Have you ever wondered whether your mood and emotions can effect your physical wellness? Or the vice versa? Read through to know.
Our mental health depends on our ability to balance of our positive and negative emotions. Thus, every situation that we face shapes our mental health depending on how we dealt with it. Is a situation that you are facing currently a threat or an opportunity or both? So, how have you perceived it? Do you get overwhelmed by it or do you take charge of the challenge and work on it to cope in the way that is best possible? What is your takeaway? The takeaway is the choice of your thoughts and feelings in a situation of threats/ challenges. Our feelings and emotions in past and present impacts our ability to deal with a threat that may be real at times. The type of feelings and emotions we store becomes our defense mechanism, also known as psychological immune system. Precisely, other than physical immunity we have psychological immunity as well which is also responsible to defend our survival against a disease.
And the psychological immunity consists of set of our feelings and thoughts about our abilities to deal and survive a threat. A negative emotion which is overwhelming and constant can throw off our mental balance. Emotions impacts physical health and reverse is equally true.
In the current context, excessive fear about COVID-19 may cause an immune reaction that triggers inflammation and increase disease risk. Fear of death combined with stress and anxiety can take a toll on the immune system, causing long-term damage to your health. This condition may disrupt the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, alter the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, affect the circadian rhythm, and contribute to eating disorders, according to studies on brain behavior and immunology. As the researchers note, there is an association between chronic fear and mood swings, phobic anxiety, and other mental issues. Psychological and mental issues like chronic fear, mood swings, phobic anxiety, stress and traumatic disorders manifests as physical illnesses like asthma, breathing troubles, ulcers, stomach ache, headache, body muscle and joint pain, cardiac issues, blood pressure to name a few. The longer you live in fear, the higher your risk of developing more serious problems 2017 Neuroscience Education Institute Congress.
How mental health affects physical health
There are various ways in which poor mental health has been shown to be detrimental to physical health.
People with the highest levels of self-rated distress (compared to lowest rates of distress) were 32% more likely to have died from cancer.1,2 Depression has been found to be associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease
Let me take few examples to show how these two are related.
Schizophrenia is associated with:
- double the risk of death from heart disease
- three times the risk of death from respiratory disease.
This is because people with mental health conditions are less likely to receive the physical healthcare they’re entitled to. Mental health service users are statistically less likely to receive the routine checks (like blood pressure, weight and cholesterol) that might detect symptoms of these physical health conditions earlier. They are also not as likely to be offered help to give up smoking, reduce alcohol consumption and make positive adjustments to their diet.
Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a condition which is commonly characterized by red flaky sores on the surface of the skin, but its effects go beyond the visual signs and symptoms.
Psoriasis is an auto-immune condition commonly triggered by stress. It affects 125 million population worldwide. It can impact on emotional as well as physical wellbeing.
- Up to 85% feel annoyance with their psoriasis
- Approximately one third experience anxiety and depression
- 1 in 10 admit to contemplating suicide
- 1 in 3 experience feelings of humiliation about their condition
- 1 in 5 report being rejected (and stigmatized) as a result of their condition
- 1/3 experience problems with loved ones.
The physical and psychological impacts can be cyclically linked: the condition can cause emotional distress which can trigger a psoriasis flare and, as a result, cause further distress.
Some people with psoriasis can feel that their psoriasis as a minor skin complaint and are dismissive of the emotional aspects, leaving many to continue unaided on the isolating and emotional journey associated with psoriasi
Some people with psoriasis can feel that their GP regards psoriasis as a minor skin complaint and are dismissive of the emotional aspects, leaving many to continue unaided on the isolating and emotional journey associated with psoriasis
Some people with psoriasis can feel that their GP regards psoriasis as a minor skin complaint and are dismissive of the emotional aspects, leaving many to continue unaided on the isolating and e
FINAL WORD
We need to take care of ourselves mentally and physically. A disruption in physical wellbeing may challenge mental wellness and vice versa. Our life situations will keep testing our ability to to deal with any threat. Adopting and practicing balanced approach is essential for enjoying blessings of your life.
So, many of us disregard this and are little or completely unaware about the probabilities and effects of a mental health issue .While it is obvious to reach out to physicians for physical health complaints it is apt to reach out to a counsellor psychologist to deal with any stress, bad mood, anger outbursts, anxiety, any self harm or suicidal thoughts and tendencies. So let us be conscious of any psychological and behavioral concern bothering us or our closed ones to reach out before it becomes painful and disruptive.
Talk to our experienced psychologist/ counsellor to know if you need help Contact Us