/assets/images/provider/photos/2817259.jpeg)
How does mental health care improve your physical wellness? Your mind and your body are more closely connected than you may at first realize. Read to learn more about the physical health benefits of mental health support.
It’s easy to imagine your mental health as completely detached from your physical body. Mental health is about the mind, right? Often, mental health involves hopes, fears, and other intangibles that don’t seem, at first glance, likely to impact your physical health. But, the physical impact of mental health is very real.
In order to take good care of your body, you may need to spend more time taking better care of your mind. At Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates, LLC, of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Dr. Ronald P. Winfield provides psychotherapy and counseling that takes your whole being into account.
Your treatment helps you self-actualize and live your life as the healthiest, happiest version of yourself. How can psychotherapy help your physical well-being? Let’s look at this question more closely.
The mind-body connection and psychotherapy
It’s impossible to underestimate the connection between your body and your mind. Science continues to show a strong link. For this reason, it makes sense that your physical and mental health are closely intertwined. Physical health problems put you at risk for mental health concerns, and mental health troubles can also harm your physical health.
Mental health stress increases your risk of eating disorders, substance abuse, and even hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart trouble. Problems with stress management or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may mean that your body rarely gets the amount of rest it really needs. An anxiety disorder or phobia may mean that your system is constantly flooded with stress hormones. All of this harms your physical health and wellness.
It’s also true that mental health conditions often go hand-in-hand with chronic pain conditions. Life with both a mental health disorder and a chronic pain condition poses unique challenges, and you need the right support to maintain your balance and optimize your quality of life. Partnering with an experienced psychotherapist like Dr. Winfield provides you with that support.
How you benefit from psychotherapy
In psychotherapy, you look more deeply at your thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and patterns. You connect past experiences to present mindsets and learn to cope with grief, post-traumatic stress, and trauma in a healthy way. Psychotherapy focuses on you, with the goal of improving your self-esteem and achieving your personal life goals.
Whether you’re living with a diagnosed mental health condition like depression, ADHD, or PTSD, or you want a guide as you strive to be your very best, a personalized psychotherapy relationship means that you’re not alone in your journey. That clearly benefits your mental health, but what about your physical wellness?
When you successfully process adverse life experiences, anger, sorrow, and grief, your health outcomes improve overall. Better stress management skills, anger management skills, and a healthier relationship to alcohol and recreational substances also improve your physical wellness and even your longevity.
To begin your psychotherapy partnership with Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates and reap the physical and mental health benefits of expert counseling and personalized care, contact us today. Schedule your appointment by calling now, or book an appointment online.