Mental health not only affects you mentally, but it can take a toll on you physically as well. From my personal experiences in the past, I haven’t been able to better myself physically until my mental health was in a good place. Not only that but some struggle with different forms of mental health that can affect how they view themselves physically and stop them from gaining/losing weight or whatever their goals may be. A way that mental health affects physical health is by causing chronic diseases. A few illnesses that depression has been linked to are diabetes, cancer, asthma, and arthritis. It has been found that the death rate from cancer has been higher for those with depression or other mental health conditions. Another way that mental health affects physical health would be sleeping problems. Those struggling with mental health conditions are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders like insomnia or sleep apnea. Although conditions like anxiety and depression can lead to sleeping problems, sleeping problems can make existing mental health conditions even worse. The last way I am going to be talking about where mental health can affect physical health would be smoking. Those with mental health conditions are more likely to smoke compared to those without. Nicotine in cigarettes gives dopamine to the brain, and as we know dopamine influences positive feelings, which is why lots of smokers find smoking a way to help with depression. There are so many ways that mental health can negatively affect physical health, which is why it is always important to check in on yourself mentally.
I did not realize how correlated physical and mental health were. This is valuable information and made me more aware of how they can affect each other in negative ways.
Thanks for this great post. I do some activities like gardening in the backyard to heal my mental