January 13, 2010 | In:Life
How Emotions Make Us Sick
Sarita and Surabhi went to the same school, shared the same group of friends, and had identical dreams about career and family. Today, Sarita is married and has an academically brilliant daughter. She is financially secure, managing her own boutique, and enjoys good health. Yet, she is depressed and undergoing therapy.
On the other hand, Surabhi is diabetic. She has had several miscarriages, and is not as financially sound as she would like to be. Nevertheless, she is optimistic about life, and often gives pep talks to Sarita. Inference: unhappiness is not necessarily a result of external circumstances.
Rohit and Prakash are colleagues in a cramped office. They report to the same hot-headed boss, and draw the same salary. They also have similar financial obligations in the family. Rohit has an ulcer and frequent migraines, while Prakash is healthy.
There are a million factors that contribute to our vulnerability to illness, but medical and psychological experts are convinced that the deciding factor is firmly in our own control.
This means that happiness, or misery, health or illness, are choices that we make. In other words, misfortunes are not misfortunes at all, but our own views or attitudes towards situations. Yes, this is not the easiest of concepts to accept, but alas, it is the truth and nothing but the truth. It also means that we have the power to reverse such self-defeating views or self-destructive attitudes that cause intense physical and emotional illness.
Self-fulfilling prophecies
Our views and attitudes develop in our growing years, due to learning from the environment and/or early childhood experiences. They are, thereafter, maintained as inflexible and rigid thinking patterns by constant self-[re]indoctrination of such views.
If you have experienced frustrations in the past because your desires were unfulfilled, you might develop a typical thinking pattern: “I’ll never get what I want, I know it won’t work out for me; it never does, so why try?” This is nothing short of over-generalisation: it becomes deeply ingrained, a “flawed belief.” It also leads to the feeling: that happiness is unattainable, as it is predicts the future even when there’s no evidence to back the idea.
This “flawed belief,” in turn, causes pessimism, depression, and a sense of feeling like a victim of some irreversible fate. It also leads to behavioural consequences, inactivity and lethargy. This results in not pursuing your goals actively, or being left with unfulfilled desires. This vicious cycle only expands with reinforcement of the belief that, “I’ll never get what I want, so why try?” Result: you’ll remain stuck with a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The question now arises: is there anything we can do about our own self-destructive tendencies? The answer is: yes!
You need not be a rocket scientist to decipher its fulsome connotation. That thinking patterns are nothing but bad habits, and you can work on changing a habit. Agreed, it is difficult, and it takes time, but it is possible. You can do it. You can make a conscious choice, and change for the good!
Stress to distress
Flawed attitudinal and behaviour patterns increase our susceptibility to a host of serious diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, allergies, cancer, and immune-related diseases, including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome [AIDS].
If there are feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, or a sense that you’ve been victimised by factors beyond your control, and you have no power to change it, your immune system starts “co-operating” with such thoughts. The fact is – you’re not trying to change your life. You have entered a phase – a phase of “giving up.” You simply surrender – helplessly. The outcome: your immune mechanism gets depressed, and you become susceptible to a whole host of illnesses and syndromes.
Besides your self-destructive thought pattern of helplessness of being the victim, and having no control, there is also another equally self-defeating thought pattern. It presents the overcharged, pushy perfectionist, obsessed with exerting perfect control over himself and others. The key words are “perfect control.”
People create traps for themselves with “musts” that cannot be satisfied. The cognitive process that facilitates the creation of stress almost always involves irrational beliefs. They include rigid, inflexible and usually unexamined personal philosophies and attitudes that we all possess to varying degrees. They can take the form of unconditional demands, such as, “I have to be successful,” “I must have absolute control over everything at all times, or else it would be awful, and it would mean that I am inadequate.” “I should be perfect in all my roles and, if I cannot, I’m worthless.”
People with generalised anxiety require very little in the form of activating events to perpetuate their anxiety. In fact, their own compelling and irrational belief system about events is usually adequate to trigger a reaction in them – to precipitate lurking anxiety, if not “danger.”
Experts contend that psycho-physiological disorders that develop or worsen as a direct result of such self-inflicted pressures and stress include peptic ulcer, hypertension, migraine and tension headaches, lower back pain, temporo-mandibular joint syndrome, sciatica, lupus, multiple sclerosis, arteriosclerosis [hardening of the arteries] and others.
It is also now well-documented that irrational beliefs are the foundation of prolonged arousal. As a matter of fact, emotional anguish has been shown to be the prime cause of most ills associated with stress. It is also evidenced that extended arousal states and emotional angst may lead to mental breakdown, or even death, due to the long-drawn-out, deleterious effects of the stress hormones in the body.
It’s all in your hands
Remember, how or what we choose to view in a given, or not given, situation is in our hands. Life has a number of hassles, but whether we see them as hassles, or horrors, or “this-too-shall-pass,” is in our hands. Think about it!
In the words of philosopher Herodotus, “We are not disturbed by things, but by our opinion of things.”
Counselling: Need of the hour
Statistics shows that the rate of psychological disturbances leading to suicide, homicide, marital breakdown, alcoholism, drug abuse etc., are increasing at an alarming rate all over the world. It would seem that as material comforts of life are increasing due to scientific explosion, mental health is sliding down the alley. Mental health is achieved when man is completely psychologically mature or self-actualised; psychological disturbances are nothing but a failure of such development.
According to National Mental Health Programme, about 20-30 million Indians are in need of some form of mental health care. Every year, 2,50,000 new cases are reported.
These figures do not include the thousands that may be suffering in silence without access to help. The fact is – with timely intervention and proper care, at least 60 per cent of these disturbed people can recover completely; and, at least 70 per cent can avoid chronic illness and disability. A large number of people can also be helped merely by listening empathically and actively, thus, establishing caring human interaction that can allow the disturbed individual to explore, understand and change something in himself/herself to solve problems. This is called personal counselling.
Personal counselling has never been more needed than it is today. Reason: there is an urgent need to rescue toxic and failing relationships; the relationship of man/woman with oneself, relationships within families, between neighbours, between communities, and between countries, before we self-destruct ourselves.
10 Tips to Beat Your Blues
According to recent labour studies, depression accounts for close to US$12 billion in lost workdays each year. More than US$11 billion in other costs accrue from decreased productivity. In that light, the following encompass 10 great tips on dealing with depression.
1. Exercise. Just taking a short walk on a break or lunch hour is helpful. Exercise creates endorphins, which stimulate happiness. It’s also good for your general health
2. Express your emotions. Holding negative emotions within can cause you to behave in ways that can be destructive to yourself and your family/ co-workers. Allow yourself a few minutes to feel the pain, and then determine the most appropriate way to deal with it. Talking with a trusted co-worker may help
3. Write. Daily journalling is a positive and creative way to release painful feelings. Many great books, songs and poems have come from the depths of depression. Begin by just writing about how you feel at the moment and see where it goes from there.
4. Light. Using a full spectrum lamp for 15 minutes a day can heal SAD [Seasonal Effectiveness Disorder], a type of depression that occurs when we don’t get enough sunlight. The cold and short days of winter can be especially depressing for those with SAD. Even in summer, mental upsets can darken your mood.
5. Air. Keep windows open, the fresh air is uplifting and makes the brain and heart function better. Fresh air is also better for the immune system than air-conditioning.
6. Diet. A balanced diet will help control your brain chemistry and make it easier for you to choose behaviours that will help you pull yourself out of the doldrums
7. Vitamins. A recent article in Psychology Today reports that “fish oil [omega-3 fatty acids] may be as effective as drugs in alleviating depression.” Physicians have long recognised that people who take their vitamins usually feel better
8. Therapy. Talking about your pain to someone who can help you reframe and heal is a tried and trusted method for curing depression. Make sure that the therapist you choose has been trained in depression treatments and, if you take medication, work with your physician
9. Work. Being successful in one area of your life often leads to feeling successful in other areas. Don’t sit around and mope; do the best job possible. The pay-off will be much larger than a cheque
10. Trust. For most people depression is a temporary situation. Although when you are deep within it, it’s hard to see your way out, you ought to believe that it will end. It can be helpful to note that there may be a life lesson to be learned in the process and that coming through a difficult emotional time can make you a much better person.Start with one or two of these tips and see how it goes. People with depression need to be reminded that they do have some control here, and not taking it is a choice to remain in the darkness. Be proactive, because, healing this difficult disorder may not be easy, but it can be as simple as turning on the light switch.
- BARTON Goldsmith
Source: www.completewellbeing.com
