The Link Between Emotion and Disease

The link between emotion and illness is too often overlooked. By avoiding what’s inside of us, we can actually trigger diseases which could have stayed dormant – especially autoimmune diseases, skin conditions and some types of cancers.

I was diagnosed with Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis about 4 years ago. I can tell you the exact thoughts running through my head the night before I woke up with my very first malar rash. I was furious about a situation and feeling sorry for myself. I blamed myself and I blamed others for putting me there. I was being unreasonable and immature.

In response, my body started attacking itself. My organs and tissue were seen as invaders and my body was trying to annihilate them. My internal circumstance (where my emotions are) was provoking a physical attack which was utterly destructive. I was so angry and bitter that I was actually orchestrating my own demise.

My rheumatologist states that as many as 40% of women have a predisposition for auto-immune disease, but it takes a trigger to actualize the illness. In some cases those triggers are stress and highly emotional states, as was mine. I had been living in a state of such high stress for a number of years, and my body finally had enough – literally, and started to turn on itself.

I started looking at what I was doing to make my body behave in such a way. I did a lot of emotional work where I had to be honest with myself and realize the power of my mind over my body. It worked – my symptoms abated, and now I only get occasional flares (usually when I am stressed and emotional). My results were so radical that my doctor said no one would believe her if she didn’t have the actual reports to back it up.

The point is: we are so powerful we can create physical changes in our body, simply by not managing our emotions, and imagining we are victims of circumstance, instead of masters of our reality. We know that certain cancers can be triggered by stress, as well as high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, etc. – the list goes on. Think of it this way: when we become nervous, fearful or stressed, we experience physiological changes: our heart rate rises, we may perspire, our pupils dilate, cortisol rushes through our body and our muscles tense. These are factual physical changes based on emotions. You can see how easily we affect change in our body via being stressed and worked up emotionally.

Why do we let ourselves become ruled by something which could be somewhat preventable? Because we don’t look deep inside ourselves and deal with our issues. If you are experiencing high stress, or emotions which get out of control – please – look inside yourself and be honest about secrets you may be carrying, perceptions about being a victim, being overwhelmed and having anger, especially self-directed anger. Learn how to deal with these issues before you become diagnosed with an illness or condition which may have never actualized if your body wasn’t under the added physical stressors of high emotions.

Now I am not saying that everyone’s illness is caused by stress, or that we can simply smile and ‘think’ our diseases away, but I am saying our symptoms can diminish and our illnesses can be much more manageable if we can get ahold of our emotional issues which are burdening our system more than we may realize.

Dana Prophet