In a world full of notifications, long working hours and stay-at-home culture which are changing our dietary and physical activity patterns for the worse. While information and awareness about diet and exercise is more commonplace, an often overlooked domain is mental health. People suffering from stress, anxiety and depression are often considered as social outcasts in the Indian culture. Due to which, awareness and treatment mechanisms are still difficult to access as a good mental health is more than just the absence of any illness rather its a state of well-being as a whole.

As WHO also states “that there is no health without mental health” as mental and physical health are fundamentally interlinked with each other and their relationship is more evident when seen with the perspective of chronic conditions. The stress can affect the body and can cause Psychosomatic Diseases which involves both body and mind and they are thought to particularly get more worse with stress and anxiety. The physical symptoms in this disease mainly originates from the mental or emotional causes. Few examples would include ulcers, hypertension, asthma, eczema, migraines, kidney disorders, liver disorders etc and this happens because cortisol which is mainly a primary stress hormone increases the glucose in our bloodstream and increases the use of glucose by the brain which created more demand by the body.

Emotional problems may lead to  changes in our physical well-being:

It also alters the immune system response and also suppresses the function of our digestive tract. The other stress hormones such as glucocorticoids, catecholamines, vasopressin, gonadotropins and thyroid hormones all get affected and may be required for the fight or flight response of the individual to stress. Also various Emotional Problems like anger, panic, fatigue, sleep disorders etc may lead to a lot of worse changes in our physical well-being in the long run.

Therefore, according to few researches it has been found that stress, anxiety and fear acts as a slow poison for us and can equally harm the way alcohol or other drugs do to our body. Undoubtedly, Stress Is a spice of life and our life maybe incomplete without stress as it gives a good kick to our life and we tend to accomplish our tasks more efficiently but it should also be balanced in a way that our health does not get affected.

Stress and mental illness:

Stress can usually be triggered by a lot of things happening in our life and few factors may also get involved which includes biological, life changing, environmental, personal, financial etc. Our mental health is often missing from the public health debates even though it is a very critical part for our well-being and no diet, herbs or exercise can work if your mental health is not taken care of.
Lastly, I would like to conclude and say that it’s okay to feel unstable. It’s okay to feel disappointed and it’s okay to hide from the world but it’s not okay to be okay with your mental illness as it is not a personal failure.

Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of and people can learn to manage their stress and lead a happier and healthier life by following various measures like seeking the help by a professional and talk about your problems, do deep breathing exercises, make time for your hobbies, take a break from your work, keep a positive attitude and lots more!!

As, NOTHING IS WORTH RISKING YOUR HEALTH, NOTHING IS WORTH POISONING YOURSELF WITH STRESS, ANXIETY AND BAD HEALTH.

Dr.Nitika Kohli
A prominent Ayurvedic Expert
AIMIL healthcare, Delhi

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