Is it a mental illness? Is it a physical illness? How will you tell the difference?
The concepts underlying our whole approach to medical care and treatment are coming under increasing critical scrutiny. Dr. Camilla Nord of the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge writes in her new book The Balanced Brain that: “there is no separate category of illness, one that is confined to the mind and does not involve biological changes.” Conversely, there is no physical illness that does not have corresponding effects on the brain and consciousness of the patient.
At first glance, she says, this seems obvious. Any kind of suffering affects both mind and body simultaneously, and the effects continually interact. But it can be difficult to go one step further and accept that everything is always both physical and psychological. Our medical systems are designed separately: mental health care is different from physical health care. They have different specialists, they are often handled in different facilities, and people who have one condition or another are viewed differently by others. The distinction is seen most clearly, and for some, most destructively, in insurance coverage, which is often lower for mental illness than physical.
There are, of course, many examples of mind/body interaction that make a mockery of the idea of separating the two, everything from evidence that physical exercise makes bipolar more manageable, to higher rates of morbidity and mortality from physical diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer and respiratory problems among bipolar and schizophrenia sufferers. A cluster of not-well-understood disorders called “functional symptoms” is another example of how the idea that there are some things called “mental” illness and other things called “physical” illness is not serving us well. Gradually, medical practice seems to be moving in a more holistic direction.
MoodSurfing has previously reported on studies that show, for example, the usefulness of mindfulness training on modifying the brain’s neural pathways, leading to a reduction in inflammation in the body. Other studies show that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which many people equate with “talking therapy” for mental illness, has also been shown to have positive effects on a wider range of illnesses than we might think. Irritable bowel syndrome, which causes physical symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, and stomach cramps has been shown to respond to CBT in some contexts.