Depression's Impact on Physical Health: The Body-Mind Connection

Depression is often thought of as simply a mental health condition. While that is technically a true statement, depression should be considered more of a whole body condition.

Depression starts with a chemical imbalance in your brain, triggering a variety of symptoms that range in severity and frequency. From there, it can transform into ailments of your body. The mind and body are heavily connected, after all.

Here’s a look at how depression can impact both your mind and body.

The Chemical Reaction

Depression can alter the way your brain functions, including the chemicals released. When you’re experiencing a bout of depression, your stress hormones become elevated. High cortisol levels can begin to impact your immune system and body functioning.

Additionally, key neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin can become imbalanced when dealing with depression. Each of these plays a key role in how your body functions, including mood regulation, appetite, sleep habits, and energy levels.

There’s also a link between depression and bodily inflammation. When you experience depression, your body can begin releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines that can contribute to physical health conditions.

Behavioral Factors

If you're going through depression, you’ve likely experienced some behavioral changes. As mentioned above, this could include fluctuations in diet, sleep, and physical activity.

When you suddenly change your eating habits, your body may not know how to keep up. Poor nutrition can lead to weight loss, or even weight gain, and fuel other health problems like diabetes or heart disease.

Sleep is crucial for your body to restore itself. Depression often leads to insomnia or sleeping too much. When your body doesn’t get the appropriate quality and quantity of rest it needs, it can also lead to weight changes, a decline in cognition, and reduced immune functioning.

As depression flares up, motivation often goes down, encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle. Reduced exercise and physical activity can lead to cardiac issues, muscle loss, and decreased immune functioning, to name a few.

The Link to Health Conditions

Depression can have a bit of a cause-and-effect relationship with various physical health conditions. The symptoms you experience during a depression episode can eventually lead to heart disease, but it can also make the recovery process of a pre-existing condition that much harder.

Similarly, depression can lead to the development of diabetes, and those with diabetes have a higher likelihood of developing depression. Obesity is another commonly linked health condition with depression. If you're not taking proper care of yourself, which is known to happen when you’re wrapped up in a spiral, your body will start to react.

Chronic Pain

There are a number of conditions, often closely associated with pain, that can co-occur with depression. Things like migraines or arthritic flare-ups can be problem enough on their own. When you’re battling depression on top of it, they can drive each other. The more pain you’re in, the worse your depression becomes. The more depressed you feel, the more the pain acts up. It can be a horrible cycle.

To make matters worse, if you don’t have solid coping strategies, managing both your mental and physical health can be quite the challenge.

Physical Symptoms

Maybe you don’t have an official health condition or chronic pain you’re dealing with. You don’t have to have either of those to experience physical impacts from depression. Many people with depression report very physical symptoms in addition to their emotional ones.

Headaches and body aches are commonly experienced. Bodily fatigue and exhaustion can be felt for no specific reason. Between the emotional stress and any appetite changes, stomach or gastrointestinal issues can be quite common.

If you’re struggling with depression in any capacity, you don’t have to do so alone. Depression counseling can help you work through your symptoms and any root causes behind them. If you want to determine if this is a right fit for you, reach out to schedule a session today.