Expert
Wu Qiang
Senior journalist, graduate student in applied psychology at Liaoning Normal University, specializing in imagery dialogue psychotherapy. He runs the columns “Little Qiang Dream Interpretation” and “Little Qiang Reading Images” in the media and is skilled in integrative treatment for psychosomatic diseases and family therapy, focusing on improving parent-child relationships.
As I have been engaged in psychological counseling for a longer time, I have found that many chronic, difficult-to-cure diseases or diseases that are prone to relapse, such as eczema, diarrhea, migraines, gastric ulcers, skin diseases, menstrual pain in women, and globus sensation, may be “psychosomatic diseases.” For these diseases, one can seek causes from both physical and mental aspects.
Unexplained sensation of a foreign body in the throat
A 25-year-old girl named Xiaoxiao, who is not good at communication but is very friendly, approached me for psychological counseling after attending one of my lectures on psychosomatic diseases. After entering the counseling room, Xiaoxiao said to me: “After listening to your lecture on psychosomatic diseases, I thought deeply and realized that the sensation of a foreign body in my throat might indeed be a psychosomatic issue.”
Xiaoxiao first felt the sensation of a foreign body in her throat while in college. “I initially thought it was phlegm, but I couldn’t cough it out. I tried hard to swallow, but it wouldn’t go down. My classmates said my voice had become hoarse, and that’s when I started seeking medical attention. After doing a laryngoscopy at the ENT department, the doctor said there was nothing wrong and that it might be pharyngitis, advising me to drink more water and talk less. I followed the doctor’s advice, but it didn’t work.” When Xiaoxiao described her symptoms to me, I could feel her throat was uncomfortable, as if something were stuck in it. I tentatively diagnosed her symptoms as “globus sensation.”
The blockage of expression channels
I asked her, “Do you feel there are things in life that you want to express but cannot?” She thought for a moment, nodded, then shook her head, and finally said, “I consider myself quite optimistic and don’t feel there is anything unhappy.”
I asked her to close her eyes and imagine her throat as a pipe, then to visualize what was inside. This is a psychological therapy technique—imagery dialogue psychotherapy. It acts like a “spiritual CT” that searches for underlying causes hidden in the subconscious.
She closed her eyes and began to visualize. “I feel like there is a wooden plug in my throat, almost completely blocking the pipe. I can’t breathe well.”
I guided her to continue visualizing: “Feel that uncomfortable sensation and imagine who put the plug in your throat.” After a few seconds, she said: “I saw my stepmother. I see her constantly criticizing me and not allowing me to speak.”
Xiaoxiao’s parents divorced during her childhood, and after her father remarried, she lived with him and her stepmother. Her stepmother was very strict with her, and whenever Xiaoxiao had emotions she wanted to express, her stepmother always interrupted her with scolding. After going to college, she started living independently and seldom saw her stepmother. It was also from college that she often felt the sensation of a foreign body in her throat.
After she opened up to me about her repressed emotional experiences, she suddenly felt a sense of relief in her breathing. She exclaimed, “It’s amazing, it feels like my throat is no longer blocked.”
What is “globus sensation”?
Globus sensation frequently occurs in women, referring to the feeling of a foreign body in the throat, mainly presenting symptoms such as a sensation of obstruction, burning sensation, feeling of a foreign object, or hoarseness, and is believed to be caused by negative emotions leading to liver qi stagnation in the throat. The earliest record of globus sensation in the “Inner Canon” describes the feeling of a foreign body in the throat, like a plum pit obstruction, which is neither coughed out nor swallowed. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, commonly used herbal treatments include Chaihu Shugan Wan, Banxia Houpu Decoction, and Siqi Pills. Psychology believes that globus sensation is mainly related to poor expression and long-term emotional repression. Through psychological adjustment, facilitating a pleasant mood can achieve a better therapeutic effect.
Source: “Women” June 2024, Issue No. 732
Edit: Shan Ke
Editor: Women’s Magazine New Media Operations Room
