South Korean singer and actress Park Soo-young, who goes by the stage name Joy, recently appeared as a guest on Mansour Passion Special episode of KBS's Happy Together.
Park Soo-young during the talk show, which was premiered on January 9, revealed that she was diagnosed with Somatic symptom disorder.
SSD, formerly known as "somatization disorder" or "somatoform disorder" is a form of mental illness that causes one or more bodily symptoms, including pain. Those suffering from SSD experience excessive and disproportionate levels of distress.
What is hwabyeong?
SSD is considered a Culture-Bound Syndrome in Korea, commonly referred to as hwabyeong, which literally means "anger disease" or "fire disease."
Culturally this illness is perceived as a real illness and women who claim to suffer from hwabyeong are victims of chronic social aggression. Others say they are the victim of social unfairness including suppression, deprivation, discrimination, exploitation, poverty, betrayal, or swindling that caused their manifestation of the illness.
The 23-year-old actress, who has had starring roles in television dramas, The Liar and His Lover (2017) and Tempted (2018), said that she has made serious lifestyle changes to fight the problem. Besides doing aerial yoga every day, Joy said that she always makes it a point to eat only healthy food.
As a stress buster, the Red Velvet member said that she often would spend time looking at the pictures of her pet dog Haetnim, besides taking deep breaths.
Though Joy did not go into the details of her illness, the fact is that SSD is quite a pain. But what is endearing is the fact that Joy seems to be handling her issues really well and still is the same ever-smiling Park Soo-young.
She appeared on the talk show along with veteran actress Bae Jongok, rapper Sean, Rowoon of SF9 and actress Kim Gyuri.
Joy also gave updates on Wendy's health. She said that Wendy is in a lot of pain and will need a lot of time to recuperate from her injuries that she sustained during the rehearsal for the 2019 SBS Gayo Daejeon.
