Does your child exhibit physical pain with no obvious or underlying cause? It could be a psychosomatic symptom, which occurs in 10-25% of children and adolescents. Most often, these physical pains are the result of high stress or anxiety.

What is Somatic Symptom Disorder?

Somatic Symptom Disorder occurs when a child’s mental health results directly in physical symptoms, including abdominal pain, headaches, difficulty breathing/shortness of breath, or fatigue.

The most common mental illnesses related to Somatic Symptom Disorder are stress and anxiety. This could be brought up based on circumstances, such as family issues, schooling, coping, and more. However, it could also be triggered by other underlying psychological problems that may need to be addressed by a mental health care expert or psychologist.

Telltale Signs of Psychosomatic Illness

Often, it is hard for parents and caregivers to determine that a child may be suffering from psychosomatic symptoms. Symptoms of psychosomatic illness, such as headaches and stomachaches, are common symptoms in any child, even one without that disorder. Healthcare and clinical professionals should directly address a child suffering from common signs of psychosomatic illness.

You should be aware and take note of any times your child feels the following symptoms:

• Upset stomach

• Chest pain

• Fatigue

• Trouble breathing or shortness of breath

• Headaches

• Muscle or back pain

These are common symptoms in children with a psychosomatic illness. If they are suffering from one of those symptoms, you first need to determine if there would be any other underlying cause for their pain.

Also, if your child has recently experienced or is still experiencing stress related to life changes, family issues, or any other reason, keep this in mind as it may be the reason for the triggered pain.

What is the Best Way to Ask a Child Their Pain Level?

Teaching a child early on how to communicate how they are feeling can be crucial to understanding psychosomatic symptoms down the road. Always encourage a child to express how they are feeling and listen and respond accordingly.

If a toddler is unsure how to communicate what their symptoms are, there are a few ways you can help understanding how they are feeling:

• Let the child express their pain in their own way first

• Have them point to the pain source

• Use pictures and images where possible

• Try to describe similar pain to them

Pointing to the pain source helps you check if there are any visible injuries that might be causing their pain. 

Pictures and images are a great way to communicate with a child who doesn’t know how to describe their symptoms, especially young toddlers. This can also teach them about pain symptoms for later on.

Describing pain to children can help them understand how to communicate what they are feeling. They might not have an understanding or word yet for what they feel if it is their first experience with that pain. If a child points to their stomach, you could come up with ways to describe soreness, stomachaches from food, bloating, sharp jabs of pain, etc.

How Children Are Diagnosed

Children with Somatic Symptom Disorder or other related illnesses are diagnosed through a psychical examination and similar tests conducted by a doctor or other licensed healthcare professional.

However, healthcare specialists will often refrain from doing extensive laboratory testing unless there may be another serious underlying issue. These types of tests can add additional stress and anxiety to a child.

If a healthcare specialist determines that your child may have a psychosomatic illness, the next step would be to see how psychotherapy or prescribed pain relief medications work. For a child with Somatic Symptom Disorder, they should show signs of improvement through psychotherapy treatments. If not, there may be another underlying issue that needs to be addressed.

Treatments for Somatic Symptom Disorder in Children

Children and toddlers with psychosomatic symptoms can be treated through psychotherapy. Seeking help from a mental health expert can you and your child understand their feelings and how to deal with them. Finding the root of their feelings will help them overcome feelings of stress and anxiety that might be triggering their pain.

Outside of psychotherapy treatments, always encourage your child to express how they are feeling. Teaching a child how to express their feelings and overcome the negative ones can help teach your child resilience and prevent future pain.

In some cases where a child has diagnosed stress or anxiety, a doctor might prescribe your child with medication to help relieve their feelings.