Psychology and Health Problems, Essay Example

Abstract

Modern associations and subsequent links found between stress factors and illness notwithstanding, it has been common knowledge for a very long time that there is no strict dichotomy between physical well-being and emotional, or mental, health. There are in fact very few illnesses known to man which are not either exacerbated by the patient’s mental state or potentially ameliorated by the same, and this is seen with regard to the most serious diseases. In the following the disparate health issues of menstrual incapacitation and cancer will be examined, as how each is directly affected by psychological factors.

The Multifactorial Model

Briefly, the model as presented underscores two critical elements which modern diagnosis must be mindful of: that we know there is a direct and potent influence upon a person’s physical condition, and specifically illness, from that individual’s state of mind, and that it is likely we will see further evidence of this connection in research to come.

This connection may be most easily understood by noting how heart disease is affected by various psychological factors, as discussed in the model. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) lends itself most readily to this because virtually all of its manifestations as an illness can be clearly linked to behavioral and/or psychological factors, from how a chronically aggressive personality is more at risk, to how lifestyle changes in diet and recreation may greatly ease an extant  CHD condition.

Menstrual Cycles, Depression, and Options

While it is self-defeating to ignore the extreme and evident biological factors which induce pain and/or illness in women during periods of menstruation, it is equally irresponsible to dismiss how psychology plays an enormous role in both the severity of the pain and in alleviating it.

A point often disregarded, or certainly not given enough attention, is the ‘expectation’ surrounding the woman’s cycle. It is, to put it bluntly, legendary, and men have always made bad jokes about the woman’s ‘time of the month’, alluding to how disagreeable, if not outright hostile, a woman may be at these times. Moreover, this kind of thinking has both reflected and influenced actual medical opinion when manifested as premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. Only recently has the medical community acknowledged that the disorder is not primarily an emotionally-triggered occurrence: “It wasn’t until 1987 that PMS…moved from the psychogenic disorder section of medical textbooks to chapters on physiologically based problems” (Brown, Isaacs, Wooldridge, 2007, p.68).

This ‘expectation’ factor is a double-edged sword. As the world around her anticipates erratic and hostile behavior prior to a cycle, so too does the woman then internalize this anticipation. In psychological terms, she is emotionally confident in what feels like the fact of her shortly becoming irrational and depressed. All of the altered behaviors around her point to a situation in which she will deviate from the norm; this carries with it a powerful and subconscious desire to fulfill the expectation.

The biology of menstrual discomfort is largely known to us and is perfectly explicable, although more severe cases of premenstrual syndrome are not as easily understood yet. Hormone production rises at these times in a woman’s biological life, and these increases go directly to brain function. Anxiety, minor or extreme, is the most common symptom, usually lasting for days, and it is evident that these natural changes are reflective of the greater physical and psychological whole; nature, it appears, wishes to create within the menstruating woman a state of tension, of being ‘on guard’, as it were. No matter the perhaps arcane and subjective causes of it, however, the reality is unchanged and menstruation remains for most women a troubling and often highly uncomfortable time.

As with anything, knowledge alleviates problems. The woman must not fall prey to popular myth and see herself as unwell. Her body and mind are reacting to internal changes in her physiological balance, and that is all that is happening. Furthermore, a sensible tracking of symptoms and their durations will better enable a woman and her physician to prescribe medical treatment, if called for. Most importantly, however, a consciousness of the biological facts of the matter and an acceptance of its normalcy will go a great distance in easing the guilt many women feel when experiencing PMS, and consequently ease much of the torment itself.

Cancer and Psychology

Cancer remains, due to its status as the leading killer of women and the second most common cause of death in men, at the apex of our fears. It has seized the cultural psyche as tuberculosis did in the 19^th century, establishing itself as a mysterious and seemingly indestructible agent of evil. This, despite vast stores of medical knowledge.

That conception of the disease prevalent in our culture, we give it even more power than it requires to exist; all cancers rely in some fashion on a weakening of the body’s immune system, and we know that this system is strongly influenced by emotions and psychological factors. Through the dread cancer inspires in us, even as a diagnosis has yet to be determined as cancerous, we tend to undermine ourselves from the start, for fear and intense anxiety dampen immune activity in the body.

Before even this is addressed, however, other and more basic non-medical factors come into play in dealing with cancer. Human behavior is of course largely a consequence of human psychology, and our behaviors and choices have profound influences on what condition are bodies are in. A cancer is, in elementary terms, cells that have gone astray and not shut down as instructed to. They multiply and therefore disrupt vital functions in a variety of ways, often fatally, and no single behavioral or psychological change can effectively stop this from happening.

Nonetheless, we do know that cancerous activity is more likely to arise under certain conditions, and we do have a good deal of control over many of these. Smoking is legendary in promoting cancer, and not without reason. So too, and less commonly appreciated. is poor diet and excess fat in the body a platform upon which can cancer can most effectively appear. Both are areas in which we have absolute control. In no uncertain terms, a greater personal – and psychological – commitment to over-all better health translates to a greatly reduced risk of having cancer.

However, that immune factor mentioned earlier is equally pivotal, and we know that there is a direct correlation between a healthy and positive state of mind and increased immune cell count. In treating with cancer, this is no longer idle or hopeful speculation; it is established fact. Psychological outlook has been documented repeatedly as vastly contributing longer and better lives, and frequently complete remission of the disease, of those with cancer.

Moreover, again, knowledge is an enormous asset. We are so accustomed to a primal fear when we hear the word ‘cancer’ that we forget basic facts: “A major problem for the cancer patient is that the word…is used to cover forty to fifty different kinds of tumor, each with different characteristics” (Stoll, 1986, p.12). There, quite simply, all kinds of cancers and more than a few are either curable or successfully treatable.

It is essential for the person facing the possibility of cancer that they seek to maintain the proven assistance of ‘will to live’. Scientific data grows continually, and one trajectory most reliable is that we have far more power to shape our physical conditions through our adopted psychologies than we know. Emotional states are not merely reactive; they trigger bodily responses as well, and the physician today who discounts psychological influences on disease and illness is the rare physician indeed.

References

Brown, J.E., Isaacs, J., and Wooldridge, N.H. (2007.) Nutrition through the Life Cycle. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Stoll, B. A. (1986.) Coping with Cancer Stress. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.