Many people don’t think about their psychological or emotional health when faced with a chronic illness but the connection—according to recent studies—is unavoidable. Over the years, I’ve seen thousands of people with various chronic disease conditions that have tried dozens of different approaches to remedy their problem. Most of these approaches involved conventional medicine, Chiropractic, acupuncture and nutritional therapy but few had utilized any specific therapy to address their mental or emotional health as an adjunct to addressing a chronic disease.

As a population, we sometimes have different ideas about how to address our mental and emotional health depending on our up-bringing, our worldview and our education. I will be presenting some suggestions that I know to be helpful but my recommendations are not to be construed as the only solution. We are all on a learning curve so this advice is given humbly recognizing that this subject is the most complex area that makes up the human experience.

Studies have shown that stress, anxiety and other negative mental states can manifest physical symptoms and lead to underlying changes in various tissues and organs including the muscles and joints of the body. There’s an entire field of study called Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology. (Say that fast 3 times). This field of inquiry actually conducts studies to examine the relationship of our phyche to our nervous, immune and hormonal systems. Some very interesting findings have emerged in recent years with respect to the effects of stress upon the physiology of the human body. People who engage in certain stress reducing activities have a better immune response. Those individuals who go to bed early and have good quality sleep tend to have less chronic disease. Folks who attend church on a regular basis tend to live longer. These are just a few examples of how our mind which comprises our psyche, our emotions and our belief system influences our physical bodies.

Hypercortisolemia, the excess production of the adrenal stress hormone cortisol, has been shown to cause a variety of negative physical symptoms including anxiety, fatigue, arthralgia (joint pain), myalgia (muscle pain), insomnia, excess body fat accumulation and depression. Since this subject matter is so vast, I will present what I believe to be the three main categories that must be modified in order to achieve optimal results.

Dysfunctional Childhood Environment

The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.

Wendell Berry

This is an area that’s very difficult for some people to talk about or even think about. Some of us were raised in a relatively healthy home by loving parents and don’t understand the struggle that other children had to endure. If you identify as one who experienced what some call a dysfunctional childhood, it’s better to talk to someone about it than to keep it locked up inside you which will ultimately lead to anger, resentment and depression. Our behavior is often very automated based on our upbringing. We don’t always understand why we do what we do. We simply react almost automatically. This is not to say that we cannot change. I believe that most of the time, we have the ability to choose to change.

Identifying The Problem

We first have to recognize that there’s a problem either in our behavior or in our response to people or situations that elicits some disproportional stress. The possibility that some dysfunctional behavior may be rooted in a dysfunctional childhood environment is something that each individual must ask him or her self by conducting a self-evaluation. Because this is an area that can involve physical or sexual abuse, yelling, drugs, abusive language and many other hurtful experiences, I’m not going to pretend to give trite or cavalier answers to these experiences. I can only advise one to

seek good counseling and to acknowledge the problem because only if we acknowledge that there’s a problem can we begin to employ a solution.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the single most important thing to release resentment and begin to heal. We sometimes say to ourselves, “I will forgive, but I’ll never forget.” This is why it’s often necessary to consciously forgive others who have done us harm and to remind ourselves from time to time that we forgave them and continue to forgive. When you hold in resentment toward another person, the one it hurts the most is you.

Guilt—Anger—Fear

Guilt, anger and fear are grouped together simply because they are all strong emotions that evoke a stress response. Guilt is also referred to as shame. Anger is associated with resentment. Fear can sometimes be accompanied by paranoia.

Guilt

Guilt leads to shame and can eat away at our body and our personality. The opposite of guilt is a clear conscience or what may be summed up as peace.There are different perspectives on how to deal with guilt. I will discuss guilt from a Judeo-Christian worldview. The ultimate underlying cause of guilt and shame is sin. Sin is simply missing the mark of perfection which is what we all—as humans—do. We sin against God and we sin against others so naturally we experience guilt that either we acknowledge or deny. If we are honest with ourselves, we must ask our self if we have wronged another person and then go to that person and ask for forgiveness. If the opposite is true and someone has wronged you, then you should communicate to him or her that you don’t hold it against him.

Anger

Anger is not always evil. Some anger is justified and some clearly is not. Anger is usually a matter of someone crossing our will in some way or hurting us either physically, emotionally, financially or spiritually. The opposite of anger is love so the time that we spend in our lives being angry is time spent not loving others. Since we know how good it feels to be loved by others, our desire should be to love others and to do unto

others as you would want them to do unto you.The emotion of anger is associated with the liver and gallbladder so the health or lack of health of these important organs can lead to anger and anger expressed as an emotion can negatively affect our liver among many other organs. Anger requires a great deal of energy to exert and is really taxing on our body. I believe that we should consider the reason for a specific anger and do everything in our power to diffuse this toxic emotion. Make no mistake: anger serves an important purpose and is even a tool of survival at times. What I’m discussing is harboring unnecessary anger that may be inducing, promoting or triggering a physical disease process in your body. This brings us back to the concept of forgiveness and the importance of doing what we know we should both for ourselves and for others who may have wronged us.

Fear

Uncontrolled fear is devastating to our health and can dramatically affect the immune and endocrine systems of your body. Fear is the opposite of confidence but our confidence should not be rooted in ourselves but rather it should be rooted in who we are as individuals in Christ. Being overly confident is pride and arrogance but healthy confidence is all about who we are and what we can do with our master/teacher empowering us. If you think that the power is merely within you and you listen to Tony Robbins: Unleash The Power Within, you will end up extremely disappointed. Our power in ourselves is extremely limited but God’s power that He freely gives to us is unlimited.

As an emotion, fear is associated with the kidneys and the adrenal glands but it can manifest deleterious effects in many other organs as well. Fear weakens the body by leaching many vital nutrients out of the blood stream that are desperately needed for other biochemical processes. Fear is usually expressed as constant worrying about things that we may or may not have any control over. Worrying is basically meditating on the negative over and over. Though fear is a very real emotion and all of us as humans experience it to varying degrees, we do not have to be a slave to fear or worry—there’s always a solution. Don’t make decisions in life based on fear of what may or may not happen. Make your decisions prayerfully and intelligently using wisdom from Gods word and being well informed realizing that God is ultimately in control.

Turn your worrying into meditation of Gods word and talk with God about your worries. Worrying is negative meditation–dwelling on something that needs to be changed but not knowing how to change it. God does know how to change it and solve your problem so talk to Him about it as you would talk to a friend. If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. Meditation is dwelling on what you and God can do together to solve your current problem with the confidence that everything will be Ok. Ask God to take over the steering wheel of your life to guide your path and to open doors of opportunity for you.

From a nutritional/biochemical perspective, you can improve the function of your kidneys by consuming more purified water and limiting your intake of coffee and alcohol. Also, limit your consumption of fried/deep fried foods as the highly heated oils stress the kidneys. These are important measures that can be taken to lower the level of fear that one experiences and can work in concert with my other recommendations.

Self-Destructive/Self Defeating Behavior (Addictions & Bad Habits)

This third category is really about becoming consciously aware of those things that we’re doing automatically that are clearly not in our best interest. This topic can be applied to all the others above because it’s an over-arching influence upon our relative success or failure in every area of our lives. Generally speaking, thoughts give rise to feelings and feelings give rise to actions. So the battle begins in the mind and this is where most of us struggle is in our private thoughts. It’s been wisely said that when you change your thoughts, you change your feelings, when change your feelings, you change your actions/behavior, when you change your actions/behavior, you change your character. And when you change your character, you change your destiny. Many people have been programmed throughout their lives including their childhood with negative messages that continue to play over and over in their minds—almost as if an inner voice were audibly speaking into their ears on a regular basis saying, “I’m not good enough.” “I’m not that attractive.” “People don’t respect me.” “I’m not that smart.” “I’m probably going to fail….” And on and on. This lack of confidence and feelings of inadequacy are rooted in self-defeating, negative tapes that play over and over in our heads but are lies that we can and must reject. The reality is that we don’t have to be at the mercy of negative thoughts and feelings—with God as our master teacher, we have power over them. The scriptures tell us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Also, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding; in every way acknowledge Him and He will make your path successful.” We simply need to learn how to conquer negative thoughts and feelings which requires a proactive approach.

Addiction can generally be categorized as either physical/physiological or psychological/emotional but its not always either/or; it can be both. We always attempt to identify the primary vs. the secondary underlying cause in each individual. We are not only referring to drug addiction/substance abuse but also to food addiction which in many ways is even more insidious because it’s considered to be relatively innocuous and not really a big deal but in reality, it leads to very serious consequences. Since we as humans are mostly guided each day by our habits, those habits either lead to a positive result or to a negative one.

The issue becomes, are you engaging in more positive habits that lead to a healthy outcome or are you engaging in enough bad habits that promote subtle changes in your body that ultimately manifest as symptoms of chronic disease? Addiction is sometimes referred to as out-of-control-behavior but I’m of the firm belief that with the right help, all behavior is modifiable given the opportunity.

This is not to say that everyone finds the right help in time but given each ones level of commitment to search for the right information and their willingness to try different therapies and remedies, the right solution can usually be apprehended. I do think that some people’s behavior can legitimately be defined as out-of-control-behavior but I also firmly believe that with God’s wisdom and direct intervention we can ultimately have control over our out-of-control-behavior. God always provides a rescue– there’s always a solution.

I’m going to provide a short list of books that I highly recommend you read to fully grasp the concepts that I’m about to share.

1. Success God’s Way (Charles Stanley)
2. Divine Conspiracy (Dallas Willard)
3. Lord, Change My Attitude (James MacDonald)
4. The Holiness of God (RC Sproul)
   The combined wisdom in these 4 books is equivalent–in my opinion–to reading 1000 books.

Actions: Apply the 4 principles of action:

Thoughts: Dwell on that which is lovely. Refuse to dwell on the negatives of your past but rather think with hopeful anticipation about the possibilities of the future. It’s been wisely said that when driving your car, we look through the windshield at least 90% of the time and occasionally glance in the rear view mirror. If we drive and stare in the rear view mirror 80-90% of the time, we will crash and burn. Begin to journal your thoughts–write them down and talk them over with God as you would a best friend. Remember: God doesn’t merely love you–He really likes you and wants your attention and your love in return. Seek wisdom in every area of your life from God’s word. Do not rely on the wisdom of this world which is foolishness to God. Use the ultimate standard of truth which is the 66 books that make up the Bible.

Feelings: Maintain your feelings within the context of God’s desires for your life using discipline and obedience. Do not allow your decision making to be dictated merely by feelings. Our feelings ebb and flow like the tide of the ocean–in a state of constant flux. The eternal truths of God’s great universe remain constant–unchanging. The scripture says that if you build your house on sand, one day the wind and rain will come and blow your house away but if you build your house on a rock, it will withstand any storm. We all experience “Storms” throughout our lives but if our mind and our heart is rooted in solid bedrock which is the name given to Jesus of Nazareth, we cannot go wrong.

Laziness: refuse to give in to laziness. At every twist and turn, ask yourself if you’re not doing the right thing simply because you’re being lazy.

Laziness causes us to procrastinate–to put off things we know we should do now. If you give in to laziness and procrastination, you will become their slave. If you identify yourself as being a little lazy, begin asking what the cause may be. It might be rooted in a lack of energy since physical energy and enthusiasm go together, you may be lacking energy. The most important modifier of your energy is quality sleep. The next most important modifier of energy is what we put in our mouth from meal to meal. PLEASE SEE ARTICLE ENTITLED: From Degeneration To Regeneration.

Discipline: make discipline your best friend. Discipline allows you to do what you know needs to be done regardless of how you feel at any given moment. Discipline is basically obedience to God’s Word and/or to your own personal commitments regardless of how you feel at the moment.

Time is valuable–we can never get it back so use it wisely–use it efficiently. And don’t waste it. Discipline always looks ahead at the end result of benefit realizing that the consequence of not exerting discipline will result in hardship, pain and regret.

By: David Serio