There is no such thing as an illness that is “all in your head”. Just because the current level of medical science can’t understand what’s happening in the brain-body connection doesn’t mean your symptoms don’t exist. Research is beginning to find more and more ways that “mental” illnesses are caused by “physical” stimuli, and vice versa. This insight leads to more and better ways to understand how our illnesses can be treated by a combination of what we think of as “physical” interventions, such as, for example, fish oil supplementation for depression, and what we think of as “mental” interventions, such as mindfulness practices to address heart disease, and metabolic syndrome.
Inflammation, the body’s normal response to attack by germs or stress, can help heal many simple physical problems, like when you cut your finger and the skin around it becomes red and hot. Our basic understanding of the immune system is that when the body identifies a threat: bacteria or viruses, it dispatches inflammation cells to defend against the threat. However, it is becoming clear that the body treats other threats with the same mechanism: emotional distress and trauma, environmental threats, and stress, causing the body to remain in a state of inflammation that isn’t really helping, but can’t just go away. Conversely, positive emotions, such as awe and joy, can actually reduce inflammation.
Once inflammation is triggered in the body, it can have varying long-term effects, some that we recognize as “physical”, such as a fever, and some that we recognize as “mental”, such as depression. The separation of illness into mental and physical can make it more difficult, not less, to treat, and treatments may not get to the root of the problem (whatever caused the inflammation in the first place).
For some, a vicious cycle pushes them further into illness. The brain interprets a need for an immune response, and dispatches it, which actually trains the brain to continue to take the same steps for the same stimulus, even though inflammation is making the problem worse, not better. We get “stuck” in a cycle that our brains are not wired to unstick. But all is not lost! The brain also has a great capacity to rewire itself by creating new neural pathways, in fact, some scientists believe that rewiring is a process almost continually going on. So if we can find some way to interrupt the cycle, allowing more positive expectations to form, these, too, can become habitual.
Medication can sometimes help, although the mechanisms are not well understood, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can also have positive effects. Even behavioral techniques, like learning to hear your own heart beat can help with “mental” illnesses such as anxiety. The more we learn about mind-body interaction, the more useful treatments come to light.
One important takeaway from all of this is that if you are not getting a helpful diagnosis of your problem, or if you feel like the treatment prescribed is not “right” somehow, you can persist in seeking answers, and take a wider perspective on your own mental and physical health. Some treatment that didn’t work before may work now, when circumstances have changed. Or the treatment may work better in combination with something else, not alone. Don’t give up!