Our emotions, like our thoughts, directly influence our physiology. They influence our hormonal state, our immune system, the production of neurotransmitters, and even genetic expression.
But what is the link between emotions and illness? Let’s look together at the mechanism that leads from emotion to illness.
The impact of our thoughts and emotions on our body
Both our thoughts and our emotions affect our physiology, but not with the same intensity.
On average, we have 70,000 thoughts a day, or almost one thought a second. But our thoughts have a moderate influence on our physiology.
What will have a major influence are our emotions.
Our most vivid and important memories are generally those associated with significant events and intense emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant. The fact that there is an emotion leads to crystallisation, which inscribes the memories in the memory. It’s a bit the same thing from a physiological point of view. A strong negative emotion will cause the brain to crystallise a way of functioning, and this is what can lead to illness.
The different types of stress
We’ve all experienced situations that make us feel uncomfortable, particularly when interacting with other people: a tense exchange with a colleague, client or superior, an argument with a family member or friend, or even verbal aggression in the street… These events can leave us with an unpleasant feeling of unease. This can translate into strong emotions such as anger or anxiety. It can also lead to resentment and animosity. The fact that we feel bad is interpreted by our brain as stress. For some people, this state of stress will only last a few minutes, and once the interaction is over, they will be able to move on immediately. For others, it may take a few hours or even wait until the next day to move on to something else. This is known as acute stress. The emotional reaction is intense, but not long-lasting. The event is quickly forgotten, with no impact on the body.
But in some cases, the negative emotional state will persist over time, for several weeks, months or even years. In this way, the individual’s physiology is subjected to an unpleasant state of aggression for a long time. The result is constant stress, known as chronic stress. Chronic stress is problematic and is now considered a real pathology. In a situation of chronic stress, the adrenal glands are called upon to produce cortisol. This cortisol influences our blood sugar levels, and therefore our insulin. This will have repercussions on our immune system, which will tend to weaken. Finally, chronic stress can also lead to a drop in serotonin levels. These physiological reactions will weaken the body and encourage the onset of disease.
Our brain’s interpretation of emotions
When you feel something pleasant or experience positive emotions, your body expands, calms down and opens up. Negative and unpleasant emotions, on the other hand, cause it to close up. You feel oppressed, attacked. Ans when we are attacked, our reflex is to defend ourselves.
So, depending on how you perceive a given situation, your brain may interpret a negative emotion as aggression. The brain does not distinguish between the virtual and the real. Nor does it distinguish between past, present and future. This means that if you continue to experience a strong emotion following an event that happened years ago, or fear something that could happen tomorrow, your brain assimilates it as reality. It then sets up a defence mechanism that may result in the development of an illness.
The 3 factors that favour the development of an emotion into an illness
Three factors must come together for an emotion to trigger an illness:
- The intensity of the emotion: the stronger the emotion, the greater the risk. It may be an emotional shock, something very strong, but it need not be brutal. It could, for example, be an emotion generated by something constant, which you experience on a daily basis, and which is weighing on you more and more, becoming too much to bear.
- Isolation: Being alone, or feeling alone, even in the presence of other people, makes you vulnerable. When you’re with other people, when you’re cohesive, you’re much stronger. Not being able to confide in other people and let go of negative emotions increases the likelihood of emotions turning into illness.
- The feeling of being at an impasse: Having the feeling of being at an impasse, of not having any solutions, either physical or intellectual, encourages our body to react physiologically. In an impasse situation, your brain will feel an urgent need to find a solution to defend itself. It will adapt the body’s genetic expression so that you can react to this problematic situation.
It is through this mechanism of our brain and the concordance of these three factors that physiological interactions will begin to take place one after the other, favouring the development of disease.
What is gene expression?
It’s our body’s ability to adapt rapidly to changes in its environment.
In concrete terms, among the genes we possess, some are activated, others deactivated, while still others have their expression amplified or slowed down. This mechanism enables our cells to develop new functions or modulate existing ones, by speeding them up or slowing them down, in order to optimise our adaptation to external conditions.
How to limit the effects of emotions on our health
To limit the impact of emotions on the body, it’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Watching what you eat, getting enough sleep, getting regular exercise and taking time out for yourself are all factors that can relieve and soothe the body in a state of stress.
But for real relief and to avoid the emotion crystallising, it is important to treat the problem in depth. By reducing the intensity of the emotion you are feeling, you will reduce the potential repercussions and the risk of developing illnesses. Don’t hesitate to seek professional help.
