can be rejection and aversion to anything in this world and a feeling of disgust.
O. Torsunov asserts that ulcers are caused by such emotions as aggressiveness, assertiveness, callousness, and stubbornness.
Oleg Torsunov asserts that ulcers are caused by emotions such as aggressiveness, assertiveness, callousness, and stubbornness.
Psychological Causes of Intestinal Ailments
Louise Hay believes that intestinal problems arise from the fear of letting go of the outdated and unnecessary. In her opinion, the cause of diarrhea is fear, rejection, running away, while the psychological causes of constipation are reluctance to part with outdated thoughts, getting stuck in the past, sometimes in spitefulness. According to Lise Bourbeau, when a person clings to old thoughts that are no longer needed, holds back the desire to say or do something out of fear (of being rude, disliked), they develop constipation. A person suffering from constipation is characterized by pettiness, strong attachment to something, and an inability to let go (e.g., their past).
Or a person lives with the feeling that they are being forced to give (time, energy, money). The psychologist writes that diarrhea occurs when a person often feels rejected, or lives with a sense of guilt. Such a person lacks acceptance and gratitude. For overly sensitive people, diarrhea can arise from fear, when they reject a useful life situation. Often, a person suffering from diarrhea does not value themselves.
Diarrhea, according to Dr. Luule Viilma, symbolizes despair associated with a keen desire to get rid of all unpleasant affairs, and the desire to be strong. Louise Hay believes that bloating speaks of internal tension, fears, unrealized ideas. Bloating occurs when a person is troubled by concerns about losing something or finding themselves in a difficult situation.
Bloating, as Lise Bourbeau explains, is due to the unwillingness or inability of a person to swallow something (referring to information, events), or that they have swallowed too much and cannot digest it. According to Sinelnikov, bloating indicates that a person eats varied or heavy “food” (in other words, life events occur that the person cannot “digest”). Dysbacteriosis indicates that a person has contradictory judgments regarding the activities of others.
Psychosomatic Causes of Small Intestine Diseases
As stated by Louise Hay, ailments of the small intestine indicate that a person is unable to extract and perceive the useful from life, clings to details, and fails to see the whole picture. Doctor Luule Viilma explains that diseases of the small intestine arise from the worry of dealing with trivia when a person wants to tackle a bigger task. The manifestation of these diseases is also associated with a negative, haughty, and ironic attitude towards women’s work.
Discomfort in the duodenum reflects mistrust of others, fear, tension, and constant pain in the duodenum points to cruelty, heartlessness, and anger towards the collective. Duodenal ulcer occurs when a person is heavily focused on a problem, literally eating themselves with worry. This disease often occurs in irritable people who are outraged but feel helpless. Duodenal ulcer bleeding, rupture indicates a person’s vengefulness towards the collective, turning their anger into cruelty.
Psychological Causes of Colon Diseases
According to Lise Bourbeau, problems in the colon suggest that a person clings to old beliefs that are no longer needed (constipation) or too quickly rejects ideas that could have been useful (diarrhea). The irritable bowel syndrome, according to Sinelnikov, indicates immaturity, low self-esteem, and constant doubts. Doctor Luule Viilma writes that diseases of the colon are explained by the obligation to deal with big issues when a person wants to deal with small matters. These ailments characterize the patient’s negative attitude towards male labor. They also reflect problems related to unfinished business.
Colitis
Louise Hay believes that the basis of this ailment is insecurity and the inability to easily let go of the past, and the basis of spastic colitis is the fear of letting go, unreliability. Problems with the colon’s mucous membrane indicate that the accumulation of outdated thoughts clogs the waste removal channel. A person suffering from such ailments is like treading in the viscous swamp of the past.
Hemorrhoids
In Louise Hay’s table of disease causes, we find that hemorrhoids symbolize the inability to get rid of accumulated problems, grievances, and emotions, and pain – a sense of guilt and a desire for punishment. Itching, according to the table, means guilt about the past, and an abscess – anger at what one wants to get rid of. The causes of fistula are incomplete disposal of thought and emotional waste, reluctance to part with the trash of the past. As causes of anorectal bleeding, Louise Hay indicates anger and disappointment.
According to the position of Dr. V. Sinelnikov, hemorrhoids, abscesses, fistulas, and fissures appear if the “expulsion” of the old and unnecessary in life is hindered by anger, fear, rage, a sense of guilt related to past events. The person feels the “pain of loss,” therefore does not want to let go. Internal tension due to the fact that a person clings to the experienced and unnecessary, does not free themselves from the past, leads to a blockage, which manifests as colic, intestinal cramps.
Appendicitis
Inflammation of the appendix symbolizes a general fear of life, when a person closes off from life, and also a large number of dead-end situations in a person’s life. Bleeding indicates a loss of taste for life, accompanied by anger and disappointment. People suffering from this ailment are usually irritated, instead of seeing the positive in the situation.
Rectal problems express a spiteful life struggle without the desired results and the obligation to finish what was started at any cost. The anus as the final opening symbolizes the end of an idea, relationship, or other process. Pain in this area (including during a spasm of the anal sphincter) speaks of guilt associated with a strong desire to end something. Anal itching, the doctor explains, is the temptation of a sense of duty, and fissures – one’s own merciless coercion.
Cancer
Colon cancer is caused by such negative emotions as bitterness, disappointment. Rectal cancer, according to Dr. Luule Viilma, arises from prolonged experiencing of emotions such as bitterness, disappointment, fear of hearing critical reviews of one’s work, contempt for one’s work.
Paths to Healing
Healing psychosomatic GIT ailments will follow the same path that created the ailment, employing almost all the same mechanisms, forms, methods, and means that created the ailment, only the “minus” sign in their content should change to a “plus” sign: negative thought content to positive, destructive emotions to constructive, and so on.
As we see, there’s nothing complicated here: change your thinking from negative to positive – and that’s it. Let me explain why it’s necessary to change YOUR thinking, not trying to change others and the whole world. Because the ailment starts in a person’s head, namely, in their thinking, psyche. To support this thought, remember that stress and troubles, difficulties happen to everyone, but only those to which a person cannot react adequately lead to diseases.
That is, whether a disease appears or not depends on the person themselves, on how they are attuned, how they react to events in their life: adequately (accepting with gratitude, learning lessons, becoming wiser, and maintaining health) or inadequately (getting angry, resisting, rebelling, getting mad, and destroying health).
Another important point. According to research, a person’s psyche itself can become a stressogenic factor: when, even after troubles, a person continues to think about them, relive them (and for the psyche, there is usually no difference between real negative situations and just images of these situations in a person’s head), then the body’s reaction will be the same as when experiencing real stress. For example, if an offense is remembered, a person starts thinking about it, recalling details – the body automatically starts reacting as it did during the infliction of the offense: heart rate changes, brain function worsens due to aggressive signals, etc.
The question arises: does anyone need to destroy their own health? But the path to healing is very simple! Lise Bourbeau writes about this, referring to the fact that the stomach is located next to the heart, which means the need to accept everything with love, to be more tolerant of oneself and other people. If you look at Life more closely and without negativity, you can see Meaning in it, and see Meaning in everything that Life presents to each person. Life does this for one reason: for the DEVELOPMENT of a Person.
This is the meaning of Life and all the events that happen in it. Therefore, one should not resist and criticize Life itself and what it offers (events, people). It’s necessary to trust Life, open up to everything it brings you and accept with GRATITUDE: yourself, ideas and impressions, people and relationships, experience and feelings (including your own). Believe, it has been tested and retested by many, that such a life stance will preserve both your physical and mental health.
I wish you develop a positive life stance!
Lada