To plan effective care for patients diagnosed with somatic system disorders, the nurse should understand that patients have difficulty giving up the symptoms because the symptoms:

A) are generally chronic in nature.
B) have a physiological basis.
C) can be voluntarily controlled.
D) provide relief from health anxiety.

At the unconscious level, the patient's primary gain from the symptoms is anxiety relief. Considering that the symptoms actually make the patient more psychologically comfortable and may also provide a secondary gain, patients frequently and fiercely cling to the symptoms. The symptoms tend to be chronic; however, this does not explain why they are difficult to give up. The symptoms are not under voluntary control or physiologically based.