How a Healthy Mental State is key to a Healthy Physical State and Explain the Rise in High Crimes and Misdemeanors

I have always been an advocate in believing that the strongest part of the human body is the mind.  I believe that it is the mind that is the main actor in this play called “Life” and if we are to truly be in command of our destinies, we must first master our own individual minds.  The mind has been credited with the ability to heal the body and we know that people have been able to convince themselves of things even in the face of over-whelming evidence to the contrary.  What one perceives to be the truth is often the reason why they may react in a particular way or believe in certain things and because of those conflicts arises and many times resolutions to these conflicts can never be reached.  This results in added stress which can cripple a person’s physical health.  There are ways to help reduce this stress and the primary one is to exert as much effort spent to help our children with their mental work as we do with their homework.  It is the belief of many in the field of Psychology that there are major domains which require our undivided attention when it comes to educating our children.

It is important to assist in our children’s mastery of cognitive skills, some of which are addressed in the article titled “Mental Development Overview”, written by Joseph Lao, Ph.D. for Parenting Literacy in 2018.  Dr. Lao writes “One fruitful approach is to consider which cognitive skills children need to master in order to succeed in America.  I believe these include, but are not limited to, intelligence, wisdom, reasoning, learning, memory, knowledge, language, and creativity.” When it comes to intelligence, Dr. Lao writes “despite its long history as a subject of scientific investigation, intelligence is still not completely understood.  Part of the reason is that there still does not exist one common definition that is agreed upon by all psychologists.  One of the major controversies in the study of intelligence concerns the extent to which it is inherited (and therefore fixed) and the extent to which it may be modified by experience (i.e., learned).”  When it comes to wisdom, Dr. Lao writes “wisdom adds to intelligence a focus that is broader than the specific individual” and he focuses us on Dr. Robert Sternberg (at Yale University) saying that “Dr. Sternberg defines wisdom as doing what is best for oneself and others in the short run as well as the long run. Sternberg notes that wisdom is more concerned with the common good.”  For reasoning he says this “reasoning may be defined as the mental processes involved in solving problems, formulating judgments, making decisions, and planning.  These are what most people call "thinking".  Reasoning is also thought by many psychologists to be the main ingredient of intelligence.  Considerable scientific research reveals that reasoning may be improved through training”.  Under learning he further writes “learning may be defined as the processes by which we acquire abilities or information.  There are many physical and mental processes involved in learning (such as paying attention, reasoning, and memory).  And there are many different ways to learn (e.g., by reading, listening, or by discussion).  Of all the different forms of cognitive development, learning is one of the most important.  It is at the heart of mental growth, and makes it possible to prepare children for constructive engagement in society.  Like all of the other cognitive processes described here, the capacity of children to learn may be augmented through training”.  He writes that “memory is the set of processes by which we acquire, store, and retrieve information.  Memory is so ubiquitous that it is easy to underestimate its importance.” And for knowledge he says “it is important for parents to acknowledge that the knowledge their children possess is correlated with their reasoning ability.”  Language is defined by Dr. Lao as “language is a set of arbitrary symbols that we use to communicate about things or events around (or in) us.  The things to which language refers may be concrete or abstract.  Thus, language is an important medium (body language being another) by which our knowledge, thoughts, and feelings are communicated” and finally he ends with defining creativity as “creativity may be defined as the ability to formulate novel views and solutions to problems.”  These major domains have one common theme as defined by Dr. Lao and that is learned whether enhanced or fixed as previous mentioned. 

How Cognitive Skills are learned

 To get a better understanding of what is meant by learned, consider this article titled “Fear and Anxiety – An Age by Age Guide to Common Fears, The Reasons for Each and How to Manage Them” posted by Karen Young for Hey Sigmund at www.heysigmund.com in it she provides us with this example “a child who is scared of balloons would have probably experienced that jarring, terrifying panic that comes with the boom. It’s an awful feeling. Although we know it passes within moments, for a child who is still getting used to the world, the threat of that panicked feeling can be overwhelming.”  And we know that this fear may remain with that child for a very long time while on the other side of this coin, if this has never happened to a child, this child will not exhibit this behavior. The mind maintains its dominants over the body based on perception of a threat whether real or imaginary but another way of how the mind can dictate to the body is explained best in an article titled “Fight or Flight” by Ben Martin, Psy.D.  Dr. Martin shares with us this example “in a study of patients with high blood pressure (which can be a stress response), those who took placebos along with their medication for high blood pressure maintained a healthy blood pressure after the medication was removed, as long as they continued taking the placebo.”  These patients strongly believed that the placebo worked which allowed them to control their high blood pressure without real medication but the best example of just how much control over the body the mind has can be better understood by examining the age-old concept of flight or fight.

Flight or Fight

There are many excellent articles on flight or fight but I will only use a few of them.  Each depicts the cause and effect of the mind as it triggers reactions throughout the body.

We begin with an article titled “What Happens in the Brain When We Feel Fear And why some of us just can’t get enough of it” written by Arash Javanbakht and Linda Saab, Assistant Professors, Wayne State University.  It reports that “a stressful incident can make the heart pound and breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear.  This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to safety.”  While this is a good thing in most circumstances this same article warns that “Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family difficulties. 

Over the years, researchers have learned not only how and why these reactions occur, but have also gained insight into the long-term effects chronic stress has on physical and psychological health. Over time, repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. Research suggests that chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction. More preliminary research suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to obesity, both through direct mechanisms (causing people to eat more) or indirectly (decreasing sleep and exercise).”

These concerns are brought to the body by the mind and could be minimized by ones better command of the mind.  For a better understanding of exactly what happens with this flight or fight response/fear, let us consider the article titled “How the Fight or Flight Response Works” by Kendra Cherry and reviewed by Steven Gans, MD for Very Well Mind dot Com, updated September 21, 2018 and its suggestion that “the fear response starts in a region of the brain called the amygdala. This almond-shaped set of nuclei in the temporal lobe of the brain is dedicated to detecting the emotional salience of the stimuli – how much something stands out to us.  For example, a threat stimulus, such as the sight of a predator, triggers a fear response in the amygdala, which activates areas involved in preparation for motor functions involved in fight or flight. It also triggers release of stress hormones and sympathetic nervous system.  This leads to bodily changes that prepare us to be more efficient in a danger: The brain becomes hyper alert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow and stream of glucose to the skeletal muscles increase. Organs not vital in survival such as the gastrointestinal system slow down.

A part of the brain called the hippocampus is closely connected with the amygdala. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex help the brain interpret the perceived threat. They are involved in a higher-level processing of context, which helps a person know whether a perceived threat is real”.

Considering how often one may experience this response/fear especially considering that many may be imaginary, we can truly see how unhealthy to the physical state this could be.  Below we borrowed a graph from an article titled “How Fear Works” by Julia Layton for How Stuff Works dot Com;

SUMMARY:   How a healthy mental state is the key to a healthy physical state

Based upon all that we have discussed thus far, it should be clear why there is pure proof that the health of our mental state will greatly affect the health of our physical state.  This may just explain why yesterday’s medication, which may have worked well for us physically then does not seem to complete the task today.  Simply put, the issues has ceased being about the physical and is completely dominated by the mental and the medication given was never designed to affect that.

Let’s also assume that our mental state began as a simple illness as common as the cold but like any cold, we failed to diagnosis and treat it.  We allowed a simple cold to grow into now a full-blown epidemic except the epidemic we are dealing with now is strictly a mental illness we allowed to grow into a mental disorder.   We may wish to believe that this could never be but we have been led astray by the implications that having a mental illness is something to fear and be ashamed of.  We have been conditioned to think that seeking help with development of more modern coping skills is a sign of weakness or being cowardly but as we continue to have a more honest conversation, it should not escape detection that the longer we deny this as fact the closer we come to no longer wondering if one is sane or insane, but whether one is functional or non-functional.

Functionality versus Non-Functionality

Now many believe that if you are functional then you cannot be suffering from a mental illness which is not only a false perception but a very dangerous misconception.  It is not an idea of functionality versus non-functionality but simply a battle between whether you are dealing with an illness instead of a disorder.  Again, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 (DSM5) it states “a personality disorder is diagnosed when personality traits are so inflexible and maladaptive across a wide range of situations that they cause significant distress and impairment of social, occupational and role functioning.  The thinking, displays of emotion, impulsivity, and interpersonal behavior of the individual must deviate markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture in order to qualify as a personality disorder”.  

Now what that all means to any reader is there is a very distinct different between having a mental illness and having a mental disorder.  A mental illness is as common as the cold and like a cold is not properly diagnosed and treated will develop into something much worse like a disorder.  At the illness stage, there are many ways to control it, the main idea is to develop newer coping skills because those you used before no longer works.  The reason that they may not be working as well as they did before is you are dealing with a completely different illness than you did before.  It’s as simple as when you use the same remedy for your cold but for some reason it does not work as it used to.  You then need to find another way to control that cold.

Maintaining control over your mental illness allows you to function fine within your community and only when that illness turns into a crippling disorder does it truly make you non-functional.  Let’s take a look at a few of these personality disorders that right now may only exist as an illness for many people.  Borderline is defined as can’t control impulses, maintain relationships; histrionics is defined as excessive emotional and needs attention; narcissistic is defined as feeling as the most important person in the world and needs admiration; dependent is defined as unable to make own decision; avoidant is defined as the feeling of inadequacy and obsessive/compulsive is defined as pre-occupied with perfection all of these can and does lead to others and when they combine, they can be the most formidable opponent anyone has ever faced.  This is definitely not the time to run away, this is the time to marshal all of your forces and take charge of this illness, owning it before it owns you.  We mentioned just a tiny few of the illness that we ignore and they may soon blossom into a disorder but there is one we have yet to and this one, I am sure, is one that has touched each and every one of us but we may not be aware that it’s there.  I speak about the stealthy and over-looked disorder called “abandonment”.

Nothing proves this point better than an article titled “Abandonment” by an Unknown Author for Good Therapy Website at www.goodtherapy.org, this article lays it out clearly and quite convincingly by explaining “abandonment fear often stems from childhood loss. This loss could be related to a traumatic event, such as the loss of a parent through death or divorce. It can also come from not getting enough physical or emotional care. These early childhood experiences can lead to a fear of being abandoned by others later in life. Feeling unsafe due to a threatening situation like abuse or poverty can also cause trauma. Some degree of abandonment fear can be normal. But when fear of abandonment is severe and frequent, it can cause trouble. People who felt abandoned as children may be more likely to repeat this pattern with their children. Many of these signs of abandonment may also play out between people in a relationship. Either way, the impact can be pervasive. It may negatively affect any other relationships a person develops, whether they are intimate, social, or professional.  Abandonment fears can impair a person’s ability to trust others. They may make it harder for a person to feel worthy or be intimate. These fears could make a person prone to anxiety, depression, co dependence, or other issues. Abandonment issues are also linked to borderline personality (BPD) and attachment anxiety. Someone who lacks self-esteem due to childhood abandonment may seek relationships that reinforce their beliefs”.

We must ask ourselves and if we are honest how many of us does not possess one or more of those mentioned above yet we get up every morning and struggle through each day.  We function often times not as well as we wish but as well as we know how considering many of us still think we are not suffers.  So the idea that if you are functional, you cannot be suffering from a mental illness is foolish.  It’s often times the scars that are on the inside that needs the immediate care but because they are on the inside few if any know that we are suffering.

Because of that we allow having a mental illness to be caste as a stigma or something to be ashamed of or afraid of, so we do not seek help and only when life has become so overwhelming that our illness turns into a disorder does anyone discover that they could have possibly help but now it may be too late.  We fake honestly answering the questions about what a mental illness is but lest not us be fooled, it is not a white thing, it’s not a black thing, it’s not a man or woman thing and it is definitely not a rich or poor thing.  It is a human thing period and as long as we attempt to minimize this illness, this illness will stop being yours to own and soon elevate itself to own you.  You can safely assume that this and so many others illnesses have been around since the dawn of man and we have ignored, belittled and demised its existence for so long that now these illnesses has become a disorder and has made many choose to blame their suffering on other human beings.  It’s now okay to dislike someone else not for what they may have done to you personally but simply because they dress different, speak a different language, worship different, think different, act different and especially they look different.  It’s okay now to hate and as our history of this nation has proven, nothing justifies hate more than violence.