Symptoms

Symptoms of somatic symptom disorder may be:

• Specific sensations, such as pain or shortness of breath, or more general symptoms, such as fatigue or weakness
• Unrelated to any medical cause that can be identified, or related to a medical condition such as cancer or heart disease, but more significant than what's usually expected
• A single symptom, multiple symptoms or varying symptoms
• Mild, moderate or severe

Pain is the most common symptom, but whatever your symptoms, you have excessive thoughts, feelings or behaviors related to those symptoms, which cause significant problems, make it difficult to function and sometimes can be disabling.

These thoughts, feelings and behaviors can include:

• Constant worry about potential illness
• Viewing normal physical sensations as a sign of severe physical illness
• Fearing that symptoms are serious, even when there is no evidence
• Thinking that physical sensations are threatening or harmful
• Feeling that medical evaluation and treatment have not been adequate
• Fearing that physical activity may cause damage to your body
• Repeatedly checking your body for abnormalities
• Frequent health care visits that don't relieve your concerns or that make them worse
• Being unresponsive to medical treatment or unusually sensitive to medication side effects
• Having a more severe impairment than is usually expected from a medical condition

For somatic symptom disorder, more important than the specific physical symptoms you experience is the way you interpret and react to the symptoms and how they impact your daily life.

When to see a doctor

Because physical symptoms can be related to medical problems, it's important to be evaluated by your primary care provider if you aren't sure what's causing your symptoms. If your primary care provider believes that you may have somatic symptom disorder, he or she can refer you to a mental health professional.

Caring for a loved one

When physical symptoms considered to be somatic symptom disorder occur, it can be difficult to accept that a life-threatening illness has been eliminated as the cause. Symptoms cause very real distress for the person and reassurance isn't always helpful. Encourage your loved one to consider the possibility of a mental health referral to learn ways to cope with the reaction to symptoms and any disability it causes.

Physical disability may cause the person to be dependent and need extra physical care and emotional support that can exhaust caregivers and cause stress on families and relationships. If you feel overwhelmed by your role as caregiver, you may want to talk to a mental health professional to address your own needs.