Mental Health How do you feel?
Posted By Kathleen David on February 12, 2020
We are learning or probably re-learning the mind-body connection. When the body is hurting the brain is not working as well. When the mind is hurting, the body seems to manifest those feelings throughout the body.
We go to a doctor for help with physical problems that manifest within our bodies. We are given things to get us to normal readings like blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and pain. They can see through tests what is wrong and what needs to be done to correct the problem.
When a general doctor asks a patient,’how do you feel?’ the assumption is that the doctor wants to know physically how you feel. The answer is usually a list of physical symptoms that gives the doctor a starting point to sort out what is going on.
I think that we should make a mental health check part of the general physical for people. Have the doctor ask ‘how are you feeling’ and it means emotionally how are you feeling. A mental wellness check for people. This would do two things. It would give the patient a safe space to talk about their mental health and would allow doctors to help both the body and the mind of their patients. It would also go a long way to destigmatizing mental health.
And it would help the doctor in diagnosing the problems within the body. We know stress, both short term and long term, can do some screwy things to the body. Depression can cause all kinds of problems physically, but the mental issues can cause all kinds of damage. Substance abuse, weight gain, lack of motivation, and many other things can take a toll on the body.
The mind/body connection is real. The science supports the concept. It is no longer based on a religion or spirituality.
Doctors need to make mental health part of the discussion of how to help and heal the body. And we as patients need to as well.
I am grateful for physicians who believe in the mind/body connection.
Every time I go to my primary care person’s office, they make me fill out a mental health form with a whole bunch of questions to check off about how I’m feeling, whether I’ve had suicidal thoughts, etc. I’m very glad they’ve instituted this!