Both common and incapacitating medical illnesses include chronic diseases and mental health disorders. No matter their age, culture, race or ethnicity, gender, or level of money, these can affect anyone.
The main cause of death worldwide is cardiovascular disease, and the major cause of disability is depression. Consult to an best Online Counselor at TalktoAngel regarding chronic diseases and mental health.
Chronic illnesses are distinguished by their protracted course, lack of spontaneous resolution, and rarity of complete recovery.
A person who has a chronic illness goes through a wide range of strong, enduring emotions, from weariness and fear to guilt and resentment due to the demands put on family and friends.
The changes in lifestyle and continuing therapy that come with chronic conditions are frequently challenging to deal with. Realizing that the life you previously knew may have changed might sometimes cause feelings of sadness and despair.
Common factors
Food cravings and low energy levels are two symptoms that both chronic illnesses and mental health disorders share. These feelings can lead to increased food intake, decreased physical activity, and weight gain.
These factors have a negative impact on mental health in addition to raising the likelihood of developing chronic diseases. Co-occurring mental and physical illnesses can worsen health outcomes, reduce quality of life, and prolong illness duration. For more information, consult to the best online counselor at TalktoAngel.
Both problems can benefit from interventions that focus on the modifiable risk behaviours (such as cigarette use, physical inactivity, and poor diet) that cause a number of chronic diseases and mental health disorders.
Diabetes and mental health
Depression and schizophrenia are two mental health conditions that alter the body’s sensitivity to insulin and increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes patients, whether they have type 1 or type 2, are more likely to experience eating disorders, despair, and anxiety. Being anxious about blood sugar swings can be highly stressful.
Rapid changes in mood and other mental symptoms including exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, and worry can be brought on by variations in blood sugar. Additional duties including keeping track of insulin and blood sugar levels, keeping track of doctor’s appointments, and paying for necessary treatment may be taxing.
Diabetic patients have been shown to have a syndrome known as “diabetes distress,” which exhibits certain characteristics of stress, despair, and anxiety. It is connected to external elements including family and societal support, healthcare services, and diabetes-related causative factors like anxiety of very low blood sugar levels.
33-50% of diabetics feel diabetes misery at some point during the life of their chronic condition. Talk therapy and support groups, as well as better diabetes management, have all reported to be useful in this regard.
Heart disease and mental health
Fatigue, low energy, and trouble sleeping are overlapping symptoms of both depression and heart disease. It’s critical to pay attention and distinguish between the two. Depression can also make recovering from a heart attack more difficult by escalating pain, making fatigue worse, or leading a person to isolate themselves even more.
The risk factors for developing heart disease and mental health disorders frequently overlap. Heart disease is significantly increased by cigarette smoking, which is roughly twice as likely in people with mental illness as it is in people without it.
Stress that is not properly controlled can cause high blood pressure, artery damage, and erratic heartbeats. Depression makes it more difficult for a person to maintain a balanced diet, engage in regular exercise, and avoid alcohol misuse, all of which raise the risk of heart disease. Exercise, a healthy diet, and stress reduction techniques are examples of healthy lifestyle habits that can help both cardiac and mental health concerns.
Chronic respiratory disease and mental health
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, and asthma are among the chronic respiratory illnesses that are much more likely to develop in people with serious mental health disorders. High smoking rates are a risk factor for respiratory disease in people with mental disorders.
Anxiety and depression rates are much higher in people with chronic respiratory disorders. Due to the potential for a severe asthma attack to be fatal, those who experience asthma attacks are more likely to suffer from anxiety and panic disorders. A few asthma treatments have also been shown to affect mood.
Cancer and mental health
According to research, high-fat diets may increase the incidence of bowel and gallbladder cancer in people with schizophrenia by twofold. Due to high levels of stress, mental distress, and changes in body image, people with cancer are more likely to experience depression. According to estimates, 8 to 24 percent of cancer patients also experience depression.
It might be challenging to distinguish between cancer, depression, and anxiety because they overlap symptoms including exhaustion, lack of sleep, and decreased appetite.
According to studies, those who suffer from severe mental illness, dementia, or substance abuse are more likely to experience worse survival rates after receiving a cancer diagnosis. To know more about mental health issues, consult to an online counselor at TalktoAngel.
Depression
A chronic illness increases the likelihood that a person will also experience depression. While brief sensations of melancholy are normal, if these and other symptoms persist for more than a few weeks, depression may be present.
Your ability to function in daily life and to take pleasure in work, play, friends, and family is affected by depression. Among the signs of depression are:
- feeling depressed, annoyed, or worried
- Empty, forlorn, remorseful, or worthless feelings
- loss of enjoyment in typically liked pastimes or activities, such as sex
- Weakness and reduced energy
- difficulty focusing, recalling specifics, and making decisions
- either being unable to sleep or sleeping excessively. Getting up too early
- eating excessively or refusing to eat at all
- Suicidal ideation, attempt at suicide, or death
- Without a clear physical reason and/or that do not go away despite therapy, aches and pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive issues
A problem: diagnostic overshadowing
People with chronic conditions frequently neglect to take care of their mental health. Numerous symptoms, such as exhaustion, are shared by both chronic physical illnesses and mental health disorders, and this diagnostic overshadowing can make it difficult to identify co-existing ailments.
Diagnostic overshadowing, particularly for the emergence of mild to moderate mental diseases, might conceal psychiatric problems. Short doctor visits are frequently insufficient to discuss a patient’s mental or emotional health if they have ongoing medical issues.
The stigma attached to mental illness also makes it difficult to diagnose and treat the chronic medical diseases that affect people with mental illnesses. Multiple mechanisms exist for stigma to operate as a barrier.
It may directly hinder access to medical care, and unpleasant past experiences may discourage people from seeking treatment out of concern about discrimination.
Additionally, stigmatisation can cause medical illnesses to be misdiagnosed as psychological in origin. Feel free to concern the best Online Counselor at TalktoAngel regarding your mental health issues.
