Many individuals apparently believe that one‘s mental and physical well-being are unrelated. They are, however, closely connected, despite popular belief. Poor mental health can be harmful to your physical well-being and vice versa. Therefore, having great mental well-being can have a positive influence on your physical health.
So, how does it affect physical health? Let’s discuss how your mental health can positively or negatively affect your physical well-being and vice versa.
Negative Lifestyle Habits
When you have a mental health condition, you adopt unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and drinking.
With all that being said, people who suffer from big issues such as depression have relatively low levels of dopamine, which is a happy hormone that affects the positive emotions in your brain. As a result, people who struggle with these issues would typically turn to use nicotine, which is found in cigarettes, to stimulate the production of dopamine, which helps relieve depression symptoms.
However, you should be aware that nicotine’s effects are brief. This can lead to addiction, substance abuse, and other chronic illnesses such as lung cancer.
Chronic Illnesses can Manifest
Various mental health disorders have been linked to a variety of chronic ailments, including cancer, asthma, and even arthritis.
These types of concerns can make dealing with a chronic condition more difficult. In addition, people with depression and other mental illnesses have an increased risk of having cardiac issues like a heart attack. Your risk of getting diabetes is also increased by depression and eating disorders such as binge eating.
Sleeping Problems
If you struggle with mental health problems, you’re particularly likely to experience sleep problems like insomnia. You’re also especially vulnerable to sleep apnea, which can cause respiratory issues.
Sleep disorders can be caused by depression, anxiety, or other mental health diseases. Moreover, having sleeping issues can also worsen your mental health. It’s a never-ending spiral that can only be broken by addressing your mental disorder.
Heart Health
Another factor that your mental health can affect is your heart’s ability to do it’s job. There are a number of variables that can increase your risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure, and an increased heart rate. All of these risk factors can also have an impact on it.
Having high levels of stress, chronic depression, anxiety, or PTSD may also raise your chance of developing heart disease over time, which can also worsen your mental health. As mentioned, it’s a never-ending cycle.
Lifespan
Since your mental state has such a broad influence on the body, it has been revealed that severe and chronic problems of this type can drastically reduce your life span. This is because disorders of this type can have a negative impact on everything from immunological health to the resilience of chronic health issues.
Final Thoughts
Although it’s sometimes hard to deal with your mental health and prioritize it over your other tasks, it’s incredibly important that you set some time to take care of yourself. By doing so, you reduce the negative impacts on your physical health.
