How do I start? So I’ve started feeling anxiety and depression in my body and at first, I thought I was delusional but gaining extra knowledge only confirmed my hypothesis. My body and mind were interconnected and constantly communicating. A lot of times our body is trying to communicate to us when we’re not in a good spot,” said Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association. This highlights every dizzy episode I’ve experienced just before a depressive episode started or the tics that I’ve gotten constantly for the past three years which are apparently a symptom of anxiety. I’ve felt all the evidence in my body so I was interested in taking a deep dive into the theory.
The body is an instrument that gives our emotions and feelings a much-needed outlet. These arise as a result of the conversation between the body and the nervous system. Emotions conspire with minding and knowing to give rise to the system-level
the phenomenon of consciousness from the infrastructure of the nervous system and
the body. The human organism does not recognize the medical profession’s artificial separation of mental and physical ills. Rather, mind and body form a two-way street. I think mental and physical ills create a feedback loop between each other. Mental illnesses express themselves in such a way that one is plagued with physical symptoms and these very physical symptoms may result in behaviours that make mental conditions worse.
Spiegel’s research and other studies have clearly shown that “the brain is intimately connected to the body and the body to the brain,” The body tends to react to mental stress as if it was physical
stress. When someone experiences an increased level of stress, the body releases stress hormones – cortisol and adrenaline are among the most well-known. This prepares the body for fight or flight, our evolutionary response to a threat. It evolved to help animals face physical threats by increasing respiration, raising the heart rate and redirecting blood flow from abdominal organs to muscles that assist in confronting or escaping danger. And this evolution has translated to the experience of dizziness, stomach knots, panic attacks and more resulting from mental illness.
I can of course recall my first panic attack. I was seated in a packed class. I was mentally disoriented as I had been during that period. I become uneasy with a rapid heartbeat and respiration. I left the class to take a walk but that did little to nothing. I end up just waiting for it to pass. This became a frequent occurrence and it was basically my body’s way of letting me know that something was wrong and to what extent it was wrong.
“Depression diminishes a person’s capacity to analyze and respond rationally to stress,” Dr Spiegel said. “They end up in a vicious cycle with limited capacity to get out of a negative mental state.” The low energy that accompanies depression doesn’t give much capacity for this kind of awareness as acting accordingly. A study of 1,204 elderly Korean men and women initially evaluated for depression and anxiety found that two years later, these emotional disorders increased their risk of physical disorders and disability. Patients with depression may not have the motivation to exercise regularly or cook healthy meals. Many also have trouble getting adequate sleep. Persistent depression can also exacerbate a person’s perception of pain and increase their chances of developing chronic pain. This is now however different from physical symptoms. These are the physical effects that one experiences as a result of the depression spiral.
Sometimes it can feel almost like you’re not in control of your own body. You want to do some things but the symptoms are just too overwhelming. This whole experience is usually triggered by one feeling. Feelings provide the urge and the incentive to behave according to the information they carry and do what is most appropriate for the current situation. My anxiety might need to be released through a tic or repetitive movements or my depression through dizziness. These feelings are how we know that our experience is our own and that the bodies through
which experience courses are our own. They can be physical or mental feelings. During an episode, I can either feel a wave of sadness and hopelessness or I can feel disorienting dizziness and low energy. “A lot of times our body is trying to communicate to us when we’re not in a good spot,” said Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the
American Psychological Association.
This experience has made me learn to be more aware of my bodily mechanisms. I’ve learned the best way to move through seasons of stress like this is to listen more closely to my body, to the five senses. I pay attention to the emotional signals it gives me: my heart rate, the depth of my breathing, the tension in my head, and my nervous stomach. It’s telling me to slow down, to breathe deeply, to change my environment, or to change my reaction to what’s happening in the environment.
While this may not feel good, our body’s responses to it are productive, and likely ultimately a good thing if we can use those cues to change what’s in our
control. That can range from seeking professional help to connecting with other people in a meaningful way. One of the things that can be most healing to a
body is a connection to another person.
The subtleties of our body language and physical instinct, are in accordance with the subtleties of our emotional experience. And these subtleties are prompts for us to take the necessary action. And that’s another journey from there.
