As many 
of you know, stress can be a big trigger for autoimmune flares. And it is not just stress, other mental health conditions tend to go hand in hand with autoimmune diseases, including depression and anxiety. Addressing mental health is imperative for any healing journey. Below I discuss a few mental health tools that may help you cope with these mental health challenges.
Relationship Between Mental Health & Autoimmune Disease
Mental health issues are very common among the autoimmune population. Individuals with autoimmune diseases are twice as likely to develop depression. Stress is one of the major underlying causes of chronic illnesses in general, including autoimmune diseases. A 2016 study found that people with increased inflammation were 4x more likely to commit suicide than those with less inflammation. All of that is troubling, considering the rise of autoimmune disease diagnosis over recent years.
Besides therapy, there are several alternative options to help people cope with the stress and anxiety of living with a chronic disease. The trick here is to find the one, or few, that resonate with you. Not everyone is a meditator, and there are plenty of other modalities to try that are low cost and available to everyone.
Habit #1: Meditation
Meditation is something I personally practice on a daily basis. It trains the mind to focus and calm down. In addition, meditation has been widely researched for its many benefits. First off, it is a very effective way to lower stress and anxiety. Meditation can also help improve cognition, lower inflammation, improve sleep and reduce chronic pain.
There are several different ways to meditate. It is important to find the one that resonates with you. I personally use a mantra based meditation that I learned from Ziva Meditation. There is also mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, love and kindness meditation, and more.
Habit #2: Biofeedback Devices
The next mental health habit to investigate is using a biofeedback device. These devices give you real time feedback on your heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a self-regulation measurement for stress. It measures the heart rate changes or durations between breaths. The more your heart rate changes from fast (during an inhale) to slow (during an exhale), the more coherent heart rate is. Therefore, the higher the HRV, the more regulated your stress response.
Biofeedback devices help you understand and better regulate your heart rate. Using these devices uncover what stress feels like in your body, and how to use your breath and positive thoughts to lower stress. I use the Inner Balance Trainer by Heartmath, but there are plenty of others that provide HRV feedback in real time.
Habit #3: Positive Affirmations
Daily positive affirmations are a simple way to improve stress and depression. Using positive self-talk and shifting your outlook from negative to positive can truly impact stress levels and improve your general outlook on life. Positive affirmations have a number of other benefits that include: lower pain levels, less incidence of illness, lower risk of death from cancer, infections and respiratory conditions, and a better ability to cope with difficult challenges.
When doing positive affirmations, it is important to say things that are realistic and believable. You want to say things that you actually believe. After practicing positive affirmations, a good challenge is to say one new one every day that you cannot repeat. This forces you to start looking for the positive things in your life.
Habit #4: Nature
Lastly, spending time in nature is a great, and free, habit to try. Nature has a unique ability to lower stress in just 10 minutes. The Japanese are the ones who discovered the benefits of forest bathing. It started in the 1980’s as a way to combat stress-related illness and death from the rapid industrialization of Japan. The Japanese government launched multiple studies to uncover the benefits of forest bathing. They found that spending time in nature while tapping into the senses helped lower cortisol, blood pressure, heart rate and immune system response.
A more recent review study out of Cornell found that 10-20 minutes in nature was enough to lower stress responses for college aged students. I love this habit because nature is free, and it doesn’t take much time to see the positive effects that nature has on stress levels.
As a reminder, these habits are not a replacement for therapy if you do have more serious mental health issues. Rather, these are habits to complement the other healing modalities you are doing, and can help for minor issues like stress management. Please seek out a qualified practitioner for more urgent mental health issues and needs.
If you need help managing your autoimmune disease, or would like to start a healing journey, I can help! Please contact me for more information about how we can work together. Additionally, you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube for more tips.
Photo credit: Total Shape on Unsplash
