Is It All In Your Head? Is it Mental or Physical or Both?
Cynthia L Elliott
Helping Executives & Brands Glow-Up & Grow | Inspirational Speaker | 2x #1 Best-Selling Author | Conscious Living Teacher | Marketing & PR Pioneer | Creative Director & Producer | Philanthropist
We have a problem in America, quite a few but I digress. Aside from the fact that big pharma funds the medical researchers who write the diagnostic manual for mental health in this country (facts!), which may explain the absurd increase in the number of mental health labels that “need” pills, we live in a world that has become too quick to label physical health issues as mental health issues without accepting the powerful tie that confuses the two. That is painfully true if you are female.
In recent weeks, I have been gifted with clarity and reminders over some of the issues I have dealt with in mental versus physical health in medical care. First, let me say that I strongly believe that we can turn the tide of the mental health crisis by raising human consciousness and teaching spiritual practices that create mind, body, and soul harmony. Which is why those two principles are the mission of all of my work. Secondly, let me say that our world has become far too quick to label people with mental health issues without checking to see if those issues stem from physical health issues.
In both my books, I shared my family’s struggles with depression and illness. I 100% believe that unresolved trauma can lead to serious health issues. I have watched it happen. I have also watched the women in my family be labeled with mental health issues that were caused by physical health issues. It took my mother nearly 10 years to get diagnosed with celiac. My mother would have lived far longer if she had been given proper medical treatment. For years, she was told she had depression when depression was a symptom of celiac. When I look back, I see her depression coming on during the years she struggled to get medical help.
It should shock you to learn that it takes four times longer for women to get diagnosed with the same thing as a man. It is years of life that lead to worse health issues and often mental health issues. Many physical health issues can cause symptoms of mental health issues that lead to more serious mental health struggles. Years of being dismissed and gaslit by doctors can cause many issues and is sadly the experience for the average woman in America.
I was thinking about all of this last night in bed. I have been sick for a couple of weeks because I unknowingly introduced gluten into my diet a few weeks back. I had noticed I was gluten sensitive but a combination of not wanting to be anything like my mother and having my health issues dismissed for years had caused me to be in denial of having serious gluten issues. I had every single symptom but have never been able to get a doctor to give me a gluten test, even though they were all aware most of my family died young from things like celiac and diabetes. However, they were ALL SUPER quick to pass out pills to deal with the depression that I now see didn’t start until I began to have serious gut issues. What came first, right?
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As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I thought it a great time to highlight the struggles many of us face with a healthcare system incentivized to prescribe money-making pills for mental health issues and de-incentivized by the insurance mob to offer proper testing to people to see if their mental health isn’t being challenged by physical health issues. Those two things are directly linked and it is hard to separate them, making staying in mind, body, and soul harmony that much more important.
Have a beautiful day!
Shaman Isis