The Invisible Scar
“At the root of this dilemma is the way we view mental health in this country. Whether an illness affects your heart, your leg or your brain, it’s still an illness, and there should be no distinction.”
– Michelle Obama
In the world where time rushes past us like a baffling wave in a furious ocean, there is no pursuit more prominent than a mental disorder.
Imagine what it would feel like to be strangled?
You first feel pressure on your throat. This pressure slowly becomes a buzzing sound in the back of your head. Gradually you see stars and then lose vision. Your brain begins to panic and the body heats up rapidly. This is often followed by unconsciousness where the body becomes cold with time and eventually, a stroke causes death.
Interestingly, these graphic sounding experiences are the same faced by a patient of anxiety or chronic depression and other illnesses like autophobia.
Repressed emotions do not die but often come forth in ugly ways. My purpose is to shed light on how inhibition of emotional expression and experience can endanger our health, both physically and psychologically including our general wellbeing.
Research has shown that over 80% of all physicians’ visits have to do with a socio-emotional challenge, while only 16% can be considered solely pathophysiologic in nature. One study discovered that 84 % of 567 common complaints, such as dizziness and chest pain, indicated no medical diagnosis. The ways in which humans manage their emotions has become one of the most important yet, least examined concerns in medicine today.
Emotions are physiological phenomena. When poorly managed or regulated, they can lead to negative health and psychological consequences. It is important to acknowledge that feelings and emotions are not responsible for health disorders and sicknesses. Rather, it is the protracted reliance on self-defence against the expression of emotions and feelings that creates the tension required for a disease to thrive, in the body and mind alike.
“The deeper you cage a prisoner, the more resentful it gets. The day it escapes, it wreaks havoc.” – Thoughts about repression: Alice Miller
The first step to healing is awareness and acceptance.
If you regularly feel numb, nervous, tend to forget things or regularly experience unease or discomfort when other people tell you about their feelings or feel cheerful and calm most of the time — there is a chance you’re running from an expression of emotions.
Self-Aid comes first.
A few things you can do to slowly become more aware and expressive of feelings are:
• Check-in.
Ask yourself how you feel right now. If you have a hard time speaking your emotions at first, trying using words or colours in a journal or piece of art. For some, music may be the channel to decipher what you’re feeling.
• Use “I” statements.
Practice expressing your feelings with phrases like “I feel confused. I feel nervous. I feel terrified.”
• Focus on the positive.
It seems like the more obvious thing to do, but the goal is to get more comfortable with all your emotions, not just the good parts.
No matter what emotion you’re feeling, avoid judging yourself or telling yourself you shouldn’t feel a certain way.
• Make it a habit.
Practice naming and sharing your emotions with the people you feel closest to. Encourage them to share their feelings, too.
The human brain is complex machinery. So are matters of emotion. You never know what hurts where and what damages what.
Mental Disorders have no visible symptoms like a runny nose — it’s just a head full of darkness. No fever, no rash or sprains, just an unsettling school of thoughts racing through a troubled headspace.
Mental disorders are a taboo even now.
Get treatment. Don’t let stigma hold you back from seeking help.
Don’t let stigma create self-doubt and shame. You may have the mistaken belief that your condition is a sign of personal weakness, or that you should be able to control it on your own. Seek help from mental health services and educate yourself about your condition.
Try to constructively influence the people in your life. When you hear people say things that show they do not understand mental illness, use the opportunity to share with them some of the information that you have or share your story.
Speak out against stigma. Find the right forums to express your opinions whether at the workplace or in your personal life. Your speaking out may help build courage in others facing similar challenges.
There is no battle harder than a battle against the mind and no war fiercer than a war against yourself, and if today, all you did was hold yourself together, be proud.
You did it.
