Üsküdar University Founding Rector, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan emphasized the importance of health and made important evaluations about disease phobia.
Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, stating that a phobic fear of disease has emerged, emphasizes that the mass of people with disease phobia is increasing and hospitals are at risk. Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that implicit stress is also encountered in some individuals and said, "Implicit stress occurs a lot in people who suppress their emotions. Since they do not allow the expression of emotion, constant stress suppresses the immune system. Implicit stress awakens the sleeping cancer cells in the body and cancer begins in the person."
Üsküdar University Founding Rector, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan emphasized the importance of health and made important evaluations about disease phobia.
The value of health is realized when it is lost
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that people have recently started to pay more attention to health and said, "Especially the young population was using health very harshly. Humanity was using it harshly. When we reached a certain age, we realized the value of health. In that respect, we had forgotten a skill that is one of the basic teachings of the science of happiness, such as appreciating the little things one has. It's important to be happy with small things because, as you know, the capital system aims to be happy by consuming, so it doesn't care about being happy by producing. So being happy by producing is preferred to being happy by consuming. This pandemic actually reminded people that they live in a mortal world. For this reason, when you lose your health, you realize its value, but it is too late. Diseases are caused by the wrong lifestyle. Issues such as eating, drinking, nutrition, movement, and the philosophy of life are important. There is a group that is increasingly concerned about health."
The disease-phobic mass started to increase
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said that a phobic fear of disease has emerged and continued his words as follows
"This mass has also increased considerably. It is the hospitals that take the risk because of the disease phobia. Those with phobia start going to hospitals more in such cases. They start to go there to have tests done and queue up. This situation poses greater risks. There were also those who overdid it. They tried to live by ignoring everything outside the hospital and health. Some of those with phobia have disease phobia rather than health anxiety. In health anxiety, they worry about their health, have frequent tests, go to the doctor immediately if something is numb, undergo many tests, but when there are no negative results, they feel relieved. One day later, if he thinks he feels another discomfort, he goes again. In fact, this is a disorder called somatization disorder. Although the person is not sick, he/she has excessive preoccupation with illness, but he/she does not have a fear of illness, he/she has a preoccupation with illness. Hypochondriasis has a fear of illness and health anxiety pillar. People with fear of illness do not mention the word illness. They avoid everything related to health. People with misophobia, i.e. fear of germs, have disease phobia. In those fears, the opposite is avoidance."
They live by ignoring the disease
Stating that it is natural for people to feel fear about diseases, Tarhan said, "They may be afraid of whether they will have tuberculosis or other diseases. There are two kinds of reactions in people with fear. In some of them, it turns into health anxiety. They have frequent tests, they visit many doctors. Others develop disease phobia. They try to live by ignoring the disease. Avoidance behavior emerges. Those with disease phobia do not go to the doctor even if the disease progresses. They cannot take their children for tests even at an advanced age. They try to comfort themselves by ignoring the fear of developing the disease. This happens when what we call disease phobia occurs. If they have no other fears and only fear of death, they do not have monophobia. The treatment of those with this type of fear is different. For those with health anxiety, we look at their level of expectation about health. Does he understand health as having no symptoms? Does he understand it as not being able to run anywhere? If he understands it like that, he will immediately panic when the slightest itch is itched, when the slightest thing happens. Man is an interesting being. Some people's lives are dominated by fear. In other words, all the decisions they make are influenced by fear. Fears have become that person's value judgments."
They invest their narcissism in their bodies
Stating that we should accept that we are not the boss of our body, Tarhan said, "A smarter system has been created in our body than us. So when a germ enters our body, that germ cannot progress when we follow hygiene rules. If we fail to maintain hygiene, it progresses, spreads to the lymph nodes, and if we neglect it, wounds begin to form. Physicians only find a missing link in the treatment chain and replace it. They give a few drugs that will immediately destroy the germ and heal it quickly, and then the body does the rest on its own. The Creator has created such a system that we know our limits. So we respect the system in our body. There are those who sit and examine themselves for 59 minutes out of 60, wondering why my health is not perfect. When the worst-case scenarios such as how am I here, how am I there, what will happen, what if I get sick, what if I die are constant, everything goes wrong. They cannot fall asleep because of these thoughts that occupy their minds. We define these people as people who have invested their narcissism in their body."
Health anxiety in people should be examined
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that it is examined whether the person has health concerns, has a high level of expectation or has avoidance behavior and said, "If there is avoidance behavior, he does not leave the house. It is necessary to examine whether there is health anxiety. If there is a lot of mental struggle about health, then there is health anxiety. Also, the fear of illness, known as nosophobia in the literature, is usually accompanied. In such cases, a sub-dimension is panic disorder. Panic disorder also has a biological dimension. If these are present in the person and whichever one is in the foreground, a treatment plan is made for it."
Chronic stress discharges fat and sugar stores into the blood
Stating that there is a region in our brain called hypothalamus related to the regulation of our autonomic nervous system, Tarhan said, "When we get excited, our heart beats, when we get scared, we have a fight and flight response. If there is a fight and flight response, the shoulder and neck muscles contract, blood pressure and vascular resistance increase. If the person has chronic stress, in such cases, fat stores and sugar stores in the body empty into the blood because the person constantly secretes stress hormones. In cardiology clinics, people who have had a second heart attack are immediately started on antidepressants without any questioning so that they do not have a new attack. Because there are post stroke depressions. There are depressions after a stroke. It is done automatically for them after a heart attack. This measure could not be measured before."
There is a health-related alarm mechanism in our brain
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, "We have determined that we actually manage our autonomic system with chemicals in our brain" and continued his words as follows:
"Some of them secrete excessively, some do not secrete at all. While the autonomic nervous system should work like an orchestra, the rhythm in the orchestra is disrupted. In this case, we can measure that disrupted area in the brain. The stress level rises in the brain and serotonin stores are depleted. We say there is a decrease in serotonin in the brain. There is a health-related alarm mechanism in our brain. Because it is disrupted, the brain overreacts to a small thing. They don't do this on purpose. Suggestions such as 'you are not sick, don't worry about it, it will pass, be your own doctor' should not be offered to that person. This is doing them a disservice. The person is first given a treatment that corrects the brain chemistry. This is standard medication. If it is not enough, they move on to the second stage. There is magnetic stimulation therapy. That is done and at the same time psychotherapy is required as standard every time. There is a treatment method that measures brain function. This method has developed in the world. It has been confirmed that it can also measure attention deficit in children. We show these with biological evidence and then we go for treatment based on that."
They relax when they produce logical solutions
Stating that they identify the person's thought errors in psychotherapy, Tarhan said, "We determine their health concerns, we teach them to solve those concerns rationally. If the person produces a logical solution, the person relaxes, if not, the disease becomes chronic. In other words, there are cases that have reached the point where they can no longer leave their homes. They cannot go out of the house alone, they cannot stay alone at home. Such behaviors impair the quality of life a lot, but they don't do it on purpose. This is a condition that can be treated. A healthy person looks like a healthy person, but their brain works differently. The region of their brain that manages the autonomic nervous system is impaired."
Covert stress is seen in people who suppress their emotions
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan pointed out that some people may have implicit stress and concluded his words as follows
"In implicit stress, the person says I am not stressed, why should my blood pressure rise, why should my hands and feet go numb, why should my heart beat. When we tell these people that it is stress, they say they have no stress. Then they think that the doctor does not understand them. In covert stress, the person does not know that they are stressed, stress is experienced in the language of the organ. Stress damages the blood vessels, increases blood pressure, and damages the shoulder, neck and back muscles. Covert stress happens a lot in people who suppress their emotions. Because they suppress their emotions, these people cannot express their emotions. When they are upset or angry about something, they keep it inside, they fight with themselves. In this case, constant stress suppresses the immune system because they do not allow the expression of emotion in the motorilazyos of the brain. It awakens the sleeping cancer cells in the body and cancer starts in the person. Therefore, they should not forget this hidden stress. They should not say that they do not have stress and act indifferent."