How Thoughts Turn Into Illness

The human mind is so powerful that thoughts can affect your physical state of health. In recent years, a lot of literature has emerged on the mind-body relationship , showing that the two are much more closely linked than we previously imagined.

Everyone has been ill at some point in their life and got the feeling that their physical complaints were related to a mental inability or a mental disability. Perhaps you were more tired or clumsy than usual and unable to process even small stimuli or your own thoughts.

At the same time, research also seems to show that a good mental sense of well-being is related to better physical fitness – both your actual physical health and how you feel physically.

In the same way, however, when your mind is not at rest, you become more vulnerable to illness. In other words, when you suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, unwanted physical symptoms can occur.

Keep reading to learn more about how thoughts turn into illness.

How does this transformation process where thoughts make you sick work?

Try to think back to a time when you experienced fear. Your heart starts beating faster and harder than usual, your hands may start to tremble and you notice that you start to sweat more.

These symptoms all occur because your mind triggers a physical response in your body, disrupting the balance, similar to when you’re just starting a workout.

However, there is a big difference between the reaction when you experience fear and the physical reaction when you exercise: in the case of fear you are not physically moving.

So your body has no way to release all that extra energy it is producing and this puts a lot of pressure on your nervous system.

The veins and arteries that supply your muscles with blood are no longer able to dilate properly, while your heart is pumping more blood through your system.

What happens then?

Think of a busy highway during rush hour. Everything runs smoothly, but then an accident occurs and all that traffic has to be diverted to a much smaller road. The whole system will undoubtedly collapse.

Your heart is pumping more and more “cars” into your bloodstream, while the rest of your body can’t handle all that traffic at all. If this situation is only short-lived or if the situation is not too intense, then this traffic jam is not such a big problem.

However, if the situation lasts for a long time or is very abrupt, extensive damage can occur.

A clearer link between mind and body is the link that exists between your cognitive function and the strength of your immune system.

When your mind isn’t functioning properly, it’s normal for your body to turn against itself, making it vulnerable to outside attacks.

For example, imagine that your body is a computer and your immune system is your antivirus software. If the computer does not work properly, it disables the antivirus and exposes the computer to any Trojan horse that can cause damage.

In addition, your immune system usually does not weaken when you experience stress, but precisely when the stress disappears.

What role does the brain play in this?

Let’s not forget that behind every thought and idea there is a chemical compound in your biological system. A fundamental part of the body to explore is the hypothalamus,  which plays an extremely important role in regulating your hormones.

This small and interesting part of your brain responds quickly to your thoughts, be it in the form of ideas, the interpretation of current stimuli, or the premonition of future events.

This means that your hypothalamus can “wake up” as it were to prepare you to react more quickly, go to sleep or increase your sense of pleasure.

What influence does your behavior have?

So far we’ve only talked about how your mind can directly affect your body. However, we cannot omit another equally important aspect. An aspect that has to do with your behavior.

Let’s give an example:

We all have to go through periods in our lives that aren’t exactly happy or motivating.

And even though you may have never really suffered from clinical depression, some of the feelings you experience during such an unhappy period may be very similar to the way people who do have this condition always feel.

The difference is that the feelings with you are not as intense or do not last as long.

Bad food

During these times, you may begin to neglect certain aspects of your appearance or personal grooming. One of the first aspects that is often affected by this is your diet. 

You turn away from foods you don’t like, which are often the healthier options, and instead increasingly opt for foods that can seemingly give you more pleasure.

Why is this happening? It has to do with your balance. The pleasure you have lost in other aspects of your life, you try to regain through the food you eat.

Unfortunately, the image often shown on TV of a girl after a breakup sitting alone on the couch with a large tub of ice cream on her lap is completely thumping.

This is a very harmful way of forcing your hypothalamus to create a sense of well-being that you have somehow lost. The pattern of behavior you’ve taught yourself to avoid negative emotions is counterproductive to your physical health.

Lack of motivation

However, this lost balance is not the only reason why people neglect their diet in these kinds of situations. Another important aspect not to forget is the sadness and lack of motivation that usually accompany depression.

The reasons (thoughts) that previously prompted you to take good care of yourself are now suppressed by the sadness that has arisen and has taken hold in your mind.

Actions that used to be part of your daily routine now seem to require considerably more effort. You may want to try to simplify your routine a bit – instead of going to the grocery store after work, order pizza for the convenience of convenience. This takes much less effort.

The other side of the coin

So far we’ve mainly talked about how negative thoughts can make you physically weaker, but luckily the other side of this coin is many times more positive. Several studies seem to show that a positive mental attitude can significantly improve the prognosis of people suffering from a disease.

This may be a direct result of your biochemistry, or the effect that occurs when you push yourself back into activities that can control the disease, such as increased exercise or a healthier diet.

We therefore recommend that you take the best possible care of your mental health; because of this you indirectly care for your entire body. Don’t you think you’re more than worth this?