Mental Attitudes Manifested as a Physical Symptom of Depression

Depression is often though of as a mental condition. Yet depression can also inflict pain upon a person, creating a physical symptom of depression. This pain may include such things as chronic headaches or migraines, stomachaches, acute pains throughout the body, an increased sensitivity to pain, or painful rashes and skin blemishes. These symptoms are often misdiagnosed. Instead of treating the root of the problem (depression), many doctors will prescribe various treatments for the specific ailments, be it a painkiller or an antacid. Thus, many cases of depression go untreated.

It is not the case that the mental condition of a person has nothing to do with his or her physical condition. On the contrary, one’s mental condition can often manifest itself as a physical symptom of depression. Headaches, for example, can become of a migraine’s intensity by the increase in muscular tension of the neck and scalp muscles. These are often contracted and made tense during a state of anxiety. Thus, the mental affecting the physical.

In the more severe forms of depression, physical symptoms sometimes become almost impossible to diagnose because a supposed physical symptom of depression may be a delusion created by intense mental anxiety. Hallucinations are not uncommon in severely depressed people and doctors may find it difficult to diagnose a real physical symptom of depression from an invented one.

Socially, physical symptoms of depression may be easier to accept than mental symptoms. In many cultures a stigma is often attached to any form of mental illness. It has even been argued that patients and doctors unconsciously respond to the treatment of depression through its physical manifestations. For example, a doctor may prescribe a vacation or a new hobby as a means of dealing with sudden stress or depression.