Bezpłatny fragment - Dysautonomia and Lifestyle Diseases

A word of welcome from the author

Dear Reader,

I am placing my 59th book into your hands. However, this is not just another dry medical guide or a collection of ready-made, textbook definitions. What you are about to read is a living testimony, a personal manifesto of freedom, and a distillate of my 79 years of existence on this Earth.

As an immunologist, a clinical diagnostician with 25 years of experience, and a long-time researcher of psychosynthesis, I have spent decades learning to look at a human being as an inseparable whole — a system of connected vessels in which biology, mind, and soul speak the exact same language. This book was born out of a need of the heart, written on the fly on balconies and in trams, on the smooth, white pages of my notebook — without pre-imposed lines or anyone else’s formulas.

I invite you on a journey that revolutionizes the current view of illness. Together, we will walk through the dark tunnel of difficult organic diagnoses — from Hashimoto’s and Sjögren’s syndrome to fibromyalgia, and finally to the global plague of modern dysautonomia (POTS) — only to discover wide-open doors to self-healing at the very end. In this book, I show the biological „straight line” and prove that your body never gets sick „in pieces.” It simply adapts, with brilliant though often tragic wisdom, to the conditions it has had to live in since earliest childhood.

If you have been bouncing off the walls of doctors” offices for years, feeling helpless against the paternalism and reductionism that treats you like a broken machine — this book is for you. I am handing you a concrete, sovereign tool: an „Entry Passport” that will restore your voice and your status as a full partner in the diagnostic process.

I want this story to lift the paralyzing weight of fear and guilt from your shoulders. I want you to find the courage to silence the wartime alarm siren in your nervous system, activate your natural „safety brake,” and return to Universal Love, which is the most powerful immunomodulating medicine. For true healing does not mean the absence of abnormalities in blood test results — it is a return to sovereignty, reclaiming your own agency, and hearing your body’s deepest command: „At ease. You are free.”

Sit back comfortably, take a deep breath, and allow yourself to return to the Source.

The Author

Introduction

This book is another publication dedicated to synthesis — meaning the integration into a whole of not only medical problems, but above all, the human being themselves. After years of breaking humans down into their parts, it is no longer possible to continue this way. By treating the patient as a collection of isolated elements, we lose their essence and destroy the structure of unity.

The human organism cannot be divided into individual symptoms and specializations; the network of mutual dependencies must be shown. I perceive not only the medical problem itself, but also the situation of patients who cycle between specialists without receiving a cohesive picture of their own health.

I have based my books on my own experience, on the questions that constantly guide me, and on the specific gaps I have observed over the years. These gaps stem both from a lack of „education about oneself across the lifespan” and from treating the human being as a collection of separate entities: organs or systems. These disconnected elements have turned us into an object of exploration in itself, rather than a part of a larger system — a cohesive whole of soul and body.

In this particular book, I will refer to a phenomenon that I have observed in myself for years and which, as a result, I have under constant control. However, when I report these symptoms to specialists, I do not receive a concrete answer, but only a proposal to further dissociate me into parts. A process of ordering subsequent tests begins, which, step by step, loses reference to me as a whole — including my experiences and my history. It is precisely the history of our life that drives the psychological experience of reality, and this directly alters the biochemical profile of the organism.

We are dealing with a vicious circle: the psyche affects the nervous system, the nervous system affects individual organs and systems, and all of this translates into the parameters of the body’s functioning tested in laboratories. I began to analyze it starting from my own question: what exactly is happening to my body, given that chronic fatigue cannot be easily explained? I quickly noticed that a similar pattern has been repeating for years in many other people.

Observing my own history of illness and the process of obtaining diagnoses (insofar as it was even possible to get them in a doctor’s office), I noticed that a multitude of symptoms drift between many disease entities. The diagnosis spreads like a spider’s web between trees and rarely sees the light of day. It usually remains in the realm of suspicion, an idea for another test appears along the way, and the final diagnosis recedes into eternity.

This results from the fact that a practice of unilateral questioning has developed in medicine, oriented toward answers according to a pattern of thinking about the „part” rather than the whole. There is a lack of space for the patient’s statement, for their description of experiencing the illness, and for linking it with their own way of thinking and emotions. After all, a patient reacts even to specific remarks from a doctor, such as: „this could turn into something dangerous!”. And at that moment, the human being is directed toward the „worst” — fear of the illness appears, along with avoidance, and consequently, the metabolism shifts into survival mode, which is the „fight or flight” response.

This is yet another book in the series of my syntheses. It concerns the search for deeper and deeper connections between symptoms in order to reach the main current flowing between them — like the fork of a river that penetrates the soil and reaches the furthest corners of the land. This current resembles the branching of the nervous system in the body, which sends impulses to all organs and tissues.

I have this unique opportunity to be an observer of myself for decades. On my professional path, I first learned physiology, and then I began to delve into the human psyche. Difficult childhood experiences that took place between the ages of 2 and 8 engraved themselves deeply into my sphere of reacting to stress situations. Thereby, they began to leave their marks also on my physical body and biochemical metabolism.

Emotions, which are energy in motion (e-motion), constitute the first and fundamental reaction of the nervous system stimulated by them. If they are not discharged at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way, they have a huge tendency to remain in the body like energy deposits. We accumulate resources within ourselves — just like in a bank — which, as energy maintained for years, generate specific physical effects. I have already written about this in many books, and now I will summarize it in a broader context: both individual and global, relating to the modern population.

In my descriptions, I primarily use my own experience, presenting the clinical picture of my individual case. Nevertheless, because I have been dealing with the human being as a whole for 30 years, I also include in these descriptions many cases of my clients with whom I worked within my practice of Psychosynthesis — a psychology with a soul.

I want to emphasize clearly once again: I do not deal with treatment. I help each person find their own paths across their lifespan and find solutions to problems that over time have borne concrete results. These results concerned both the external sphere — partner relationships or upbringing problems — and personal, internal experiences that after years brought physical health problems.

My main area of interest is autoimmune diseases. They are very strongly connected to what happened in my life. This is even a model example of a scientific description, as I have been a scientist by passion for over 50 years. This individual example clearly shows what impact childhood has on the quality of our adult functioning and what health problems later become our share.

This book will become precisely such a synthesis. It will show the paths of unfolding pathologies and their consistent budding in situations where the root causes were not properly „taken care of.” This problem does not concern us personally alone — it is evident in the entire modern population, which acts like a mirror reflecting what we brought out of the earliest period of our existence.

Therefore, I warmly invite you to the subsequent chapters. Step by step, I will reveal in them the path from a healthy birth, through chronic and progressive autoimmune diseases, up to the manifestation of syndromes which, although already clearly visible in the social mirror, still constitute an increasingly misunderstood problem for modern medicine.

The environment as a mirror reflection in the child’s inner world

To begin with, I will start with fundamental information that will help you understand that everything circulates everywhere and that our organism, environment, and relationships are closely interconnected.

During one of the webinars at the Microbiome Masterclass conference in 2017, Dr. Niki Gratrix presented the necessity of resolving emotional problems and traumatic experiences that have lingered for years. They should be resolved as early as childhood, when they first arose, so that they do not carry over into the entire adult life of a person and are not passed on to subsequent generations.

Emotional traumas encode themselves in the cellular memory of the body as the frozen energy of negative experiences, which usually no one looks into because they hurt. Meanwhile, it is precisely these experiences — related to physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, rejection, or the trampling of a child’s dignity — that lead to depression and chronic illnesses in adulthood. Among them, autoimmune diseases dominate, such as Hashimoto’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, or diabetes. These usually affect women, although they are not limited to them.

Emotions play an important role in the activity of the immune system. Being energy in motion (e-motion), in this case, they weaken its functioning. They affect not only the balance between dopamine and adrenaline, but they also stimulate brain structures to produce neurotransmitters and hormones (such as cortisol or insulin). They raise histamine levels and affect the GABA system, causing a sense of brain fog, constant anxiety, but also the need to overeat. Thereby, they cause a condition called „brainbiome” — inflammation of the brain — and can lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Thus, unresolved emotional problems manifest in physical illnesses and pass on to future generations. Therefore, people speak more and more often about psychological causes that have their manifestation in biochemical parameters.

And now, in a summary, I will return to my childhood and its reflection in what began to happen in my organism over the years, and in the treatment of the resulting problems forced by it.

I was born healthy, at home, under the care of a midwife. From my earliest childhood, I do not remember specific situations in detail. However, my body precisely remembered the feelings from that period.

It was November, just after my second birthday, when the darkness of that evening left a deep mark on my entire body „for a lifetime.” It was a panic, almost atavistic fear of losing my life, like having my breath taken away. That was when my father was taken away, suspected of actions against communist Poland — and in reality, of actions to regain independence. The latter, however, was recognized only after years, when he was no longer in this world. That first state decision was engraved into me so that the body would remember it forever. For such was the reality back then — to trample a person’s dignity to the very bottom, to the very essence of their existence. Meanwhile, it is precisely within that essence that their spiritual identity is hidden.

Emotions running wild

During the early period of life, a child is confronted with a whole palette of their own sensations. They learn to differentiate and control them. As a rule, extreme situations do not occur where a child is placed in dramatic circumstances — and day after day at that. In my life, this is exactly what happened, because of which I not only had no time to express them, but even less to learn to control them. There was also no one who could give me care, explain anything, or look after me to soothe my daily fear. I had to swallow it and keep it inside myself.

I did not know yet then that I was storing energy deposits that destroy everything, without choosing any priorities. Thus, I was working my way toward life and illnesses through what I could not discharge, and which at the same time caused „tummy aches” specific to a child.

So I had within me — just like in a bank — resources for a lifetime. Unfortunately, these were not healthy reserves that build the quality of my existence, but quite the contrary: something that from the dawn of my history was already destroying from the ground up the foundations on which I was to grow. And so I grew up in an atmosphere of fear and terror, and it did its energetic cleaning inside myself.

Medicine at that time, although focused on the child, was nevertheless symptomatic. The doctor was interested in my stomach pains, though she attached no importance to their origin, but rather only to the effects themselves. The aluminum gel used back then was basically meant to become a protection for my mucous membranes in that part of the digestive tract; however, it did not treat the cause of its daily fueling. And the provocateur of this situation was panic fear, experienced day after day.

And so I made it to the age of 12, when once again I found myself in a children’s hospital. There, they took care of my thorough inspection, and then, finding no organ changes, for the first time formulated a diagnosis: vegetative neurosis. This was exactly 68 years ago.

Ladies and gentlemen of the medical profession: my current congratulations! That was a good directional diagnosis, although in those days nothing lay beneath it in terms of any treatment. So I continued to drink aluminum gel and applied my own hands to the pain.

If the direction is set — where does it lead?

And so, even though a direction had been determined from a medical standpoint, my „supplies” for the road ahead did not gain much when it came to treating my daily ailments. During those teenage years, I focused on coming of age, and furthermore, I was busy with my schoolwork and finally my high school graduation exam. Despite my delicate frame, my psyche somehow held together to survive this difficult time for a teenager who had been so heavily tested at the dawn of her life. I then made my choice of university studies, and subsequently, even before completing them, I received an offer to remain at the university. This was something that carved out my path for a lifetime — research within science, but also beyond it, to delve into why I get sick. However, it was not a superficial approach, like the aluminum gel that had been applied to the deep wound of my psyche. I was looking for consequences not so much in the treatment itself, but in the return to lost inner harmony — which in medicine is called homeostasis. I was reaching deep into the psyche.

After years of learning biochemical mechanisms, I felt that I had reached the bottom of what had been laid out in this field of knowledge, but I found nothing there that answered my questions. This was the bottom I reached after 25 years. It seemed that nothing more awaited me and that I would find nothing that could serve as a panacea for my health problems.

That day, I was lying on the sofa and doing one of the exercises from Managerial and Organizational Psychosynthesis. And then, at that precise moment, I realized that from the bottom, you can only see the sky. From there, the view stretches upward.

It dawned on me that I was being led as if on a string and cared for, in order to follow my truth. This was guidance from above. And above all, another level of myself was opening up, which I later named the „immunology of the soul.” For I needed a special kind of immunity for this period of life, one that far exceeded the existing paradigms of science, giving meaning to my own existence and the articulation of my truth.

I was slowly entering the 50th year of my existence, which was in fact a breakthrough period. Biology was receding into the past so that a future built on the experiences of the bygone era could open up — in order to understand them from a much broader perspective.

Five topics, perhaps even more — one root

The topics I will now address stem from the diagnoses I have gathered over the years. These, in turn, mature into subsequent, yet-unconfirmed but increasingly real diagnoses. To me, they are merely like a sign on a gate, for they are not a cause for fear, but rather a summary of a life experience — a certain synthesis of syntheses made over the years.

Recently, I developed an „entry passport” for myself to use in the doctor’s office. I place a piece of paper on the desk with my life journey: from exploring physiology, through diagnostics, to treatment, described in a brief summary. I also indicate there the direction of potential investigations for specialists to confirm. This is my safe-conduct for conversation, to avoid wandering off into the wilderness and to prevent the depreciation of the path I follow. After all, over the years I have summarized my research and the results obtained, and we can now, as partners, take the next step. For me, this is the balance of many years of clinical observations „on myself,” which the gathered data have been confirming for years.

In the remainder of this chapter, I will describe dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, Sjögren’s syndrome, tachycardia, bronchiectasis, and chronic gastrointestinal catarrh to show what connects them. By virtue of my own history and delving into its meaning, I will invoke here the diagnoses revealed chronologically, in order to perform further syntheses later on.

The most striking aspect is the similarity between the history with fibromyalgia from 20 years ago and what I observe today: the symptom is real, the patient suffers, but because the mechanism does not easily fit into a single specialization, the problem is shifted to psychiatry. And then, instead of asking, „what is happening in the body’s entire regulatory network?”, the question becomes, „what is wrong with the psyche?”.

And yet, this is precisely where my highly characteristic way of looking emerges: not to counterpose the psyche against the body, but to see their connection. This is something completely different — something that lies at the intersection of real experience, which modern medicine should confront, viewing the patient as a whole being.

A few days ago, a lady contacted me who had recently found me on the Internet. She could have communicated via the website or simply by email, yet she wanted to hear me directly. What I learned by listening to her mirrored the exact same pattern from nearly 20 years ago: a referral to a psychiatrist and the treatment that was prescribed to me in those days.

This conversation with the woman, who called to ask for books on fibromyalgia, is incredibly telling. Her sentence, „God sent you to me,” shows how much people are looking for someone who will not tell them yet again, „it’s nothing” or „please go to a psychiatrist,” but will instead acknowledge their experience and try to understand the mutual connections.

In the meantime, I have written another book, highly significant for every patient who finds no understanding within the existing healthcare system. I dedicated that publication to searching for the answer to what connects symptoms that the modern system divides among different specialists.

Dysautonomia and several other exceptionally popular diagnoses, present almost on a daily basis in modern times, can serve as a very good starting point for the story I am currently presenting. I will treat it as one element of a larger network rather than another new diagnostic label. Its value will lie in something else: connecting what has been separated.

„See more” — meaning do not stop at the symptom, the name of the disease, or a single specialization. „See what is in between” — meaning the relationships, dependencies, transitions, common mechanisms, the impact of one system on another, as well as the experiences of a human being that do not fit into a single diagnostic column.

And that is why my own path is of key importance here: immunology → medicine → psychosynthesis → working with people → own experiences of illness → observing other people → putting it all back together. This is not a random collection of interests. This is precisely the path of synthesis.

One could even say that my recent books share a common subtitle that does not need to be literally printed: „See what is in between.”

Dysautonomia fits into this direction very naturally. For every subsequent piece of information triggers a connection in me with something I already know. This book will create itself not by „adding facts,” but by discovering the map of connections.

Before I move on to this thread, however, I must explain the most crucial element according to which I have performed this synthesis. And here, I will introduce the thread of Psychosynthesis — a psychology with a soul.

Psychosynthesis as a foundation

I have specialized in psychosynthesis for 30 years, following my previous 25 years of work in medical sciences, primarily in immunology and clinical diagnostics. Psychosynthesis is the psychology of the whole person — all their spheres of functioning and the connection between body and soul. It was created by an Italian physician, Dr. Roberto Assagioli, and defended as a university thesis in 1910 as a continuation of psychoanalysis, though introducing a spiritual aspect to it. This does not pertain to religion, but to the sphere of the psyche — from the Greek for soul or spiritual realm. Unfortunately, this area is not covered by the psychology taught in Poland, although psychosynthesis and transpersonal psychology are lectured at various academic centers worldwide. I am its pioneer in Poland and I introduced the entries regarding psychosynthesis into the Pedagogical Encyclopedia of the 21st Century. I am also mentioned in the American history of psychosynthesis published in 2010. I have already written several books on this field, so here I will only invoke the application I have given it in my own life.

By practicing psychosynthesis on myself, I realized the most significant tendency that has been forced upon us as individuals since the dawn of our history — both in upbringing, across many levels of education, and in medical treatment. We are treated as single parts: body separately, spiritual sphere separately, and in medicine — each organ separately. Our way of thinking has become reductionist, directing us toward isolated elements rather than the whole. For this reason, we cannot find references to the whole within ourselves, within our environment, or within medical care. Our symptom is treated, instead of observing us as a suffering human being.

Meanwhile, this fragmentation into increasingly smaller particles has resulted in losing the picture of the whole, and now it must be put back together. However, few people experience this, because the dominant way of thinking breaks us down into component parts without assembling them back.

I simply put the human being back together as a whole. I do not add specialized knowledge, nor do I delve into the illness as such, because that is not my task. I am a person who sees the connections between what specialists perceive exclusively in isolation.

I do not compete with the neurologist, endocrinologist, immunologist, or cardiologist regarding their detailed knowledge. My role is to do something else. To answer the question: „What do they see separately — and what happens in between?”.

This is precisely the axis of my book, and even more broadly — the characteristic feature of my writing. My specialization is seeing connections.

For clarity, I will outline this in points:

— One specialist sees their own system.

— A second specialist observes theirs.

— A third notices yet another symptom.

They close themselves off within their respective spaces, building structures that fit what they happen to be dealing with. Sometimes they move further apart, though occasionally they also drift closer unknowingly. However, they want to maintain their status quo, so they do not communicate with each other. I, meanwhile, ask: what connects them and these systems?

— What happens between the systems?

— What repeats across different diseases?

— Where do the common mechanisms run?

— What remains invisible when we look solely through the prism of a single specialization?

And that is why my phrase „see more and see what is in between” is far more accurate than a „synthesis of specialized knowledge.” That is not my function.

I create a map of connections. For me, a natural coordinator for this could be an internist, who possesses a broader knowledge of the whole, or at least of its physical part.

Yes — and precisely what „connects” should be the starting point, rather than an assumption that one must know all elements of this map today.

Dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, and Sjögren’s syndrome can be three „entrances” to observing the same human being from different sides. And if a fourth, fifth, or subsequent element appears during the work and begins to connect logically with the rest, it does not need to be forced out just because it was not in the original plan.

This, moreover, fits my way of working very well: first a question appears, then the information begins to align, and only from this does the whole emerge.

And I will do one thing from the very beginning: I will not write a chapter exclusively „about dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, and Sjögren’s.” I will leave an open space for myself to discover what truly is the common denominator and what connects yet other diagnoses or symptoms.

Thanks to this, this book will be able to convey something much more interesting. Not: „here are three diseases,” but rather: „here are three different names — let’s see what lies between them.” What connects them? Or perhaps there is something more? This is exactly my place.

I do not diagnose. I do something prior to that: I name a possibility, which the patient can then verify with a doctor.

In practice, it looks like this:

The patient has a set of symptoms → they do not know how to connect them → I show a possible connection → the patient gains a foothold → the doctor receives a more concrete direction to consider and investigate → the doctor makes or rules out a diagnosis.

This is a completely different function from diagnosing.

And that is precisely why the „hypersensitivity” of some specialists irritates me. If a patient says: „I wonder if my symptoms could be related to dysautonomia; is it worth checking?”, it does not mean: „I have diagnosed myself with dysautonomia and I expect you to confirm it.”

Yet simultaneously, there is another side that I notice on forums: a patient without a name for their problem can cycle through the medical system for years because no one has connected their symptoms into a single pattern. This is clearly my own example. On no referral or certificate to another specialist do I have concrete diagnoses written down, only directions. This means those diagnoses never actually officially existed. No doctor has said the final word for 70 years.

And this is precisely where my role emerges: I do not provide a diagnosis, I provide a language — a foothold with which one can ask about their own problem.

A „foothold” exactly describes the function of my books about illnesses. I do not replace the doctor — I help the patient reach the doctor with a better-formulated question.

In other words, in the new book, I will very clearly separate three things:

— Observation — „I have such and such symptoms.”

— Hypothesis / possible connection — „could there be a common mechanism?”.

— Diagnosis — which is left to the doctor and appropriate tests.

This allows me to preserve exactly what I deal with: seeing connections without usurping the right to diagnose.

And paradoxically, this is precisely why my book can be so useful to a patient. It does not tell them „you have this disease,” but rather „here is a concept that might be worth using to begin the proper conversation and the proper search.”

Therefore, the distinction between „pointing a direction” and „making a diagnosis” is very important to me.

I do not say: „I have Sjögren’s syndrome.” What I actually describe is: I have a specific symptom — drying of the mucous membranes — and in connection with this, I would like to check a specific diagnostic direction.

Recently, one female doctor chose a different direction. She had the right to do so, but the problem arose when the result brought nothing new to the search for the cause, and the next step was not taken either. Consequently, the patient remains in exactly the same place.

And this is perhaps even more interesting for the unfolding book than the medical history itself. For I can show the mechanism:

The patient → observes a symptom → tries to connect it with other symptoms → suggests a possible direction → the specialist chooses a different direction → the test comes back normal → the search returns to the starting point.

And the patient loses time and, unfortunately, increasingly often money, as they have to pay for further tests themselves.

At the same time, the boundary that I see very well must be maintained here: a normal zonulin level does not exclude celiac disease, and symptoms and tests have their limitations. In the same way, drying of the mucous membranes does not automatically mean Sjögren’s syndrome. That is precisely why it is not about the patient „being right instead of the doctor.” It is about something much more constructive:

„I have this observation. Does this diagnostic direction make sense? If not — why? What else should we check?”

And then the patient participates in the process, instead of being its passive object.

Dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, Sjögren’s syndrome, hypothyroidism, tachycardia, bronchiectasis, chronic gastrointestinal catarrh: what will this book be about?

In this extensive chapter, I will invoke the symptoms of individual disease entities. However, I will look at them not only from the level of physicality — I will observe them much more deeply, as this is my domain, studied „on myself” for years. I will show not so much textbook descriptions as my own reflections based on my personal history.

I will start with fibromyalgia, because it is an exceptionally important example for me of a holistic impact on the organism. It shows the effects present in the body that I discovered by observing its symptoms, but also the way back to health using my own example. I am currently 19 years past its manifestation and 17 years since returning to health, which I achieved by basing it on my own path of discovering the causes.

Fibromyalgia

It is estimated that fibromyalgia affects 2–8% of the population. Women are affected twice as often as men. It is hypothesized that it may remain undiagnosed in at least 75% of affected individuals. However, it is diagnosed much more frequently in Western countries and the United States than in Poland. Around 20 years ago, it was a topic almost unknown among rheumatologists, including academic ones.

Fibromyalgia is considered a disability characterized by chronic, widespread pain and an increased pain response to pressure, as well as fatigue, sleep problems, and memory issues. Some individuals also report restless legs syndrome, bowel problems (irritable bowel syndrome), or bladder issues (urinary incontinence), as well as numbness and tingling.

Sensitivity

In fibromyalgia, individuals are particularly sensitive to sounds, noise, bright light, as well as the presence of various irritating substances in underwear, cosmetics, air, furniture, or, for example, electromagnetic smog (phones, laptops), which manifests as dermatological disorders. Symptoms of skin itching, burning sensations, or irritation without redness intensify. The slightest pressure on the skin can induce pain. Some individuals are also sensitive to temperature changes, as well as excessive crowds and the necessity of confronting other people.

Although recognized as a disease in the classical approach, some doctors and centers consider it a tension syndrome that does not cause particular changes in the basic (commonly tested) biochemical parameters of the body, or causes only transient changes.

Fibromyalgia is frequently linked to depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other types of chronic pain also occur, appearing in specific areas of the body. Other symptoms may include prolonged muscle spasms, limb weakness, nerve pain, palpitations, and functional bowel disorders.

Trigger Points (Tender Points), Points of Tenderness

„Tender points” on the body are a characteristic often attributed to fibromyalgia, as a person feels pain when they are pressed. These points can be located at the back of the head, on the elbows, shoulders, knees, and hips. There are 18 such possible tender points.

Fibro Fog

Many people experience cognitive dysfunction (known as „fibro fog”), which can stem from impaired concentration, problems with short- and long-term memory, as well as a paralysis in action (a kind of confusion, cognitive overload, inability to move forward). This manifests as an inability to perform multiple tasks at the same time. The person feels dazed and has difficulty remembering. These are sensations of a „fibrous fog” that appears in the brain, as if something were interfering with the movement of thoughts. This sensation was named after the fog that individuals with fibromyalgia sometimes experience.

The causes of fibro fog have still not been fully explained, but they may be related to the direct effect of pain on the brain or a lack of oxygen in the brain tissues.

Bowels

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can accompany fibromyalgia, including such symptoms as abdominal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea. This condition can have a severe impact on the quality of daily life, causing anxiety and worsening both physical and mental well-being.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is sometimes referred to as myofascial pain. Although fibromyalgia is classified based on the presence of prolonged, widespread pain, it can be localized in specific areas, such as the temporomandibular joints, shoulders, neck, the entire back area, hips, or other spaces. Some doctors link its symptoms to rheumatoid arthritis (in 20–30% of individuals) and systemic lupus erythematosus.

HISTORY

The term „fibromyalgia” was used to describe this type of symptoms only in 1976 by Dr. P.K. Hench. Before that, many other names were used alongside it, including „muscular rheumatism,” „fibrositis,” „psychogenic rheumatism,” and „neurasthenia.”

However, this name had been coined earlier by researcher Mohammed Yunus as a synonym for myositis. It was used for the first time in a scientific publication in 1981, although already in 1977 Smyth and Moldofsky had published an article on similar symptoms using the term fibrositis.

The word „fibromyalgia” comes from the Latin fibra (fiber) and the Greek words myo (muscle) and algos (pain). Thus, the term literally means „pain of the muscles and fibrous connective tissues.” In 1984, a connection was proposed between fibromyalgia and other related conditions. In turn, a 1987 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association used the term „fibromyalgia syndrome,” describing the condition as „controversial.” The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) published its first classification criteria for fibromyalgia in 1990, although these are not strictly diagnostic criteria.

The cause of fibromyalgia has not been unequivocally determined. It is believed to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Environmental factors can include psychological stress, trauma, and certain infections. The pain itself appears to result from processes occurring in the central nervous system, and the condition is referred to as „central sensitization syndrome.”

Fibromyalgia is classified as a disorder of pain signal processing in the central nervous system. The American College of Rheumatology considers it a functional somatic syndrome, while a committee of European rheumatologists views it as a neurobiological disorder. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) lists fibromyalgia in the section of „diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue” under code M79.7 as a functional somatic syndrome, rather than a mental disorder. Although mental disorders and certain physical ailments often co-occur with fibromyalgia — particularly anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic fatigue symptoms — the ICD states that they should be diagnosed separately.

However, several hypotheses have arisen to explain this phenomenon, including the aforementioned „central sensitization.” This theory assumes that individuals with fibromyalgia have a lower pain threshold due to the increased reactivity of pain-sensitive nerve cells in the spinal cord or brain. Experimental data indicate that pain in this syndrome results primarily from the abnormal functioning of its processing pathways.

Stress is considered a key factor triggering the development of fibromyalgia. It can co-occur with disorders on the background of chronic fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and depression.

A systematic review of the literature found a significant association between the onset of fibromyalgia and the experience of physical and sexual abuse — both in childhood and adulthood. Psychological trauma has also been shown to be linked to FM, with this relationship also being detected in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Some authors suggest that because exposure to stressful conditions can permanently alter the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the development of fibromyalgia may result directly from disturbances caused by chronic stress acting on this axis.

For instance, several studies have found metabolic abnormalities within the hypothalamic structures of individuals with fibromyalgia. Since this area of the brain plays a fundamental role in maintaining cognitive functions, sleep regulation, and pain perception, it has been suggested that these disturbances may be directly responsible for the appearance of disease symptoms.

As I mentioned above, the hypothalamus and the functionally linked hippocampus constitute crucial parts of the limbic system — a region that regulates emotions and the storage of long-term memory, which encompasses all past knowledge and all life experiences.

This system plays an important role in the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory, as well as in spatial memory. Research in neurobiology suggests that these structures are involved in how the brain processes and stores significant life events, including traumatic experiences. In some clinical frameworks, it is proposed that the physiological impact of such events remains detectable within the nervous system’s regulatory patterns.

These structures are also involved in declarative memory, which consists of facts and information that can be explicitly stated. Researchers have highlighted the importance of maintaining the health of these brain regions due to their role in memory encoding, the potential links between hippocampal health and mood disorders like depression, and the complex interactions between neurological health and endocrine function.

While the scientific community continues to debate the exact classification of fibromyalgia, research has increasingly focused on its overlap with systemic dysregulation. Although it is not currently classified as a classic autoimmune disease by major health organizations, some studies investigate potential immune-mediated components and the condition’s impact on systemic inflammatory markers.

Observations in patients with fibromyalgia often reveal abnormalities in the autonomic nervous system, such as changes in heart rate variability (HRV), and signs of immune system activation. These findings are often similar to those seen in chronic fatigue syndrome. For example, some studies have identified elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and specific interleukins in individuals with fibromyalgia, which may contribute to heightened pain sensitivity and alterations in mood regulation.

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE RECOGNITION OF FIBROMYALGIA AS A DISEASE

As a disorder defined relatively recently and still not fully understood, fibromyalgia remains a diagnosis that is sometimes questioned. Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined the diagnostic guidelines for fibromyalgia, stated in 2008 that it is not a disease, but rather a physical reaction to depression and stress. Later, in 2013, he concluded that „there are many factors that trigger these symptoms — some of them are psychological and some are physical, and they exist on a certain continuum.”

Similar opinions are put forward by other members of the medical community who do not consider fibromyalgia a disease due to the lack of abnormalities in physical examination and the absence of objective diagnostic tests.

Neurologists and pain specialists view it differently, seeing fibromyalgia as a dysfunction of the muscles and connective tissue, as well as functional abnormalities in the central nervous system. Rheumatologists define this syndrome in the context of „central sensitization” — meaning an increased reaction of the brain to normal stimuli, while there is an absence of primary disorders in the muscles, joints, or connective tissue. On the other hand, psychiatrists often view fibromyalgia as a type of affective disorder, while psychosomatic medicine sees it as a somatoform disorder.

The value of fibromyalgia as a distinct clinical entity therefore remains a matter of dispute, as no sharp boundary separates it from syndromes such as chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, or chronic muscle pain.

FIBROMYALGIA AS A TENSION SYNDROME ARISING FROM AUTOAGGRESSION

It is worth taking a deeper look at the symptoms characteristic of autoimmune diseases, particularly those concerning the psychological sphere. I have described many of these aspects in the book Fibromyalgia — Understanding and Saying Goodbye. Here, I will return to some of them to recall the evidence of how certain behaviors and attitudes influence the onset and consolidation of the disease in the body.

Fibromyalgia is closely linked to anxiety, stress, fear, tension, and perfectionism. This occurs most frequently in women who have remained lonely for years (including in childhood) and who have been burdened within the family — both in their family of origin and later in their own — with excessive responsibility, without a sense of spiritual support or guidance. They must implicitly become the „head of the family,” yet they feel unable to cope with the excessive duties dumped on them by their surroundings. This may have happened during a period when they were children and the mother could not manage daily life (for instance, raising offspring alone, which occurred after the war or in other circumstances when the husband was away from home). In such a situation, the child took on responsibilities beyond their strength. These types of situations are also found in the descriptions of individuals who are descendants carrying this kind of experience in their genetic memory.

The excessive responsibility described above manifests in the body in the form of somatic overloads, which means tensions. Pain in the fibrous tissues — muscles, tendons, and fascia — builds up over months and then years. This person does not realize that unexpressed anger and dissent are budding within them, which they do not have the courage to articulate, fearing the reaction of the family or partner — a reaction that, in their mind, could be even more severe. They may also lack the conditions to voice their grievance because there is no understanding person around them, or — even if such a person is present — they do not comprehend the processes occurring in that body for decades.

Such a person therefore suffers in silence, clenching their teeth (which over time manifests as pain in the temporomandibular joints). The tension accumulating over years causes increasing overloads, and the patient falls into a vicious circle: of increasingly scattered pains, intensifying fatigue, and the fear that they will not make it or will not know how to do something. This provokes negative thinking about oneself, intensifying, depressing emotions, and consequently, insomnia and depression.

This picture of psychological symptoms has its direct resonance in the body’s biochemistry, and this leads to physical consequences. Sporadically, elevated parameters of inflammation may appear (such as the acute-phase C-reactive protein CRP, rheumatoid factor, or ESR).

These physical consequences are further aggravated by the attitude of the surroundings, which do not understand what the woman is experiencing, as well as the medical staff. Doctors, due to a lack of effective alternatives to pharmacotherapy (which, due to the patient’s high sensitivity, is sometimes ineffective and often even harmful), send her home or to a psychiatrist. In doing so, they give her no hope for improvement, let alone for recovery.

Meanwhile, there are many useful techniques, for example, rehabilitative ones. For all the affected fibrous tissues, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia need deep relaxation.

This level of bodywork, however, is not sufficient to achieve full healing; it constitutes merely the initial stage of the entire process. Further tools are needed, particularly psychological ones, which can be started „right away.” In this way, one not only helps the patient in the subsequent stages of releasing tensions on deeper levels (for which manual work alone is sometimes too weak), but also reaches traumatic experiences, including those from childhood. This allows blocked emotions to be released and gradually restores the self-regulatory mechanisms of the organism. I have described many of these methods in the already mentioned books; here, I recall this information briefly.

Extremely important for a person with fibromyalgia is the awareness that forgiving the people who abandoned them or burdened them with excessive responsibility could lift the feeling of physical overload from their shoulders (the places where they usually feel the strongest pain). For part of this burden is of an imaginary nature and comes from childhood times, when this mechanism arose.

Usually, the sick person also needs constructive solitude. For they have a constant feeling that they must deserve love or interest, do everything they were told to do or what they took upon their own shoulders. They never think about themselves and about what is happening inside them because of the decisions they made — decisions about constantly „serving others” in order to gain their love and attention. Such a person, working with themselves, must in the first place handle the fear of abandonment. To heal this state, they need above all to take care of themselves and put their own needs in first place. They, meanwhile, are afraid to be alone, which is why they need to consciously confront their own inner sense of loneliness.

People with fibromyalgia were most often abandoned, physically or psychologically neglected, deprived of love in childhood, and also not infrequently experienced sexual abuse. Such a person in adult life subconsciously seeks the love of the father or mother, but needs it already from a higher dimension — from the spiritual space. Here, techniques of spiritual healing, including finding within oneself the depth of one’s own faith and connection with higher dimensions, are priceless. They require independent work with the support of clergy or transpersonal psychologists who will help reach these areas through neutral techniques, unburdened by any dogma. For it is the person themselves who needs to find their path, which is written within them. No one can unlawfully interfere in someone else’s life and spiritual journey. Complete healing is absolutely achievable.

EMOTIONAL BLOCK

Some studies have found that fibromyalgia occurs more frequently in individuals who have struggled with a deep sense of guilt from a very early age. Such individuals subconsciously feel internally broken and guilty for the very fact that they are alive. I encountered such an example while conducting „inner theater” workshops with children in a school — one of the girls said back then that she lives solely for her mother, because otherwise, she would not want to exist at all. Consequently, when such a person grows up, they feel extremely vulnerable and can be easily „broken.” They are usually forced to rigidify themselves heavily for their own protection. This, in turn, triggers specific symptoms of permanently holding tension in the body, chronic strain on the musculoskeletal system, and all the previously described health consequences.

MENTAL BLOCK

The mental block that governs the life of a person with fibromyalgia is based on a feeling of a deep lack of love and care. The patient has an encoded belief within them that nobody loves her. In the healing process, it is crucial to realize that this is merely her own opinion — a subjective judgment that she created herself at a certain stage. This specific way of thinking and distorted perception of the mind make her build beliefs that do not serve her. If the patient releases the expectation that she must receive all of this from others, she will also gradually begin to release the myofascial disorders that accompany this process.

OTHER PROBLEMS ACCOMPANYING FIBROMYALGIA

In the course of fibromyalgia, additional health ailments are often encountered, which from the standpoint of symptomatic medicine are sometimes interpreted incorrectly and subsequently treated ineffectively. From a psychosomatic perspective, they may signify:

— Sore throat — a subconscious inability to express one’s true feelings and needs.

— Lung problems — a fear of life and a deep sense of unworthiness.

— Cough — an internal need for a sudden release of something that has literally choked the person; something they could not express aloud to clarify a matter or their behavior.

— Heartburn — being literally consumed by a paralyzing fear and a feeling that one cannot flow freely and with trust along with the current of life.

— Nausea — a categorical rejection of some aspect regarding oneself or another person.

— Digestive problems — a chronic feeling of fatigue, overload, and an emotional inability to „digest” a difficult problem or relationship.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL ASSESSMENT

The authors of some studies postulate that fibromyalgia should not be rigidly categorized solely as a somatic disease or a mental disorder. Instead, they propose applying a multidimensional approach that equally takes into account physical symptoms, psychological factors, chronic psychosocial stressors, and the patient’s subjective beliefs regarding themselves and the primary source of their problems. It is precisely this kind of approach that is beginning to be implemented by the increasingly common (though still too rare) centers of holistic support and integrative medicine.

Hashimoto’s disease

I will begin with a few key sentences crucial to understanding Hashimoto’s disease.

Hashimoto’s disease is referred to as autoimmune thyroiditis. Sometimes, hormone levels temporarily return to normal, but the tissue destruction continues.

This condition attacks people of various ages, who may struggle with symptoms such as a chronic cough, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, muscle pain, or hair loss. Symptoms can also include depression, mood swings, brain fog, chronic fatigue, weight fluctuations, and other gastrointestinal problems.

Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease are not the same clinical entity. Hashimoto’s can lead to hypothyroidism; however, these two conditions differ significantly. Although many cases of hypothyroidism are treated simply with synthetic hormones, as many as 97% of them are believed to be caused precisely by Hashimoto’s disease. Hypothyroidism itself occurs when there is an insufficient concentration of hormones in the body (which usually reflects as a high TSH and low levels of the free fractions fT4 and fT3).

Hashimoto’s disease is a progressive autoimmune process during which the immune system attacks healthy cells of its own gland, which eventually triggers hypothyroidism. This autoimmune pattern generates symptoms triggered by a variety of factors, forcing a profound change in lifestyle. This process builds up over many years, which is why catching it at an early stage can effectively counteract the further progression of organ destruction.

Patients also develop multiple food hypersensitivities — for instance, to gluten, dairy (lactose, casein), as well as soy or peanuts. These symptoms can worsen gradually with the continuous consumption of the aforementioned food ingredients. Within the body, abnormal functioning of T lymphocytes occurs, which stimulates the production of antibodies against thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) and thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), and these destroy the thyroid follicular cells. Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis ensues.

The thyroid gland itself may initially remain unchanged in size or become enlarged (forming what is known as a thyroid goiter). Sensory disturbances, memory issues, and emotional fluctuations may also appear. When the problem prolongs and is left untended, fixed hypothyroidism of the organ occurs.

Currently, it is heavily emphasized in literature that an exceptionally important aspect of the manifestation of these symptoms is increased intestinal permeability (the so-called leaky gut syndrome). Various toxins and antigens then penetrate into the bloodstream. They can integrate into the receptors for thyroid hormones on a competitive basis, triggering their blockade. The exact same phenomenon also applies to the pancreas and insulin, leading to the dysfunction of specific glands, hormonal imbalance, and entailing clear consequences throughout the entire organism.

Hypothyroidism is the most common disorder of thyroid function — occurring in about 5% of adult women and about 1% of men, and Hashimoto’s disease constitutes its most frequent cause. Although the prevalence of Hashimoto’s disease increases with age (especially in people over 60 years old), it also affects young people and children, showing a strong tendency to occur among members of the same family. In women, it frequently manifests shortly after childbirth. At that time, it sometimes spontaneously goes into a latent state, only to make itself known again sooner or later. In every second person, it ultimately leads to permanent hypothyroidism.

This condition more frequently co-occurs with other autoimmune diseases (e.g., type 1 diabetes, celiac disease and gluten intolerance, rheumatoid arthritis, vitiligo, or pernicious anemia).

The drastic increase in incidence in the modern world is, among other things, the result of a processed diet and environmental pollution. The smog in which we live — or more precisely, the heavy metals contained in it — profoundly disrupts our immune processes. These diseases also have distinct genetic predispositions. Especially at risk are individuals with developed autoaggression in other organs and those with a family history of thyroid problems. It happens, for example, that a mother suffers from Graves” disease causing hyperthyroidism, while her daughter develops Hashimoto’s leading to hypothyroidism. Hence, it cannot be denied that autoimmune thyroiditis belongs to strictly familial disorders.

When the immune system mistakenly recognizes thyroid proteins as hostile and destroys them, the activity of the enzyme responsible for the proper synthesis of hormones becomes impaired. Symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease are frequently downplayed because they are rarely accompanied by a direct experience of physical pain. Moreover, they are ambiguous: alongside joint pains, there appear heavy menstrual periods, dry skin, constant fatigue, a continuous feeling of cold (especially in the hands and feet), drowsiness, weakness, depressive states, memory impairment, unexplained weight gain, constipation, low blood pressure, or high cholesterol levels. The disease can be difficult to diagnose early, and standard academic treatment focuses almost exclusively on removing the effects rather than the root cause of the disorder.

Even though it is estimated that over 300 million people worldwide suffer from thyroid problems, it is believed that up to half of them may be unaware of their illness. Meanwhile, with low levels of thyroid hormones, it is extremely difficult to properly stabilize blood glucose concentrations, which directly translates into lipid management (cholesterol) and weight control.

In diagnostics, clinicians adopt the principle that if an adult has an elevated TSH level accompanied by normal or low free T3 and T4 levels, their hypothyroidism is likely due to an ongoing Hashimoto’s process. For verification, laboratory tests for the presence of the aforementioned thyroid antibodies are then performed.

From a holistic perspective, it is increasingly being argued that the direct trigger for this autoimmune process can be a weakening of immunity due to chronic stress, deep psychological problems, long-term exhaustion, or past infections.

Thyroid diseases and Sjögren’s syndrome: the common denominator of dryness

Thyroid diseases, such as Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism, can cause visual disturbances, including dryness of the eyeballs, blurred vision, double vision, and swelling of the eyelids. Common symptoms also include increased sensitivity to light, faster eye fatigue, as well as watery eyes, burning, and pain.

Can hypothyroidism cause — in addition to dry eyes — dryness of the throat and larynx as well? Do these phenomena have something in common? It turns out to be surprisingly more than it might seem.

These troublesome symptoms associated with the drying of mucous membranes are key features of Sjögren’s syndrome — another systemic autoimmune disease. Scientific and clinical studies unequivocally suggest that there is a strong, genetic, and immunological link between Sjögren’s syndrome and hypothyroidism against the background of autoaggression.

Both of these disease states very frequently co-occur in the same patient, constituting another entrance to the same map of connections in the organism. When the immune system loses its orientation, it rarely stops at a single organ; while attacking the thyroid, it can simultaneously direct its forces against the lacrimal and salivary glands, stripping the body of its natural moisture.

Sjögren’s syndrome

Sjögren’s syndrome is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system primarily attacks the exocrine glands responsible for moisture production. This often leads to characteristic symptoms such as severe dryness of the eyes, mouth, and sometimes the skin and other mucous membranes. Many individuals also experience chronic fatigue, joint pain, and general discomfort, as systemic inflammation can affect more than just the glands themselves.

These two conditions — Sjögren’s syndrome and hypothyroidism on the background of Hashimoto’s — very frequently occur together because autoimmune diseases tend to accumulate. A shared genetic background, the same immunological pathways, and permanent inflammation significantly increase the probability that a person with one diagnosed autoimmune disease will develop another.

Therefore, it is crucial to regularly monitor the organism — including performing laboratory thyroid tests, testing for the presence of specific antibodies, and carefully observing the signals coming from the body. Standard academic treatment combines hormone therapy (in the case of hypothyroidism) with targeted relief of symptoms of dryness, pain, and fatigue, as well as lifestyle changes that support overall immune balance.

Broadly defined thyroid dysfunctions — meaning all disease states of this organ, including hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and Hashimoto’s disease — lead to a deep destabilization of the body’s hormonal balance, which directly and adversely affects the composition and stability of the tear film. Alterations in blinking frequency are also very characteristic of this group of disorders, which further exacerbates the problem.

All patients struggling with these syndromes require special care to ensure the well-being of the ocular surface. Daily hygiene of the eyelid margins, regular tear substitution using appropriate moisturizing preparations, and modern, non-invasive dry eye therapy based on the use of visible light become key.

ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCES — PHYSICAL, PSYCHOSOMATIC, AND SPIRITUAL APPROACHES

From a physical (material) perspective, an allergy develops as a hypersensitivity reaction of the immune system to an inducing substance (an allergen) that adversely affects the body. The immune system recognizes it as an enemy and produces IgE-class antibodies to protect the organism. These antibodies trigger the release of specific chemicals into the bloodstream, including histamine. It is histamine that directly causes the allergic reaction, frequently involving the nose, throat, eyes, lungs, skin, and gastrointestinal tract. Every subsequent contact with the same allergen triggers a similar immune response.

It is commonly believed that allergies result from an excessive, abnormal reaction of the immune system to common substances with which the body has previously had contact. Standard medicine relies primarily on desensitization and the administration of antihistamines. Meanwhile, allergies are a significantly more complicated phenomenon. They require a complex, multifaceted approach, rather than merely focusing on the physical sphere and symptom removal — for the latter constitutes only the end of the entire chain of cause and effect.

An allergic reaction can take an acute course, completely unlike that observed during the initial contact. The body exhibits an immunological hypersensitivity which, although localized in a specific area or system, negatively affects the entire organism. An allergy becomes, in essence, an acquired, abnormal defensive response to environmental factors (such as pollen, food, dust, or microorganisms) in amounts that have no effect whatsoever on most people.

It is possible to develop an allergy to almost anything in the material world. However, an allergy is not exclusively an organ or skin reaction; it has deep roots. At times, its onset lies in traumatic experiences from the past. These cause an unconscious fear of a specific substance or circumstances that accompanied that difficult event to build up within a person throughout their life. If the primary trauma was sufficiently strong or was reinforced by an additional emotional or physical event, it can manifest as a physical allergy — including in the next generation. Therefore, eliminating the symptom alone does not solve the problem; it merely postpones the compounding effects over time.

Allergies are one of the experiences written in our „book of life,” which describes the individual and unique history of each human being. They are closely linked to the quality of our thoughts, as well as to the blocking of emotions and feelings. They arise on the foundation of limiting beliefs, entrenched behaviors, and habits passed down from generation to generation over which we exert no conscious control — and to which we react allergically, instead of making an attempt to change them.

Although pharmacological means are used to reduce the burden of allergies, this eliminates symptoms only temporarily. They return regularly, forcing the patient to take medications for a lifetime. Furthermore, it has been observed that the same types of allergies appear in offspring. This should draw our attention to the fact that single-level treatment (focused exclusively on physicality) does not bring real recovery, and the problem prematurely begins to be labeled as a genetically determined disease.

Conventional medical practice, by striving for the immediate disposal of symptoms, can lead to a worsening of the patient’s condition in the long term. Understanding a human being, based on carefully listening to the person struggling with an allergy, allows for the implementation of far more effective treatment that supports metabolism and detoxification. Thanks to this, the immune system gains space for a less intense reaction.

However, this is still not enough to permanently free oneself from allergies, because that which lies deeper is continuously ignored. The only way to completely resolve the problem is to apply appropriate psychological, or rather psycho-spiritual, techniques. Since the cause lies deep, we must dig down to the primary trauma and permanently decode it.

If a true healing process is to take place, we must allow all levels of our existence to have a voice. Elements of the mind and soul must be taken into account in the development of allergies, and they must be connected to their tangible effects in the body and in the environment — meaning what we do and what influences us.

Parallel work with the mind, body, soul, and environment is an experience of expanding consciousness, consisting of a deep understanding and healing of the entirety of oneself. The spirit influences the mind, and the mind influences the body. Neglecting these levels in the process of restoring inner balance (homeostasis) ensures that no therapy will work long-term. Dealing exclusively with the body, while bypassing the soul and personal experiences, will not allow the patient to understand the essence of their problem or to reclaim lost harmony.

We must therefore, as patients, doctors, and therapists, begin to think about the entire disrupted system, and above all — focus on health instead of concentrating on disease. As we think, so it happens to us! Thanks to such a shift in the vector, healing becomes faster, more comprehensive, and permanent.

Introducing the spiritual aspect allows one to find the hidden strength and deeper meaning concealed behind the illness, which constitutes a powerful support in the treatment process. Indeed, illness is sometimes the soul’s best teacher. Pema Chödrön — a well-known spiritual teacher — believes that „nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” This statement is much closer to the truth than purely physical actions, and it is essential for every human being’s inner transformation.

More and more people are beginning to understand this profound meaning of ailments, including allergies. Only by simultaneously examining the spiritual and physical experience are we able to realize the life, and hence evolutionary, messages that these conditions bring into our lives.

We must, as individuals, but above all as doctors, realize that nothing happens without a cause — and especially without that deep, primary cause. For an old trauma or chronically ongoing stress triggers not only a massive burden on the adrenal glands on the physical plane. They also lead to a restriction in the capacity of other organs, for example, to an impairment of the metabolic functions of the liver, causing general malaise. Because of this, the entire body becomes filled with toxicity, which consequently provokes and intensifies allergic symptoms. When toxins accumulate in the organism, inflammation is born, lying at the foundation of biological, physical, and biochemical imbalance.

For this reason, consciously reducing exposure to environmental and dietary toxins constitutes a key, active factor that stimulates the liver and kidneys to regenerate at their basic, physical level.

Allergies — a holistic perspective

It is important to know that not all ailments are entirely one’s own. We inherit weaknesses and predispositions from our ancestors that make us vulnerable to certain conditions. If we create the right conditions for them, they will also manifest in our lives.

As individuals, we are responsible for our health — and therefore for identifying and healing our own weaknesses and for addressing them personally. This applies to all areas: body, emotions, thinking, and the soul. Even if the susceptibility to an allergy comes from a great-grandmother, grandfather, or father, it is currently our own. We can live with it, chronically treat the symptoms, and pass this pattern on to the next generation, or we can address the root cause and release it. The foundation, however, is deep reflection: looking at how we think, how we react, and what we do. Then we will perceive the hidden signposts written within us — just beneath the symptoms.

The presence of an illness and its symptoms requires a re-verification of the life choices we have made. It encourages the expression of emotions rather than their suppression. It helps recognize which habits, thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs do not serve health and well-being, but instead reinforce the disease in the body — on both an individual and a generational plane.

The understanding that negative thoughts and emotions directly contribute to poor physical condition is not new. Many years ago, Louise Hay published a book (translated into Polish as „Możesz uzdrowić swoje życie” [You Can Heal Your Life]), in which she taught about the psychosomatic causes of illnesses and the role of affirmations in releasing negative thought patterns to reclaim health.

In the book „Allergies and Aversions,” Dr. Narayan Singh explains the psychological context of many allergies. In numerous cases, it concerns dysfunctional upbringing within the family or the rejection of a child by the mother. In another publication, titled „Letters to His Mother,” Marcel Proust wrote these significant words: „I prefer to have fits of coughing and breathlessness, to suffocate words within myself, than to displease you.” These examples clearly illustrate the emotional and psychological origin of physical reactions, which consequently can manifest as allergies or autoimmune diseases.

PSYCHIC STRESS AND ITS IMPACT ON ALLERGY SUFFERERS

New research indicates that even minor stresses and anxieties can significantly worsen a person’s allergic reaction to certain allergens. What is more, the additional impact of stress and anxiety seems to persist over time, which is why the second day of an allergic attack in a tense person can be much worse.

Allergic reactions are an exceptionally common chronic illness in the United States, with annual treatment costs reaching over 3 billion dollars. For this reason, intensive research into the relationship between stress and immunity has been conducted there for over 30 years.

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL BLOCKS

Allergies are an expression of „intolerance.” While we normally think of them exclusively in a physical context, in reality, they translate into a kind of intolerance within the mental and emotional structures. It is precisely these spheres that constitute the foundation of what is ultimately expressed in the body. As the very name indicates, psychosomatic symptoms are problems that appear first at the level of the psyche, and consequently manifest in the body.

It has been observed, for example, that an individual struggling with an allergy may feel a strong aversion to someone and subconsciously tolerate that person’s presence. They may also have difficulty adapting to situations in which that specific person appears. They are often overly sensitive, defensive, and easily intimidated, which testifies to a deep internal conflict. One part of their personality (a subpersonality) loves or admires a given object or person, while another part forbids it and rejects it. A person with an allergy may feel love and attachment, but at the same time remain in emotional dependency. One part wants closeness, while another claims they should live alone, which gives rise to a massive sense of guilt.

Often, too, the parents of individuals with allergies represented radically different views in many fields. This caused conflict within the child, triggered internal disharmony, and disrupted metabolic processes. Such an inconsistent attitude of adults bred continuous fear and a lack of a sense of security, and this is an exceptionally strong stress factor.

Fear provokes many internal and external problems, which is why people subconsciously try to escape from what they dread. When anxiety manifests as an allergy, the body may reject, for example, specific food that was associated with the cause of fear or with the state accompanying the primary trauma. In this way, the organism sends a clear message that it does not accept exposure to the given substance, situation, or person.

Many disorders — for example, stomach issues — can be a manifestation of an organ’s defense against someone or something that the person fears or does not tolerate. An allergy sufferer may resist new ideas and opinions. It is difficult for them to deal with facts that contradict their plans, habits, or ways of thinking. Internally, they criticize these situations, which prevents them from abandoning mental patterns. Physically, they can experience this as a literal „grip on the throat.”

People with allergies tend to be very critical of themselves and their surroundings. In psychosynthesis, one speaks in this context of the Inner Critic subpersonality. These individuals have enormous problems making choices. This difficulty usually stems from emotional imbalance rooted in an old, unresolved trauma and the resulting sensitivity. In response to this wound, their intolerance of others increases — this manifests as avoiding people or blaming them. It is hard for a person with an allergy to forgive, let go of old grievances, and adopt a new, prejudice-free point of view.

Being critical toward oneself and the world, it is worth considering how much grievance, judgment, complaining, and negation there is in our daily life. An attitude based on permanently „looking for flaws” predisposes one to the appearance of an allergy as a physical negation of reality or the people around us. For this reason, an active change of mind — orienting it toward gratitude for the fact that a difficult situation shows us our own internal problem — is necessary to free oneself from judgments, and thus from an „allergy” to another human being. This can be achieved, among other ways, through regular meditation or working with affirmations.

From a psychosomatic perspective, laryngitis — although medically meaning a partial or total loss of voice — is in essence a message from the body that fears open communication. It wants to communicate something, but the person is afraid they will not be heard or accepted. Instead of voicing what they feel, they choke back their words, and these stick in the throat, causing physical pain. However, these words try to break out in another way — for instance, through an induced, violent cough.

The tightening or narrowing of the throat means that the person feels restricted, under pressure, or literally „grabbed by the larynx” to force them into a specific action or statement.

In turn, pain when swallowing is the body’s way of asking: „Which person or which situation are you unable to swallow?”. Perhaps a specific emotional trauma stands behind this, a difficulty digesting something from the past, or an absolute inability to accept someone’s attitude. Inflammation of the throat can indicate suppressed anger, hidden aggression, and subconsciously stepping into the mindset of a victim.

An allergy will never extinguish until we learn to look at the world positively — as a place that supports our development (including through the people who surround us) — instead of constantly being afraid, feeding on negative qualities, and living in a sense of continuous threat.

MENTAL BLOCKS

If you suffer from allergies, it is worthwhile for you to investigate the situation and the reasons why you subconsciously feel hostility. Take a look at what your true sensations, thoughts, hidden expectations, and perhaps areas of emotional subordination are.

It happens that some people become allergic to products that they actually like very much — for instance, to dairy. They love ice cream but cannot eat it due to a violent reaction of the body. In such a case, it is crucial to examine whether you have subconsciously rejected the right to pure pleasure in your life because joy and rewarding yourself were forbidden or stigmatized in your childhood.

In turn, an allergy to dust or animal dander is worth analyzing from the perspective of a fear of being attacked by others. There arises a need to honestly investigate one’s own suppressed thoughts related to aggression. For fears regarding the intentions of other people are a direct reflection of what is happening inside us.

Just as in the previously mentioned Letters to His Mother and the painful feelings of Marcel Proust, we should verify our deepest beliefs. We cannot allow the body to fall ill because of a fear of a lack of acceptance from our surroundings. It is precisely a rigid system of prohibitions that blocks us from openly expressing what we feel. Instead of blindly believing that an allergy is triggered exclusively by harmful external influences, it is worth thinking about what happened just before the appearance of the allergic reaction — for example, 24 hours before the attack. It is in the interest of every patient to check who or what in their environment became „unbearable” at that moment. For we are unable to change other people. The only way to freedom is to accept them exactly as they are, without imposing our own expectations on them.

Ailments related to the throat directly concern difficulties with authentically expressing oneself. Because the throat constitutes the energetic and physical center of creativity in the body, in the case of problems with this area, it is necessary that we give ourselves full permission to design our own lives according to personal needs. We must learn to accept with love everything we call into existence — including every decision we make. Only then will we be able to connect with our own individuality and respectfully accept the uniqueness of others.

It is worth being aware that the throat forms a bridge between the heart and the head. Giving oneself permission to live in harmony with one’s true nature opens the flow for creative expression. If we feel suffocated in life, it happens solely by virtue of our own perception. We need to disconnect from other people’s expectations, as well as from the overwhelming desire to control the influence that other people and their needs exert on us. Thanks to this, we will begin to manage our own energy wisely, and it will come much easier to us to „swallow” daily problems in relationships.

In certain situations, the stomach also refuses to obey — it does not want to digest properly or violently returns what has been introduced into it. In this way, this organ clearly communicates to us that it is time to let go and allow things to happen naturally. We must accept the fact that we have no control over another human being and bestow greater trust upon our loved ones. By doing so, we will also gain the certainty that our body perfectly knows what it is doing, and we will allow it to perform its autonomous work. We do not have to mentally instruct the organism on how to digest food — it has possessed this wisdom forever.

The same principle applies to our friends and family. Each of them has their own distinct perspective on life. Anatomically and emotionally, the stomach is located in proximity to the heart. A heart that loves and accepts human differences exerts an immediate, soothing influence on the solar plexus, which facilitates healthy digestive processes. On the other hand, thinking about others in a depreciating way (when we literally „cannot digest” someone) effectively blocks our development, triggering a physical spasm and a metabolic blockade. By becoming more tolerant of human attitudes, we will physically become more tolerant of the food we consume.

The spiritual aspect of life