The body, host to the mind, can influence its invisible partner. I was reminded of this when traveling with a missionary friend in Africa. During our trip, he was stricken with malaria. Over several days, this normally articulate individual was frequently delirious. At such times it was impossible for me to discuss anything of a serious nature with him.
Most people need a given amount of sleep or they become irritable. Induction of a narcotic or alcohol into the body decreases the ability to think clearly. Even food can affect the mental process.
Though the body can influence the mind and one’s emotional state, medical science asserts that the mind holds even greater mastery over the body.
One day I encountered a highway accident just after it had happened. Three badly injured bodies lay motionless on the pavement. A survivor simply sat on the roadway and stared unseeingly at those who had been members of his family. Another who had lived through the crash stood beside the overturned car and screamed, “I killed them! I killed them! They told me to slow down. Why didn’t I listen?”
I walked away from that scene literally sick to my stomach. In driving off I noticed that the muscles in my arms and legs were tense. I sighed frequently. My body had undergone distinct changes that were the result of my reaction to not only that bloody scene, but the intense ways those involved were experiencing it.
Though the body can influence the mind and one’s emotional state, medical science asserts that the mind holds even greater mastery over the body.
Matt came to see me because he was not only experiencing problems at home, he was not eating well. Most days he would arrive home in a good mood and would be hungry for dinner. Then his wife would begin to air her complaints. Perhaps he had slammed the door when he had come in. Or he might have been a few minutes late. Or he had forgotten to run an errand for her on his way home. So just before dinner was ready, his body would become tense and he would lose his appetite. His reaction to his wife produced drastic bodily changes.
Emily reported she suffered from severe headaches. As we discussed her symptoms, we discovered that they always occurred when her fiancé failed to call when he said he would. A further look back through her life showed that her headaches started about the time something went wrong with her plans to attend college.
Alex sought counseling at the recommendation of his physician. “How can you help me get over a stiff neck?” he asked, truly puzzled. As he told his story, it became clear that life was to him one big pain in the neck. The tenseness of his neck muscles gave him the pain. He was tense because he approached the problems in his life as if he were a football lineman charging his opponent.
Nicole was a beautiful, well-educated woman. But in certain situations, she was having difficulty swallowing her food. As we talked, I learned that these times of difficulty came in connection with appointments with me that her husband demanded that she make and keep. She resented his demands. She actually could not “swallow” them.
Think of the common expressions that unite mind and body:
- My heart was in my mouth.
- I was so frightened I nearly jumped out of my skin.
- I was scared stiff.
- He makes my blood run cold.
- I was shocked.
These expressions indicate the relationship that truly exists between the mental/emotional state of a person and the workings of his body. This is not new information! For a better understanding of how this relationship functions, we must turn to the physician.
Clinically Proven
Dr. O. Spurgeon English, one of the first psychotherapists to write about the connections between mental and physical health, was a practicing psychiatrist when he was appointed a professor of clinical psychiatry at Temple University. In the 1940’s (!), with Edward Weiss, who was also an M.D., he co-authored the book Psychosomatic Medicine, the first medical text to make the connection between stress and physical ailments, and a book that is still available in hard cover copy. Starting in the 1950’s, he led a Temple Hospital department created to treat people suffering from depression and stress-induced illnesses. One of his colleagues described him as “one of the great American psychiatrists of the 20th century.” He frequently spoke out about the role of emotions in mental and physical health. His research was so foundational that it is still relative today.
He wrote that there are certain emotional centers in the brain that are linked to the entire body through the autonomic nervous system. Charges of emotions are relayed from the brain, down the spinal cord, and through the autonomic nerves to the blood vessels, muscle tissues, mucous membranes, and skin. Under emotional stress, all parts of the body can be subject to physical discomfort because of a change in blood nourishment, glandular function, or muscle tone.1
You may be thinking, How can thoughts and feelings going through my mind cause pain in some part of my body far from my brain? Dr. English explained that emotions such as fear can cause the mouth to become dry. This means that the blood vessels have constricted and the blood supply and glandular activity have been reduced. This dryness will occur, for example, in someone who must make a speech and is afraid. Various emotions which have their source in the brain find their way through definite pathways to the stomach.2 When a troublesome person can’t be coped with, we say we can’t “stomach” him—and that may be literally true.
Laboratory tests have shown that under emotional stress the same decrease in glandular activity occurs in the mucous membrane and various parts of the digestive tract. Not only does the blood supply change markedly, but secretions of various types increase or decrease in an abnormal manner. Changes in muscle tone in the digestive region can occur, causing painful cramps. It has also been proven that emotional stress will increase the size of the blood vessels in the head: this change in turn produces pain because of the stretching of the tissues around the blood vessels and their pressure on the nerve endings.
Of the heart, Dr. English wrote:
Without the presence of any heart disease whatever, psychosomatic patients are prone to increased heart rate, irregularities of rhythm, unusual sensations about the heart such as oppression, tightening, pain, and numbness sometimes accompanied by shortness of breath and the feeling of faintness and weakness, possibly giddiness. Along with this so-called “spell” there may be a general “all-gone” feeling, free perspiration, accompanied by a sinking sensation and the feeling as if the patient would fall in a heap.3
Joe collapsed at work and was rushed to a hospital. His coworkers thought he had had a heart attack. But the hospital evaluation revealed that he had not had a heart attack. His body was stressed in other ways. Apparently, he had been experiencing problems in several areas of his life. He and his wife were not getting along. His neighbor had acquired a dog that barked all night. A recent promotion had put him under more pressure than his previous position. And, as an only child, he was trying to help his elderly parents find an appropriate care facility. Why did he collapse? Because he was not adjusting well to his life situations.
Dr. English points out that interpersonal conflict can be the reason for disorders of the digestive tract:
For decades it has been known that an (interpersonal) problem which cannot be solved by the mind itself is prone to be “turned over” or “taken up” by some other part of the body. When an irritating friend or a troublesome family member cannot be coped with, the patient becomes “sick,” he simply can’t “stomach” it. The physician knows that the cause of these gastrointestinal disturbances is emotional conflict.4
The Bible describes many emotions which cause physical symptoms: hatred, resentment, quarreling, rage, jealousy, self-centeredness, envy, sorrow, fear. Many of these words describe reactions to someone or something. Such reactions are not pleasant to acknowledge in one’s life and so we tend to deny their presence and perhaps deceive ourselves.
Actual disease or injury of the nervous system is easily observable under the microscope. Structural changes can be seen. If you have a viral infection in a nerve, you feel pain and tenderness along the course of the nerve. If you sever a main nerve running to a muscle, you are unable to move the muscle. But a “nervous” person has no physical impairment.
And so we see that a person can have a disease of the nerves without being “nervous” or, on the other hand, can experience “nervousness” or anxiety and have an apparently normal nervous system. The complaints of the “nervous” person are usually lodged in their stomach or intestines or heart—organs that are not a part of the nervous system.
Paul drove several hundred miles to reach our clinic. He came because he had stomach pains that the physicians he had seen said were “functional.” “That means,” he said with a wincing grin and a report from the Mayo Clinic fresh in his memory, “that my stomach pains are all in my head.”
Functional pain is characterized by pain that has no physical explanation or findings. It essentially means that the pain that is being experienced is not caused by a disease. It also usually implies that the individual is not meeting his emotional problems in a wholesome way.
“They asked me if I was having any problems,” he said. “What does that have to do with my stomach?”
When we first started talking, the idea of his getting well by talking to a counselor seemed like a big joke to Paul. But life to Paul was no joke. Especially his employment. As we talked, it became apparent that two events of several months ago were still “grinding” him. Paul worked in a factory and he had been transferred from one machine to another without any discussion as to whether or not he even wanted to work in that specific spot. Then a company safety officer came along and ordered him to wear safety glasses. Paul refused, saying, “I never have and I never will.” The company left it up to him—wear the glasses or quit. He put on the glasses.
The Bible points the way to a cure: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.”
As we talked, he was angry when we discussed his work situation. It was hard for him to admit it, but he hated his work, his boss, and the safety officer. He literally burned within. He was tolerating a distasteful work situation, and now he hated going to work. As far as his stomach was concerned, he was sure cancer was eating it up.
What was really eating up Tom was a long-term, slow-burn of hate. Paul said the physicians at the Mayo Clinic had called it nervous exhaustion, resulting from mental cross-purposes. He was defeated by a personal problem. He held grudges against his boss and the safety officer. He could not express his resentment openly and keep his job, so he hid it. But in the effort, he experienced muscular pain as well as heart palpitations and stomachaches. The interesting thing was that he could switch from the anguished details of his physical suffering to a cheerful, animated discussion of other parts of his life. Turn the conversation back to his work and he would grimace. “I didn’t realize how much I hate those men,” he finally said.
Physician S.I. McMillen, a medical missionary to Africa, wrote of the devastating effects of hatred:
The moment I start hating a man, I become his slave. I can’t enjoy my work anymore because he even controls my thoughts. My resentments produce too many stress hormones in my body and I become fatigued after only a few hours of work. The work I formerly enjoyed is now drudgery. Even vacations cease to give me pleasure. It may be a luxurious car that I drive along a lake fringed with the autumnal beauty of maple, oak, and birch. As far as my experience of pleasure is concerned, I might as well be driving a wagon in mud and rain.
The man I hate hounds me wherever I go. I can’t escape his tyrannical grasp on my mind. When the waiter serves me porterhouse steak with French fries, asparagus, crisp salad, and strawberry shortcake smothered with ice cream, it might as well be stale bread and water. My teeth chew the food and I swallow it, but the man I hate will not permit me to enjoy it…. The man I hate may be many miles from my bedroom; but more cruel than any slave driver, he whips my thoughts into such a frenzy that my innerspring mattress becomes a rack of torture. The lowliest of the serfs can sleep, but not I. I really must acknowledge the fact that I am a slave to every man on whom I pour the vials of my wrath.5
Fortunately, the Bible points the way to a cure: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31–32).
Strecker and Appel have an additional comment on the relationship of emotions to the body:
If aroused to a high pitch, shame, distress, hate, envy, jealousy all strike to the very core of our being. They leave us worn, tired, incapable, and almost helpless. The blush of shame, the haggard countenance of distress, the consuming burning of jealousy and envy, and the facial and vocal expressions of hate are striking testimonials to the deteriorating effect of these emotions upon the body. We may jump with joy or droop with sorrow.6
Notice that there are many of the same words in this paragraph as Dr. English uses to describe hurtful emotions.
Responding Biblically
S. I. McMillen says the stress of living does not cause big or little problems to adversely affect the body. Rather, it is our reactions to our problems. Stress can be beneficial. It is the spirit of retaliation that calls forth emotional and physical toxins.
Is it not a remarkable fact that our reactions to stress determine whether stress is going to cure us or make us sick? Here is an important key to longer and happier living. We hold the key and can decide whether stress is going to work for us or against us. Our attitude decides whether stress makes us ‘better or bitter.’7
Patients experiencing physical symptoms brought on by mental pain believe they need the kind of medicine that comes in a box or bottle. But they fail to recognize, say Strecker and Appel, that the medicine they need is mental peace. “It is almost axiomatic that in the presence of a clear, honest, and conscious understanding of the conflict, a neurosis cannot occur.”8
This does not mean that you are taking responsibility for very real pains that have been committed against you. But, it does mean that you are taking responsibility for your own responses to situations that are causing you to be angry, or bitter, or jealous. The Bible tells us to confess our sin in order to experience God’s peace. 1 John 1:9 say, “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Admit to God that you are holding on to resentment, and then cleansing—fellowship with the Lord and inner peace—will be yours.
Only the refreshing cleansing that comes from God is capable of washing away all aches and pains brought on by troubled emotions.
Reflection Questions
- What ideas in this chapter are new to you?
- What physical responses do you have when you experience excitement, anxiety, stress, or disappointment?
- In what ways have you seen the principles of this chapter working themselves out in peoples’ lives?
- Do you currently have any on-going physical issues that cannot be specifically tied to an injury or illness?
- In what ways are you harboring bitterness or resentment or disappointment (or some other negative emotion) in your heart?
Take One Action Step
Take some time to reflect on your own negative emotions. Are you holding on to some past experience that could potentially cause you to experience physical symptoms because you are refusing to honestly deal with your own emotions about it? Talk to God about it!