Psycho Somatic

Suman and Riya were neighbours who were good friends too. They had bought the homes in a gated community that was spread over a vast area with all amenities. Life was supposed to be very comfortable. Their respective husbands were businessmen who were doing well. With a very good lifestyle and comforts, they were envied a lot. The story that follows this introduction is real and had happened with someone close.       

As usual, Suman and Riya met during their Jumba session in the afternoon. Riya was chattering and talking continuously after the session and she noticed Suman was lost in some deep thought uttering monosyllables here and there in response to Riya's talk. Since Riya was busy with herself own self she failed to sense of Suman was having some issue with something or someone. After the session, they both headed home. Suman invited Riya for tea. As it was a common practice to have tea in either of their places Riya joined Suman at her place. Riya was always in awe of Suman's well-kept Home. The servants served them tea and snacks. Then Suman started narrating something that shocked Riya beyond bounds. It was about Suman's daughter Nyasa who was a cute 8-year-old little. A young girl with attractive features. But, off late, she had developed some unexplained medical symptoms that seemed to be out of even the doctor's analysis.

You might be wondering what kind of health issue this little girl was having that was beyond any analysis and so treatment too would be a problem. Before jumping to any conclusion let us know what were the rare symptoms that Nyasa exhibited. She had frequent hiccups that led to vomiting. The vomiting was not after her breakfast or lunch, it was on empty stomach. She mostly used to throw out the water in small quantities. Apart from that, she had constipation that needed an enema daily. She fainted frequently. Suman and her husband had got almost all the tests done. Her medical reports were like a big diary that had been reported. Suman and her husband had taken Nyasa to 4 pediatricians and almost about 4 gastroenterologists All reports were normal. Everything from cyclic vomiting to abdominal migraine was tested only to find all reports normal.

So, now it was a diagnostic dilemma, on one hand, with no respite to the helpless and agitated parents on the other hand. After repeated visits to the Doctor, it was observed that Nyasa would seem to feel better at that moment and the same story got repeated again once she was home with her parents and siblings. This was indeed a big puzzle to the doctors and her parents. Now, they were left with only one cause which was functional disease. When they heard this term both Suman and her husband were so tense and disturbed. The doctor attending Nyasa immediately cleared the confusion as she explained that 'functional disease' was a condition in which the patient willingly refers to symptoms that really do not happen. It generally relates to some stress that precipitates as physical symptoms. Now it was somewhat psychiatric in nature.

Imagine their state of mind when Suman and her husband were told this by their doctor. They somehow controlled themselves and were asked to take Nyasa to a well-known Counsellor who would try to find out if Nyasa was sexually abused. They heaved a big sigh of relief on learning from the doctor that nothing of that kind was troubling their daughter. Now the puzzle continued for another week or so. Nyasa was showing the same symptoms and again she was at the Counsellors Clinic. Finally, the real picture came out. This took a lot of prompting, cajoling, pacifying, and questioning by the Counsellor.

 Suman and her husband were shocked and ashamed too. The real reason for these Psycho Somatic symptoms exhibited by Nyasa was nothing related to sexual abuse nor any punishment in School or tuition center, it was the frequent fights that Suman and her husband had due to trivial matters between them. She even felt that her parents were found of her younger sister than her. With all these working in her mind, she was exhibiting symptoms of imaginary diseases. Suman and her husband realised the big blunder they were committing all these years that had a serious impact on the young girl's mind. They promised that such a thing will never happen again.