Why the body breaks down once the stress is over
You go on holiday and fall ill. The conflict is resolved and a migraine starts. Why symptoms often appear not during stress, but after it.
A familiar story: six months of a demanding project, sleepless nights, and you hold it together. The project is delivered, the holiday finally starts, and on day two you have a fever, a cold or a severe headache. "Typical," we say. But there is a logic to it.
Two phases of one process
In German New Medicine, every significant conflict goes through two phases.
The active phase begins at the moment of a conflict shock: an event that caught you off guard, was lived through alone and found no way out. During this time the body is mobilised. Thoughts circle around the problem, sleep gets worse, appetite fades, hands are cold. People often feel focused rather than ill.
The healing phase begins when the conflict is resolved. Tension drops and the body starts its "repairs". This is when many symptoms we are used to calling illness appear: inflammation, swelling, fever, fatigue, headache.
So falling ill on holiday is no coincidence. The body has finally been given permission to recover.
Why a symptom keeps coming back
Sometimes a symptom comes in waves, easing and then flaring again. Most often this means the conflict hasn't been fully resolved and is switched back on by triggers: circumstances that recall the original event. A smell, a tone of voice, a place, a particular person.
Until the trigger is found, the flare-ups seem to come "for no reason".
Three questions worth asking yourself
- When exactly did this symptom first appear? Not "around that year", but which month and in what circumstances.
- What was happening in your life in the weeks or months before? Which event was unexpected and hard, with no one to talk to about it?
- What happens before each flare-up? Who is around, where are you, what are you thinking about?
Sometimes the answers come at once. Sometimes it takes an attentive listener to help rebuild the timeline and see a connection that isn't obvious from the inside.
What to do with this
Understanding the phase removes the main fear, that "something is wrong with me". From there, the work goes in two directions: medical monitoring and treatment if needed, and psychological work with the conflict itself and its triggers, so the body stops returning to it.
If you recognise yourself here, we can explore your story together in a psychosomatic session.
