Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD)

Somatic symptom disorder (SSD), formerly known as somatization or somatoform disorder, is a mental health condition or form of trauma that causes significant distress, pain, neurologic problems, sexual problems, or gastrointestinal complaints — which may/may not be traceable to a medical condition, mental illness, or substance abuse. SSD occurs in 5%-7% of the adult population, usually beginning by age 30 and 10X more in women. Many with SSD also have an anxiety disorder. SSD diagnosis creates stress and frustration when realizing there’s no better explanation or the level of distress is unmanageable. Stress leads to more health worries, creating a vicious cycle that can persist for years. Researchers believe the main risk factors are:

• Biological susceptibility in women due to girls being more exposed than boys to childhood trauma.
• Childhood exposure to emotional stress or poor emotional development, resulting from physical and sexual abuse, parental neglect, or lack of emotional closeness.
• Psychological factors include learned responses to chaos, trauma, high anxiety/depression.
• Heightened attention to bodily sensations/processes, chronic childhood illness, low pain threshold