Psychological Symptoms

Pain

Cycle—Excess—Deficient
  • Pain cycle
    • I feel pain → Try to cope by ignoring it → Shut myself off from feeling my body → Aren’t aware of or don’t address core emotional issues → Hurt and pain locked in → I feel pain

Excess

  • Intense - worse with pressure
  • Usually stuck stagnant
  • With swelling and inflammation - damp heat
  • Fixed - blood stagnation
  • Moving - Qi Stagnation

Deficient

  • Dull - better with presure
  • Worse with fatigue - worse at end of day
  • Check which area where pain is
  • Eg lower back - water - dull - ki def

Digestion

Poor Digestion—Bloating—Reflux—Constipation

Poor digestive fire - digestive process not working well

  • Causes
    • Poor constitution, intense lifestyle, chronic illness, age → Ki Yang Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
    • Excess Thinking → Sp Qi Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
    • Stress → Stagnation → impedes digestion → Sp Qi Deficiency→ Poor digestive fire
    • Sp Qi deficiency → Damp → impedes digestion → Sp Qi Deficiency → Poor digestive fire
    • Impeded digestion → vitality wanes → Poor digestive fire
  • Diarrhoea
  • Fatigue in the afternoon, with cold
  • Undigested food in the stool
  • Sensitivities
  • Bloating
  • Abdominal aches

Stagnation - when stress affects digestion - SNS causes the PNS to tone down

  • The flow through the digestion is affected - in line with the stress
  • Intermittent with stress - constipation, diarrhoea
  • Regurgitation
  • Reflux, burping
  • Nausea
  • Distension, bloating, pain of abdomen

Constipation - causes

  • Dryness - metal issue - holding on
  • Holding on - LI
  • Dryness - yin deficiency or excess heat
  • Poor bowel motility - yang deficiency - so tired the bowel muscles not working
  • Changes with stress - Qi stagnation

Fatigue

Morning—Afternoon—Breathing—Sleep

Fatigue Balance

In TCM fatigue may be due to deficiency – of qi or blood or yin or yangin which case the client will feel more fatigued later in the day.

Sluggishness/fatigue may also be felt from stagnation or damp, in which case the client will feel worse in the morning.

  • Morning or afternoon?
    • Morning - stagnation
    • Afternoon - deficiency
  • Breathing? Shallow breathing
  • Digestion? See above
  • Sleep?
    • Difficult to fall asleep - intense thinking
    • Stay asleep - yin deficiency

Menstruation

Pain—Timing
  • Ovulation - pain difficulty ovulating - yin deficiency, yin issues, stagnation re mother or yin
  • Before - PMS Pain - Qi Stagnation ← emotional stress
  • During - Painful, clotted, dark - Blood stagnation, stagnation, Qi Stagnation, Cold ← emotional stress and deficiency
    • Knife like pain - blood stag
    • Cramping - qi stag
    • Severe - cold - worse when tired - better for heat packs
      • Certain types of clots - pin prick - cold
      • 5 - 20 cent piece - Qi Stag
      • 50 cent piece - blood stagnation
  • After - Pain tired - Blood deficiency ← Deficiency 7
  • Lead up - progesterone drop - if not enough progesterone → oestrogen dominant symptoms - Fluid buildup, breast distension, moodiness, irritability
  • Why? Progesterone is used to make cortisol - so when stressed, progesterone is used up

Lumps

Damp—Stagnation—Area
  • Damp or Phlegm (congealed stagnation)
  • Long term emotional issues, toxic emotions, blame, guilt
  • Channel? Area?
  • Uterus - earth or mother issues - fibroids
  • Breasts - earth or wood
  • Abdomen - earth or wood

Thirst

Thirsty—Not Thirsty—Hot—Cold
  • Thirsty - heat
  • Not thirsty - cold or damp
  • Drink hot drinks - yang deficiency
  • Drink cold drinks - stagnation - heat inside

Tinnitus

Loud—Soft
  • Loud tinnitus – usually from stagnant heat and feeling stuck and angry
  • Soft – usually from deficiency of the Kidneys and relates to not listening to self, feeling run down and demotivated.