Emotions and Health

These days almost half of all visits to primary care physicians like me are for matters of the heart and the spirit. Ricardo was a 10 year old boy whose mother brought him to see me because of a pain in his chest. She asked me, "Do you think he needs to cry?" The pain began after an older boy had stolen his bicycle. His loss, his fear, his sadness, went beyond any prescription medicine I had for his pain. Emotions are strong drivers of our health. Substance abuse problems occur because of the need to self medicate emotional pain. Relief of such pain comes through recovery groups like AA and the power of counseling and tools such as mindfulness. We must all work to maintain a healthy, emotional life or else pay a steep price for the resulting trauma to our spirits. Here's hoping that you are finding ways to live a healthy emotional life. This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.