I have also been diagnosed with "it's-all-in-your-head Syndrome".

I don't know if they ever officially used the term somatization disorder with me, but early on I did have my primary care and several specialists tell me that my symptoms were all in my head (other terms used were "bored housewife" and "attention seeking").

I have had an anxiety disorder since childhood, so they saw that and immediately jumped to the conclusion that all of my physical symptoms were a result of the anxiety. Also, I was on Social Security Disability because of the anxiety, so they jumped on that too and used that against me.

What I did to battle this wasn't easy, but it was worth it. First, I fired my primary care doctor. Then I got copies of ALL of my medical records from the primary and the specialists. Then I went to see my psychaitrist. This was a psychairtist that I had for several years and I trusted him completely.

Anyway, I talked to the psychairtist, gave him copies of all of my records, and asked for his honest opinion. To make a lontg story short, my well-respected psychaitrist refuted everything that other doctors had said and agreed with me that I did NOT have any type of "all-in-my-head syndrome". The psychaitrist then helped me to find a new primary care doctor, wrote a great letter to that doctor to explain the situation, and from then on I had a great primary care doctor.

I have still had a few issues with specialists over the years, but thankfully my wonderful primary care doctor does not believe them when they try to jump on the "all-in-my-head syndrome" bandwagon... if a specialist tries to make that diagnosis, my primary care doctor sends them a nice letter stating that they are wrong and then sends me to a different specialist.

To make a very long story a lot shorter - it is because of my psychaitrist that I have a great primary care doctor - and I am getting proper medical care because I have such a great primary care doctor.

I hope that helps, and I wish you all the best of luck.

take care,
Liz