How Your Mental Health Directly Relates To Your Physical Health

Mental and physical health is often considered to be two separate things that, if any issues arise, have to be treated separately.  However, the reality is that mental and physical health are actually two sides of the same coin and positive or negative things that affect one will also directly affect the other. How does your mental health directly affect your physical health? Are there any ways to counteract these negative affects?

Breaking your heart

Heart disease is one of the most common causes of death in the United States, accounting for 1 out of 4 adult death’s in the United States. Now, we all know a lot of what causes heart disease – smoking, poor diet, and lack of exercise. Recent studies, though, have found that people who suffer from a variety of mental illnesses have a higher chance of developing heart disease.

In 2014, Canadian Community Health discovered that patients who suffer from major depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia or have suffered from a mental illness at any point in their lives are twice as likely to develop some type of coronary heart disease.

Many of these increases are caused by two things: the use of prescription psychiatric medications, and poor health habits like (as mentioned above) smoking, poor diet, drinking alcohol, and lack of exercise.

The simplest way to reduce the risk of developing a mental-illness related heart disease is to work with your doctor to create a diet and exercise plan to keep you active.  A heart healthy diet can reduce the risk of heart disease and can be the first step to a healthier lifestyle too.

Chronic illness = mental illness?

Chronic physical illness is one of the hardest things in life to deal with, so it makes sense that patients dealing with chronic physical illnesses can also present the symptoms of mental illness as well. One study of patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) found that as many as 22% of the study subjects were found to present symptoms of mild depression. 17% of those patients were also taking antidepressants during the study.

This study came to the conclusion that depression and chronic illness are two pieces of the same puzzle. Patients with chronic illness can develop depression and along the same track, patients with depression may find that it causes or exacerbates chronic illness.

If you’re worried about symptoms of depression, mention it to your doctor. He or she will likely have you fill out something like Beck’s Depression Inventory, which is a commonly used tool to help medical professional determine if a patient is suffering from depressive tendencies. From there, your doctor can help you determine the best course of action, but nothing can be done until you take the first step and bring your concerns to light.

Mental Health vs. Exercise

For someone suffering from mental illnesses, the idea of getting up to go to the gym or even getting out of bed to pop in an exercise DVD may seem like the hardest thing in the world.  It’s also one of the best things you can do for your physical and your mental health.

Multiple studies done over the years have proven again and again that regular exercise is beneficial to people suffering from mental illnesses. Some studies have even shown that exercise can actually treat some forms of depression as well as antidepressant medication.

Even if you don’t have any problems with your mental health, exercise can be beneficial to you anyway – it can help relieve stress, reduce tension, increase overall energy levels, and of course, release endorphins, those chemicals that make you feel great.

Mental and physical exercise = equally important!

Your body isn’t the only thing that needs exercise, though, especially when you’re dealing with depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses. CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, is one way to exercise your mind and treat mental illness all in one move.

CBT is a type of therapy that helps you learn how to modify your thoughts and unlike traditional psychotherapy, CBT can start showing results and changes a little as a few months, anywhere from 6-20 sessions. Working with your therapist, you will learn how to identify negative and damaging thoughts, and techniques to help you modify those thoughts into positive and beneficial ones.

It’s very good mental exercise that can be extremely beneficial, especially when paired with a physical exercise plan.

Addiction and mental illness

Addiction to drugs, alcohol or other substances is dangerous by itself but when paired with mental illness, it becomes a double diagnosis. As many as 8.9 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with both mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, but barely more than half of the, 55.8% according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, receive any sort of treatment.

Heartbreakingly, only 7.4% of these individuals receive treatment for both the mental health and substance abuse diagnoses.

Even when you don’t include mental health, drug addiction has its own dangers, causing a variety of health problems from weakening the body’s immune system up to and including death.

Because of the delicate nature of the diagnosis, it is also one of the most difficult types of mental illness to treat, but it is not impossible. The first step is to ask for help and to find a doctor who is willing to work with you to treat both the mental illness and the drug addiction. You can’t treat one without treating the other or the risk of relapse is very high.

Mental health and physical health are two sides of the same coin.  A problem with one will often manifest as a problem with the other. While treating one without treating the other is possible, the best way to ensure that the treatment works is to include both the mental and physical treatment aspects because one will always directly affect the other.

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Main image credit: independent.co.uk