The Link Between Physical and Mental Health
What is the link between mental health and physical health/pain? There are many.
Today we will discuss one of them, which we refer to as a “functional reserve“. If you don’t have a functional reserve, as soon as you have a challenge, you’ll break down.
We’ve seen many, many people over the years, and it doesn’t take long to see the concept come true that two people can have a similar injury or accident, but vastly different experiences in pain and problems that follow.
Imagine you aren’t eating well, aren’t sleeping well, aren’t coping well with emotional stress, and have a few nagging previous injuries that have not been addressed.
Now imagine your body as a vehicle that needs fuel to run.
In this situation, the gas tank is nearly empty, because these stressors (poor diet, lack of sleep, inadequate mental health coping mechanisms, and ongoing physical compensations) seriously drain your system.
Think about it this way: if you continue to try to drive your car on empty, you can actually start doing damage to the car. You start to tax other parts of the car that are not meant to be used for this. Running on empty will increase the amount of maintenance needed in the long run.
NOW, what do you think happens when a person in this state experiences a traumatic event? A car accident? Death of a loved one? Lose their job? What about 2, or all 3 of these at the same time?
If their body and mind were not well taken care of before, they certainly will not be adequately managing now. In the psychotherapy arena, these are referred to as vulnerability factors: events/conditions that make us more vulnerable and sensitive to an emotional response.
This is when people tend to break down, and they have multiple levels of “dysfunction”.
There is good news: there is help.
These systems in your body can be managed back to functional levels if you put the work in.
Let us show you how.
