Chronic Illness and Mental Health: Understanding the Psychological Impact
Chronic illnesses can have a massive impact on mental health for many reasons. The stresses of diagnosis, ongoing treatment, flare-ups, and limitations on daily life put people with chronic illnesses at greater risk of mental health difficulties.
The same can be said in reverse. Long-term mental health issues can increase the likelihood of someone developing a long-term illness. As such, many people experience a vicious cycle of physical and emotional symptoms.
Addressing this requires holistic mental health treatments that address the risk factors that come with chronic conditions: Social isolation, inflammation, poor sleep, elevated stress, and often persistent pain.
To explore the available support for people with both chronic illnesses and mental health difficulties, this article will discuss:
- Why chronic conditions can induce mental health difficulties
- Why mental health conditions can increase risk of chronic conditions
- How lifestyle psychiatry, social support, collaborative care, and psychotherapy can support people with both physical and mental health conditions
How Can Chronic Illness Impact Mental Health?
While chronic illnesses such as autoimmune diseases, pain conditions, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and many more are physical in nature, they can have a profound emotional impact.
Chronic illnesses and diseases are those that last at least a year, limit daily activities, and require ongoing medical attention.[1] Very often, these are long-term physical health conditions that can’t be cured with current medical treatments. So, they need to be constantly managed with medication, check-ups, and lifestyle choices.[2]
As a result of this huge impact on everyday life, people with chronic conditions are much more likely to experience stress and develop anxiety or depression. Multiple different factors that feed into this link between chronic illness and mental health:[1],[2],[3]
- The anxieties and stress from living with a chronic illness
- Being socially isolated and facing discrimination because of your condition
- Physical brain changes associated with the chronic disease, such as a stroke
- Medications prescribed to treat the chronic condition
- Pervasive emotions such as sadness and grief about your health
- The additional financial burden of having ongoing healthcare appointments
Feeling constantly tired, worried, frustrated, and stressed about your condition, flare-ups, and treatments can make you more likely to develop depression or anxiety, too. In fact, those with long-term physical health conditions are more than twice as likely to struggle with their mental health.[2]
Invisible Illnesses
Many chronic conditions are invisible; the people around you might think you seem healthier than you are and not see the parts of your life when you’re struggling. French research finds that 80% of people with disabilities have an invisible condition, and a lack of recognition can make it harder for people to access the right support.[4]
In the US, roughly 37 million people are diagnosed with diabetes and are 2-3 times more likely to develop depression. However, less than half of those people will get diagnosed and treated for depression.[3]
When chronic conditions aren’t immediately visible to other people, it can worsen mental well-being because people feel misunderstood and unseen.[4] Furthermore, if this invisibility prevents someone from getting necessary care, symptoms go untreated for longer.
Can Poor Mental Health Lead to Chronic Illness?
Mental health conditions can influence chronic illnesses in a number of ways. Let’s explore this in more detail.
Mental Health Conditions May Trigger Chronic Illnesses
Long-term illness can sometimes be a product of mental health difficulties. For example, people with depression are at a higher risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, pain conditions, and osteoporosis. This could be due to:[1]
- Finding health-promoting activities difficult due to the fatigue that comes with depression, such as eating well and exercising
- Challenges associated with accessing medical care that could detect, prevent, and treat health issues, and mitigate the development of chronic diseases
- Increased inflammation, reduced blood circulation, and abnormal stress hormones caused by having depression
Depression May Worsen Chronic Illness Symptoms
For people who are diagnosed with a chronic illness, a condition like depression can make their symptoms and lifelong health outcomes worse. For example, people with diabetes and depression tend to have poorer glycemic control (the management of blood glucose in the body) and greater levels of obesity and inactivity.[3]
More broadly, when people who are chronically ill also experience depression, symptoms of both conditions tend to become more severe.[1] This impact of depression on chronic illness symptoms indicates the connection between physical and mental health isn’t one-way; it goes back and forth.
We’ll now explore how you can address the psychological effects of chronic disease to alleviate your symptoms.
Supporting Mental Health With Chronic Illness
Since chronic illnesses can lead to mental health difficulties and mental health difficulties can increase the risk of developing chronic illnesses, this suggests they have a bidirectional relationship.[5] This means that they influence and build on each other, creating a cycle that’s difficult to break.
While neither can be immediately cured, there are ways to support both mental health and chronic illness simultaneously, such as lifestyle psychiatry. Lifestyle psychiatry is an approach that focuses on lifestyle, behaviors, and habits that can either hinder or promote good health.[6]
To explore the options of support for chronic illness, depression, and other mental health conditions, we’ll now delve into some lifestyle psychiatry interventions, as well as some other recommendations:
Lifestyle Interventions
The following lifestyle habits have been shown to either support mental health, physical health, or both:
- Sauna-bathing: Sauna bathing refers to sitting in a sauna, exposing your body to extreme heat for a short period of time (typically 10-20 minutes). Long-term studies in Finland suggest frequent sauna-bathing is associated with reduced cardiovascular and respiratory problems, as well as lower inflammation overall.[7] Furthermore, those who use saunas frequently report better sleep and higher mental well-being.[7]
- Cold water therapy: While those with heart conditions should be extremely careful with cold water immersion, there is promising research to suggest a variety of health benefits. Namely, it could help regulate blood sugar, boost the immune system, reduce inflammation, and support mental health by promoting relaxation and resilience to stress.[8]
- Breathwork: Research into the Wim Hof Method (which uses both breathwork and cold water immersion) finds the most positive benefits for stress and inflammation.[9] As chronic inflammation is connected with many chronic health conditions, the Wim Hof Method could be a viable lifestyle intervention. However, you should always be careful when engaging with activities that intentionally induce hyperventilation, so speak to your doctor beforehand.
- Exercise: While regular exercise is proven to be highly beneficial for mental and physical health, it can be risky for people with a variety of chronic conditions. However, your doctor will be able to advise which kinds of exercise are safe. For example, those with arthritis will have to be selective about choosing activities that avoid straining particular joints.[10]
- Sleep optimization: Sleep can be challenging if you experience pain or if mental health difficulties keep you from completely relaxing. However, good quality sleep is a crucial element of lifestyle psychiatry and there are ways to optimize it. For example, those with chronic pain can improve their sleep by reducing alcohol and tobacco, exercising, and making changes to their sleeping environment.[11]
Increasing Your Social Support
Another strategy to help those coping with chronic illness is social support from your loved ones. Whether you talk to family, friends, or a support group for people with chronic illness, talking about what you’re going through can relieve some of the burden.[2]
Support groups can be particularly helpful because, within these, you share problems and tips with people going through a similar experience. To find one, search for either local support groups for people with chronic illness or for specific charities and organizations that support people with your condition.[2]
Collaborative Care
The collaborative approach sees primary care providers, care managers, and psychiatric consultants working together to provide holistic care in the same location, targeting both physical and mental health difficulties.[1]
This form of care might be available in a primary care clinic near you, so it’s worth asking your provider if it’s an option for you.
Therapy for Chronic Illness
Some people don’t consider counseling and psychotherapy for chronic illness patients because seeking emotional support for a physical condition may not make immediate sense to them. However, therapy can be a very effective option for people living with long-term health conditions.
For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) could help you change how you feel, think, and behave in reaction to your condition. This can help you feel more in control, make pain easier to manage, and illuminate the things you can change in your life.[2]
Similarly, while acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) cannot cure chronic illnesses, it does focus on fostering the acceptance of one’s circumstances and nurturing those things that improve life quality.[12]
Research finds that chronic illnesses in adulthood are more likely for people who have experienced trauma and lower socioeconomic status in childhood.[13] This suggests that trauma-informed psychotherapy could be helpful for some people with chronic conditions to talk through their experiences in early life.
Mission Connection: Therapy for Chronic Illness
The emotional impact of chronic illness can be huge, often leading people to change their employment, aspirations, and daily activities.14 This adjustment can be extremely difficult, and so getting mental health support is often helpful.
At Mission Connection, we treat many mental health conditions with a range of therapeutic approaches. Our licensed professionals are here to support you through it.
Browse our facilities, treatments, or self-tests to learn more about our services or your symptoms.
