Can Emotions Make Us Sick?

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

We rarely stop to think about how our emotions manifest in our bodies. If you don’t believe they do, think about the last time you got really angry. Maybe your heart pounded, your jaw clenched, or you got red-faced and sweaty. You may have had a rush of rage-induced energy and an overwhelming urge to say words that sailors say.

Your emotional reaction affects your physical body.

In a world governed by scientific thinking, our physical bodies and emotions are often thought of as separate. But many ancient cultures—and the medical systems they developed—recognized a deep connection between them. They understood that emotions could profoundly influence us physically and change the course of our health—for better or worse.

Chinese medicine has understood the body/mind connection for thousands of years. It believes that emotions are vital to our health and, when mismanaged, can cause disease.

In this sophisticated system, emotions are associated with specific organs, seasons, elements, colors, and tastes. Emotions and the physical body have a bidirectional relationship. Intense, lingering, unacknowledged, or unprocessed emotions can adversely affect their associated organs—and vice versa. If feelings are ignored or not processed appropriately, they can show up as physical symptoms and lead to illness.

In this holistic system, emotions are integral aspects of the human being that must be tended to, nurtured, acknowledged, and expressed to remain healthy.

Below are emotions and their associated organs in Chinese medicine—with links if you wish to know more:

• Grief: Lungs
• Fear: Kidneys
• Anger: Liver
• Joy: Heart
• Worry/Overthinking: Spleen

Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, is another medical system that has long understood the connection between emotions and health. Others include Tibetan medicine, Japanese Kampo medicine, and Unani medicine—or Greco-Arab medicine—a traditional healing system created by the Greeks and further developed by the Arabs—most notably the Muslim philosopher and physician Avicenna.

Science is beginning to explore this connection and validate the physical effects of emotions.

A 2022 Swedish study examined data from 490,527 heart failure patients for approximately four years. Findings showed that those who lost a close family member had a significantly higher chance of dying than those who hadn’t. The death of a spouse increased the risk of dying by 20 percent and elevated to 35 percent for those who lost two people.

Studies have also found that frequent anger increases the risk of heart disease, grief has adverse effects on the immune system, worry increases blood pressure and heart rate, and fear can cause cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, a weakened immune system, and age us prematurely.

Epoch Times health writer Sina McCullough encountered the emotion/body connection firsthand with the death of her mother. Although her mother healed from multiple health conditions affecting her body, she subsequently died of a broken heart due to the grief caused by the death of her husband.

Health reporter Zena le Roux writes that even chronic pain extends beyond the physical and can point to unprocessed emotions in our past—often going back to childhood. She cites research that found 84 percent of adults with chronic pain had unresolved childhood trauma.

Modern life encourages us to chase “positive” emotions and avoid anything that feels unpleasant. Feelings we label negative—like sadness, anger, grief, or fear—are often avoided. Instead of facing them, we distract ourselves with everything from technology to alcohol, numbing emotions that might lead us into the deeper, darker corners of our psyches.

The habit of avoidance is becoming a pattern we’re passing down to our children.

Rather than teaching them how to recognize and process their emotions, we hand them cell phones and tablets. Such digital pacifiers may deter meltdowns and outbursts in the moment but prevent kids from learning how to sit with discomfort and work through big feelings in healthy ways.

Emotions are complex, but cultivating a healthy relationship with them has incalculable benefits. Recognizing our feelings, processing them, and letting them go builds emotional intelligence and self-awareness and can ultimately lead to self-mastery—in addition to caring for a fundamental aspect of our health.