Emotional Responses Hold Major Key to Physical Healing Process
Recent news in the medical field has shown that there is more to healing than the medicine you are given or the quality of the technology.
Observances and studies now show a trend that suggests the emotional support you receive plays a crucial role, both physically and mentally. Whether it is art therapy, the presence of family, or the coordination of a therapist with your rehabilitation plan, engaging positive emotional responses as part of recovery is almost as important as direct conventional medical interventions.
One article, for example, insists that children who partake in hospital art therapy are given a chance “to explore a negative emotion” and “process it in a safe place,” leading to faster healing, less use of pain medication, lowered anxiety, and more healthy days post-trauma.
Another study from Johns Hopkins shows that those who had regular phone calls to an emotional therapist post-surgery participated in physical therapy and home exercises at higher rates and with less pain, with 74% of participants experiencing “significant improvements” in functioning and pain levels.
The benefits don’t need to come from deliberate and regimented programs either. Other findings show the simple presence of family in the hospital to have astounding positive effects on the subconscious.
The effectiveness of marital support was unquestioned by a study that showed male patients of coronary-bypass surgery with high marital support took less pain medication and recovered faster than those married and with low support, despite all being of the same preoperative physical status.
Even when in a coma, findings in a recent paper from Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, credited to Northwestern Medicine and Hines VA Hospital, show areas of the brain to light up when hearing the voices of family members, even aiding an awakening from a vegetative state.
“We have definitive evidence to answer the age-old question: if your mom talks to you in a coma, can you hear her, and does it have an effect?” says lead author Theresa Pape, “The answer is yes.”
The common variables of anchoring emotions to something familiar and evoking subconscious connotations of safety would suggest a psychological effect that translates into healing. The trend is highlighted in this study, which shows “psychological variables,” including anger or stress, hinder recovery, and that positive interventions accommodate it.
Further research, particularly in that of pediatric art therapy, could lead to changes in the way healing is viewed and approached in hospitals. Physical processes are very much dependent on prior or current emotional states, and it will be interesting to see how medicine accommodates.
