You may know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world. But did you know that your heart health can affect your mental health?
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular diseases include heart attack and angina.
These conditions often occur with anxiety or depression.
In fact, we now know that depression is a risk factor for coronary heart disease along with smoking, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Depression can also affect how well people with heart disease recover and increase their risk of heart problems.
So, let us learn more about the links between heart health and mental health.
Links between mental health and heart disease
So, what is the relationship between hearth health and mental health?
Here are some of the links we know about:
Anxiety is a significant independent risk factor for heart disease.
the usual risk factors for heart disease (such as unhealthy lifestyle) associated with depression.
Anxiety and depression is common in people with heart disease.
This affects recovery and increases the risk of further heart attacks.
Heart patients with depression are often less motivated to follow a healthy daily routine, meaning they may skip important medications, avoid proper exercise, and diet, and pursue harmful behaviours such as smoking and drinking alcohol.
Recent studies suggest that anxiety may also be a risk factors for cardiovascular patients.
How can a heart attack affect your mental health?
Heart attacks can affect people in many ways:
- Having a heart attack affect your attitude and mood.
- you may not feel secure about the future and worry about your long-term health.
- You may have less self-confidence or be embarrassed or frustrated because you cannot work as well.
And it is common to feel guilty about things you have done in the past that may lead to a heart attack.
Symptoms of depression in heart patients
You expected to feel a little bored, but if these feelings last for more than two weeks, you may become depressed, because depression is more common in heart patients.
These scenarios are:
- Feeling sad or irritable
- Feeling empty, hopeless, guilty, or useless
- Loss of enjoyment in activities you usually enjoy
- Fatigue and reduced energy
- You have difficulty concentrating, remembering detail, and making decisions
- Difficulty sleeping, or sleeping too much
- Overeating, or not wanting to eat at all
- Weight loss or weight gain
- Thoughts of death or suicide attempt
- Pain, headache, cramps, or digestive problems for no apparent physical reason
- Difficulty managing daily life
Symptoms of anxiety
living with heart disease or a heart attack can cause anxiety.
Anxiety is more than just feeling stressed If:
- Worry most of the time have repetitive thoughts that increase your anxiety
- Avoid situations that may make you anxious
- Experience extreme fear
- Experience physical effects such as tremors, sweating, weakness, rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing or nausea.
Remember, no matter what the case, effective treatments for depression and anxiety are available.
The effect of anxiety on myocardial infarction
Anxiety, in addition to being one of the causes of coronary heart disease, also delays the recovery of patients with this disease and aggravates the disease and its complications.
Anxiety is the cause of death in heart patients. Prolonged anxiety is fatal for heart patients.
Severe, prolonged anxiety increases the risk of heart attack. The longer the doctor and the patient’s family are with him, has a significant effect on preventing his anxiety, in other words the more the patient interacts with the patient and the doctor, the better his health will be and the less anxiety he will have. Therefore, it should note that there is a direct relationship between the time of anxiety and the incidence of stroke in individuals.
Keep calm
people who can adapt quickly to stressful living conditions reduce their risk of heart attack.
People who cope better with stress are more likely to lead a healthier lifestyle, which can help prevent heart attacks.
Diagnosis of depression in patients with heart disease
it is not always easy to diagnose depression in people with heart disease. Because depressive symptoms such as fatigue and low energy levels are common with heart disease, or it can be a side effect of a medication used to treat heart conditions.
Physicians can evaluate for depression using questionnaires or interviews that show signs of depression.
If you have a major heart problem, such as a heart attack, it recommended that you see a doctor for depression two to three months after the event and then annually.
This type of screening will help you diagnose any depression early so that you can have treatment and improve you mental and physical health.
Treatment of depression in patients with heart disease
If you think you have symptoms of depression or anxiety, depression can treat, so it is important to seek help early.
A crucial step is to seek help from your doctor or cardiac rehabilitation team. They can offer treatment for you and your condition. Depending on your abilities, lifestyle changes to improve your physical and mental health may include the following:
- Exercise regularly
- Eat healthy food
- Reduce or stop drinking alcohol
- Practice relaxation techniques
- Performing enjoyable activities
Conclusion
According to the above, it can say that cardiovascular disease as the worthiest cause of death in the world are associated with various psychological fields such as stress, depression, anxiety, and personality traits. Psychological components can consider as underlying factors as well as the outcome and exacerbation of cardiovascular disease.
It has also found that psychological processes are both directly (affecting physiological processes) and indirectly (affecting behaviour and lifestyle) related to these diseases.
Management of these psychological processes can be affective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease as well as reducing their consequences and negative prognosis.
In the end, it can say that the mentioned cases and the results of various research show the role of mental health in the prevention, treatment, and reduction of the effects of cardiovascular problems as the biggest health problem in the world.
