Validating Your Physical Experiences with Mental Illness
For many, the journey to getting help can start with a conversation with a counselor, a therapist, or a social worker. For others, it begins with a visit to a doctor. For some, the first thing one might notice about their mental illness is the physical symptoms they have. Headaches, upset stomachs, insomnia, fatigue, and even pain all could potentially be signs of mental illness. Of course, when you aren’t feeling well, it is important to go to a doctor to make sure that you are physically healthy. However, for individuals who experience psychosomatic symptoms, there is no medical explanation as to why they are experiencing the things they are experiencing. These symptoms can cause feelings of frustration, especially if doctors cannot help explain what’s going on, or why. How can it be that you don’t feel well, but are otherwise healthy?
Mental illness can, indeed, have a lot of cross over with your physical health. In fact, depression itself has been connected to experiences of pain, gastrointestinal issues, appetite issues, and fatigue. Anxiety has been linked with restlessness, headaches, nausea, a fast heartbeat, and a number of other symptoms. Even grief and prolonged grief disorder are associated with physical symptoms such as increased blood pressure and/or heart rate, muscle weakness, numbness, and others.
It’s important to note that mental illness can manifest in physical ways. Talking to your doctor is a good way of figuring out if how you’ve been feeling is related to something physical, mental, or both! If you’re interested in reading about someone who has experience with learning about her own health, both physical and mental, I suggest you check out the first link in the ‘resources’ section below, or click here. As Sian Ferguson, author of the post in the first link below, notes, it’s important to note that your pain and other physical symptoms, no matter if their source is physical or mental, are completely valid, and that you’re not imagining them. Your experiences are real and they can also be managed. Deep breathing, mindfulness activities (like the ones we touched on last week), or even doing something you enjoy can all be ways to manage your symptoms, as can going and talking to a therapist. Just remember, you’re not alone!
Ayanna Schubert
Birch Psychology
Resources
