The psychological aspects of personality play a huge role in our lives. They are risk factors for some of the most common disorders, such as insomnia, hypersomnia, and parasomnia. The psychological aspects of activity (especially in conditions of hard work and extreme situations) are often the causes of psychosomatic diseases. They are also factors of many positive events and transformations that can change a person’s life, help to cope with difficulties and even endure inhuman pain.
Psychological aspects of sleep disorders
Similarly, bad habits such as smoking, alcohol abuse, a sedentary lifestyle, and a diet leading to obesity are risk factors for underlying sleep disturbances such as hypersomnia or obstructive sleep apnea. Excessive daytime sleepiness associated with this diagnosis affects the social role, employment, as well as cognitive functions and emotional well-being. This is the socio-psychological aspects of sleep disorders. Well, then we will talk about other important manifestations of this comprehensive phenomenon.
Psychological aspects of pain
Psychological factors can increase or decrease pain. Evidence for these influences includes experimental studies in which scientists manipulated the mood, attention, expectations, and desires of subjects to alleviate pain. Certain factors can reduce or aggravate pain, and the placebo analgesic effects appear to be the result of many aspects, including the desire of the subject (or patient) to alleviate his condition.
It can be, for example, about the pain from surgery, because hypnosis was so popular as anesthesia until the middle of the last century, and is still used in some clinics. This fact proves that the psychological aspect is a fundamental phenomenon that governs all areas of our lives.
Pain and mood
Clinical trials that show strong predictive relationships between mood and pain, mood and disability, as well as manipulation of the placebo effect (or human expectations) and pain, provide further evidence of the above thesis. Obviously, there is much in common between the various psychological mechanisms of pain modulation.
For example, a desire for relief and expectation are integral factors in placebo analgesia, but they also play an important role in the emotional impact on pain in other contexts. All this is the psychological aspect of pain as an integral part of our sensations, which, in essence, are also rooted in our psychology. Much stronger than is commonly believed in our time.
Attention and emotions
On the other hand, attention and emotions, at least partially, affect pain. The neurophysiological foundations of these psychological factors are partially understood, but to fully understand the basic mechanisms, more work needs to be done. In addition, the relationship and interaction of psychological factors with more traditional physiological and medicinal effects are also poorly understood and matured for further research. The experience of pain is never an isolated sensory event, usually it is tied to some very specific physiological context.
However, pain is also influenced by beliefs, attention, expectations, and emotions, whether it occurs in controlled "laboratory" conditions, or in conditions of physical trauma and emotional stress. One way or another, the reader must understand that the psychological aspect of pain is a key part of it, and that with the help of psychology it is possible to influence physiological processes as well.
As an example, consider a patient who had remission of spinal cancer. Picking up a grocery bag, she experienced sudden discomfort (muscle tension) in the same area of her back where the tumor had once localized. In all respects, her pain appears to be significantly more intense or unpleasant than in a patient with recurrent muscle tension in the same region of the back.
Psychologists also found that servicemen who were wounded in battle complained much less and required far less painkillers than civilians injured in traffic accidents. This is the psychological aspect of pain in its purest form. However, below we will consider other areas where this comprehensive phenomenon plays a key role.
The psychological aspect of man in the context of the physical sphere of life
The physical layer of life includes our health and how we relate to our bodies. It also includes what we consume, how often we work, wash ourselves, how we endure ailments. Our body is the most valuable gift that we have, and without it we cannot exist. If we are not healthy, we, of course, cannot enjoy all other aspects of life. For this reason, love for our body is the first step towards happiness. No matter where we start, no matter how irreversible we consider our poor health, it's never too late to start changing your habits.
A healthy body is a healthy mind, and taking care of ourselves, we will feel more confident, more motivated and we will better control our life situation. But in order to truly love your body, you need to think about the psychological aspects of its perception. For example, in the process of development, a person often develops various complexes associated with the body, as well as bad habits.
That is precisely why the most qualified psychologists work with people suffering from dysphoria of all kinds, bulimia, anorexia and other diseases associated with rejection of their bodies. All injuries and disorders come precisely from childhood, which already leads to thoughts about the psychological aspects of development.
The mental sphere of life
If you do not care about your body, your appearance and health condition worsen, the same applies to your mind. The fact that you no longer need to go to school does not mean that you cannot receive new knowledge. The mental sphere should be separated from the mental, since it is solely responsible for thoughts and mental abilities.
However, the role of the psychological aspect is obvious here, because for people with serious mental disorders or even depression, for example, mental activity is significantly impaired.
The emotional sphere and its importance
It is very easy to forget about the importance of controlling our emotional background. If we neglect this, we may feel dissatisfied and fall into the abyss of procrastination, despondency, hopelessness. Therefore, it is very important that we allow ourselves to engage our feelings, to show them, to listen to them. The emotional state is very connected with the psychological and mental, and together they form our physiological self-awareness. It is well known that happy and confident people are even less likely to get sick than depressed and unhappy people.
Conclusion
Our body, our mind and our emotions are part of a single system. This system is largely tied to psychology - consciousness, the unconscious, complexes and experiences. It makes no sense to engage in any part of this system in isolation from everyone else, because it will not lead to anything trite. The psychological aspect is a link that binds all his senses together and gives meaning to any of his activities.