How Depression and Anxiety Impact Your Physical Health
An anxiety disorder keeps you fearful, worried, and dreadful. Depression keeps you persistently sad and hopeless. Both impact your physical health.
Most people don’t realize the far-reaching effects of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, but Joy Kwakuyi, DNP, PMHNP-BC, at Faith Integrated Psychiatry specializes in these two conditions. He can help you determine the root cause of your depression and/or anxiety and understand the relationship between your mental, emotional, and physical symptoms.
Here’s a closer look at each of these disorders and how they can manifest in many ways, including physical health issues.
How anxiety affects your physical health
Chronic anxiety is more than feeling nervous from time to time; it’s a persistent state of dread. There are several different types of anxiety disorders, including:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Social anxiety disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Phobias
- Panic disorder
Each comes with a different set of symptoms, but they can all result in physical problems as well.
In small doses, anxiety serves an important purpose. A mental or emotional perception of danger, anxiety triggers the hypothalamus in your brain to release certain hormones that will get your body ready to either fight or flee. With high levels of adrenaline and cortisol coursing through your veins, your body responds by amping up your heart rate, increasing the blood flow to your brain, and tensing your muscles.
As soon as the threat passes, your systems return to normal — unless you have an anxiety disorder. In this case, your body stays in this state of high alert, which takes a toll on you physically. Here are some of the consequences of living with long-term stress and anxiety:
- Headaches
- Rapid heart and palpitations
- Hypertension
- Heart disease
- Higher risk of coronary events
- Digestive issues, such as diarrhea, nausea, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation
- Weakened immunity
- Respiratory issues, such as shortness of breath and worsening asthma symptoms
- Insomnia
- Muscle pain
- Fatigue
- Dental problems from clenching of teeth.
Without professional treatment, your anxiety disorder continues to chip away at your physical health, exacerbating both issues.
How depression affects your physical health
Like anxiety disorders, a depressive disorder is more than a temporary feeling of sadness. It’s an overwhelming, pervasive mental state that zaps your energy, robs your joy, and affects your ability to socialize, eat, work, sleep, and concentrate.
Similarly, depression can negatively affect your physical health. Here are a few examples of depression’s physical symptoms:
Pain
Pain and depression go hand-in-hand, and the cycle can start with either condition. For example, dealing with chronic pain can lead to depression, and depression can trigger headaches, as well as joint and muscle pain.
Body weight issues
Depression is known for its effect on the appetite, and it can go either way. Sometimes, depression decreases the appetite, and you lose weight unexpectedly. If it becomes extreme, and you end up underweight, it can lead to fatigue, heart problems, and even infertility.
On the other hand, if depression has the opposite effect and makes you overeat and gain weight, it can lead to diabetes and heart health issues.
Cardiovascular problems
Speaking of heart problems, depression and heart health have a close-knit relationship. In fact, studies have found that about one-fifth of people who have coronary artery disease or heart failure also suffer from depression.
Sexual health issues
Depression directly impacts your libido, your interst in sex. When your sex drive wanes, it can affect your relationships and worsen your depression symptoms.
Sleep problems
If depression keeps you awake at night worrying, crying, or trying to resolve things, not getting enough sleep puts you at risk for a lengthy list of physical health issues, including high blood pressure, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and even some types of cancer.
Going without sleep also decreases your ability to focus and concentrate, which means you aren’t fully alert while driving or operating heavy machinery.
Digestion problems
Research shows that the chemical reactions that occur in people with depression directly affect the gastrointestinal system and can lead to nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and vomiting.
How to avoid the physical problems of anxiety and depression
The only way to prevent these physical symptoms is to address your depression and/or anxiety with professional treatment.
Dr. Kwakuyi customizes your treatment plan to address your unique set of circumstances, symptoms, and beliefs. Using a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, medications, Bible-based Christian counseling, authentic healing process for depression, integrative psychiatry, and individual psychotherapy, Dr. Kwakuyi helps you learn new responses to your environment, your relationships, and the situations that trigger your symptoms.
In this way, you not only free your mind from the prison of anxiety and depression, you free your body from the physical consequences so common in these two conditions.
To schedule a consultation with Dr. Kwakuyi, call us at our main office in Tucson, Arizona, or our satellite office in Phoenix today, or book online at your convenience.
