How does mental health affect physical health? Can someone suffering from anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental health disorders tie their physical maladies to these illnesses?
Montare Outpatient helps people understand the fundamental connection between their mental and physical health. Each person we treat has a vast menu of therapies to attend that will help improve their symptoms. For many, this means not only easing symptoms like feeling anxious, moodiness, and depression, but also digestive difficulties, headaches, body aches, and more. When the mental health symptoms get addressed in our quality treatment program, people often find that some of their physical symptoms also begin to improve.
Understanding the Connection Between Mental Health and Physical Health
While how our minds work may seem distinctly different from how our bodies operate, they actually have a lot of common ground. How does mental health affect physical health? Humans are holistic beings, in that the physical is connected to the mental status each person has. In fact, holistic therapy is based on the idea that to treat one part of the person in distress, all parts must be taken into consideration.
About one in three people who have a long-term physical health condition also have a mental health disorder. Most often they have depression or anxiety. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that “mental health is closely linked to physical health”. Someone with good mental health often enjoys good physical health. When one changes, the other may be influenced to change, too. As well, someone with a mental health disorder often develops physical symptoms.
Further complicating things, developing medical symptoms like nausea or body aches can make a person feel more depressed. Someone with a mental health disorder like anxiety who then develops a long-term illness often finds their feelings of anxiety increase.
Physical Health Conditions That May Affect Mental Health
In exploring the answer to, “How does mental health affect physical health?”, let’s look at the many types of physical health conditions that can affect a person’s mental health. They range from short-term to long-term illnesses as well as accidents. The beginning of poor mental health symptoms can start very shortly after the person’s physical health goes downhill or after some time has passed. The symptoms of mental illness often worsen the longer a person remains physically unhealthy or once it becomes clear they have a chronic illness.
The types of physical health diagnoses that can affect a person’s mental health include:
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Arthritis
- Headaches
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular disease
- Organ failure
- Mobility difficulties
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Body aches
- Arthritis
- Insomnia
- Sleep apnea
- Skin diseases
- Chronic pain
- Accidents
Not everyone who experiences one of the above or other physical ailments will find their mental health worsens. However, it’s important to keep an eye on the situation in case there is a change. Medical staff providing support should also be made aware of someone developing poor mental health while under the care by clinicians for a medical problem.
How to Take Care of Your Mental Health and Physical Health
Knowing that mental health can negatively impact physical health is important. The good news is that people have the autonomy to work on improving this situation with self-help techniques. It is recommended to try the following suggestions to help improve a person’s mental health.
- Develop a regular sleeping pattern: As tempting as it is to sleep in or nap throughout the day, getting up and going to bed at the same time helps the mind feel more at rest, too.
- Pick an exercise routine: People who regularly engage in physical activities like exercising enjoy an increase in good mental health.
- Learn relaxation techniques: Try meditation, mindfulness, and yoga.
- Don’t suffer in silence: Talk to others about how you’re feeling.
- Don’t isolate: Force yourself to get out and be social. A lunch with friends, a trip to a nearby store, or watching a movie with family can improve a person’s mood.
While doing things on a person’s own can help, it’s important to recognize the importance of formal treatment. Outpatient programs that treat mental health disorders help people minimize or delete their symptoms of poor mental health. In turn, this can help improve their physical help. Outpatient programs include:
- Partial Hospitalization Program
- Intensive Outpatient Program
- Outpatient Program
Many people who have a mental illness also have an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Another advantage of seeking treatment for a mental health disorder is that many programs simultaneously offer help in overcoming a substance use disorder.
Contact Our Montare Outpatient Treatment Center in Los Angeles, CA
Have you wondered, “How does mental health affect physical health?” because of the medical symptoms you experience? If so, you are not alone. How you feel when it comes to your mental health can dramatically impact your physical health. Montare Outpatient helps the people we treat draw correlations between their mental health disorders and the physical maladies they experience. We offer proven therapeutic techniques that teach people how to address their mental illnesses and work to heal from them. We also provide access to prescription medications that help ease the symptoms of several mental health disorders.
Contact us today and find out how we can help you improve both your mental and physical health with our structured program that takes place in a comfortable environment. We help you turn your life around and enjoy a newfound ability to live without being held hostage by symptoms of poor physical and mental health.
Published: 4/1/2025
