How do your physical wellbeing affect your emotional wellbeing?

@gentleSun78

One's physical wellbeing effects the emotional wellbeing a lot I think.

A very easy example is feeling nauseous. When you're feeling very sick like you're going to vomit any second, you usually feel emotionally terrible as well. You feel helpless, down and sad, maybe even angry that it hit you in the first place.

For me, another example is fatigue. When I suddenly got chronic fatigue, I first felt scared, then sad, then depressed and then really angry. Feeling this physically ill messed with my brain a lot.

And of course this can go the other way around as well. I think anyone with depression can tell you that they feel physically sick in one way or another. Heavy and tired and terrible.

And a person with really bad anxiety will be able to tell you that all that fear can mess with your stomach, your heart and your constantly tense muscles. It's simply exhausting to be on edge all the time.

And those are just a few examples. But I think it's safe to say that one's physical and emotional wellbeing goes hand in hand.

TRIGGER WARNING

I have hypothyroidism and PTSD. I've noticed that the ONLY time I get suicidal is when my thryoid is out of whack. Kind of crazy and scary because I live by myself. I've also noticed that sugar and caffeine make me feel REALLY anxious so I've cut a lot of both of them out of my diet.

For me, my physical issues tend to affect my mental wellbeing. I think for many whatever is worse tends to affect the other moreso. I get frustrated not being able to do what I want. I can't do many of the things that are helpful for my mental health. When doctors were assuming a terminal diagnosis because on my test results I became very anxious.

My mental state affects me physically too, but less so. When I was really anxious as I thought I was dying I wasn't eating and sleeping well. I was already experiencing being nauseated before that, but it became worse.

Nice points everyone. It is true that our physical well being has huge affect on our emotional wellbeing and also our emotional wellbeing has huge effect on our physical wellbeing.

Also i can give an example.

When i had stomach cramps and bloating issues, i also emotionally didn't feel well (i felt irritable) and i also didn't feel well in other aspect of mental wellbeing (ability to concentrate, tiredness). Later i got diagnosis of celiac disease and now i am on gluten free diet. Cramps and bloating went away and also my emotional and mental wellbeing improved significantly.

@gentleSun78 I feel horrible physically and very depressed since deterioration, here's my situation in short because I can't write longer due to extreme brain fog.

I have severe ME. I'm not entirely on my own as I have great support in these groups and a few ME people with whom I chat, but it's close to it and close to impossible to carry on, because in real life I'm the only one who is researching this illness and ways to get better, my closest family and friends are trying to support and be kind, but they have many (health) problems themselves or don't understand English to research, and I started with that mostly recently, when I got severe, so I can do very limited amounts of it plus my state isn't improving at all, I have some better days, and I don't even overdo activities on them anymore, and still I crash hard, I can even say my state is deteriorating; maybe I have something additional to ME, but I can't do many tests where I live, all the doctors (except my new therapist) are uninterested in ME, and I don't have money to go elsewhere for those tests and new doctors. I also wanted to try with keto-paleo diet as the last option - as dr Myhill advised, but I feel unready for it because of such a low variety of allowed foods, especially where I live (and food is very important to me, as only it and music bring me joy on my bad days, which are the majority lately), and also because I would feel even worse while in ketosis, but I'm already barely holding on. And I got very depressed, so much that today I couldn't even listen to music or write to anyone because depressed mood further weakened my disability. So what do you suggest?

@gentleSun78 This is a great topic, thank you for doing this. I find they are very related. And I also find that it can create a spiral. If I am upset, it can affect my physical health and cause more pain and other problems, and that, in turn, can make me more unhappy, which goes on to spiral downwards. I also find that I can make it spiral upwards by interrupting the cycle. For example, I feel upset, so I have some chocolate and have a long hot bath. And I have a steak dinner and make sure to take my vitamins etc. Or, I find I am in pain, so I do my physical therapy and take a short walk with the dog instead of letting it bring me down emotionally.

Sometimes I just have to let everything stop. It means taking a day to rest and eat foods that do not require cooking. And I jump back in on some later day to deal with life.

I have a brain tumor. After a botched surgery almost a year ago I also have nerve damage. This causes seizures and twitches. It makes it hard trying to just live life the way I always thought I would. I can't drive, I can't go anywhere alone, I have no independence. I'm so depressed and i am anxious all the time too. The doctors are saying it's actually making my symptoms worse, so I am here to try and find good in myself to help myself in so many ways. Our physical health really is attached to our mental health.

I feel strongly that there is a overwhelming connection between the physical and emotional elements of my conditions.

For example of i am in pain then inevitably my mental health suffers. Likewise if I am stressed this can in turn trigger my illnesses to flare.

It can be a very fine line between balansing the physical and emotional elements to find a happy balance, which even after 25 years I struggle to control.