Lecture: "Illness and Psychology"

There is a medical term «ЧБР»—a child who often falls ill. That means that over the nine months of school, such a child attends kindergarten or daycare for only about half the time. At school, this child may miss almost the entire second quarter and then has to catch up on the material. A significant part of childhood is spent at home—playing with toys, reading books, communicating with friends, and today, more often than not, using tablets and phones—while being unwell. Additional checkups reveal problems such as giardia, adenoids, heart murmurs, reduced immunity—and require further tests and treatment that take a lot of time and do not always solve the problem. Parents and specialists have long been wondering whether such a situation could have psychological causes. The answer is yes. In this topic, it is important to understand how psychology can affect a child’s frequent illnesses, how to interpret symptoms, and most of all, how to break the vicious cycle of constant sickness.