Gastritis, an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach’s inner wall, is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases.
It begins with irritation of the mucous membrane due to increased concentration of hydrochloric acid in gastric juice. Other physical causes of gastritis include impaired blood supply to the stomach tissues and changes in saliva secretion. If the causes are not eliminated, the mucous tissue begins to erode, causing the stomach to malfunction. Food cannot be properly digested and causes pain.
Symptoms of gastritis include severe and sharp pain, nausea, belching, heartburn, heaviness in the stomach, bloating, diarrhea, rumbling, loss of appetite, weakness, low blood pressure, etc. Certain factors contribute to the aforementioned causes. These include Helicobacter pylori (a bacterium causing chronic inflammation), other bacteria (staphylococci, salmonella, etc.), poor or improper diet, medications (antibiotics, etc.), genetic predisposition, alcohol, and other harmful habits.
However, the presence of these factors does not necessarily lead to gastritis, as everyone is exposed to them at some point (for example, it is known that these pathogenic bacteria are present in a dormant state in the human body), but not everyone gets sick. This means there are other factors, often unnoticed.
Psychosomatics of Gastritis
Medicine has traced a connection between nervous tension associated with strong negative emotions and the disruption of the stomach’s mucous membrane. When the nervous system tries to cope with stress, nerves become overstrained, negatively affecting the blood vessels.
If the problem is related to nerves going to the stomach, spasms occur in the blood vessels of this organ, hindering nutrient delivery, immediately affecting the mucous membrane. Thus, gastritis on nervous grounds arises. Its symptoms are the same as those of regular gastritis.
Medical practice has shown that stress hormones also negatively affect the functions of the gastrointestinal tract.
The function of the stomach is to receive and digest food, which in metaphysical language means the reception and digestion of information from the outside world. Hence, gastritis from nerves occurs when a person cannot accept and digest incoming information (ideas, events, emotions, relationships, self, people).
Psychological Causes of Gastritis
As the stomach is near the heart, the center of Love, ideally a person should accept informational and emotional ‘food’ with love, openness, and trust.
Often, due to internal conflict, emotional discomfort, underpinned by specific negative thoughts and feelings, a person cannot adequately react and perceive incoming information. Let’s consider these negative experiences.
Remember, the most important of these is Fear, from which all secondary destructive thoughts and emotions flow. In this case, it’s the fear of being vulnerable, defenseless against information from the outside world. This fear is related to a lack of trust, both in oneself and in the outside world, otherwise one would be open. But one does not feel protected because of fear, the fear of the new, to which the stomach muscles respond with a spasm. Spasm irritates the mucous membrane and causes pain.
Insecurity and a sense of failure, emotions stemming from fear, also suppress stomach function. Gastritis typically affects anxious, fretful people living in uncertainty. The anticipation of inevitable unpleasant events and the associated feeling of helplessness press so hard on a person that they become a nervous wreck (as does their stomach).
Such a person does not want to accept what the world offers because it bothers, worries, irritates them. Then they develop antipathy (towards themselves, certain aspects of their personality, and specific events, people), anger.
Inflammation is always present where there is negativity, anger. Gastritis, as an inflammatory disease, signals that a person is filled with anger and malice towards something or someone. Usually, this is related to content, information that needs to be accepted. For example, a situation, event, or person bringing new ideas that need to be ‘digested.’
Sometimes the stomach behaves like its owner: it becomes lazy and does not want to do its work. This can only happen to the organ of a person prone to laziness and apathy, when the overall mood of a person affects the work of their body.
The interrelation between a person’s overall mood in relationships with people and the state of their stomach is also pointed out by the famous author O. Torsunov. He writes that coldness provokes gastritis with low acidity, while an emotional, hot-tempered person usually has gastritis with high acidity.
Louise Hay notes that the stomach is responsible for assimilating thoughts, and such destructive experiences as horror, fear of the new, inability to assimilate the new, prolonged uncertainty, and a sense of doom are reflected in its state.
Hence, people prone to depression, anxiety, irritability, conservatism, fear of changes in their lives, and lack of self-confidence are susceptible to gastritis.
Paths to Healing
The aforementioned psychosomatic causes clearly indicate that solely medicinal treatment of the body cannot be successful. Simultaneous healing of the soul is necessary, as we understand that how a person reacts to and processes incoming information affects the health of their stomach.
If a person does not like the taste (content) of informational ‘food’ and ‘swallows’ it ‘without chewing’ to get rid of it quickly, they will face indigestion and heaviness in the stomach. Constant such behavior can ‘ruin’ the stomach and lead to diseases.
To prevent this, we advise following Lise Bourbeau’s recommendation: accept with love and patience, and the stomach will also accept and cope with its work.
After all, everything that your world offers you: people, relationships with them, events, knowledge, etc., is given for your development and growth. Why miss such an opportunity? Yes, you will have to ‘digest’ – process received information and impressions about yourself, the world and your place in it, about close people. But this benefits us: we become wiser, grow emotionally, morally, spiritually, and spiritually.
I wish you Love in accepting Life in all its fullness!
Lada
