Anemia: Psychological Approach to Patients
The complete working of the human brain has been explained by numerous psychologists in the world. They have spent their lives trying to find the relation between different problems and how they affect the working of the human brain. The sanctioning of this relation is key to understanding why even medicines were created.
Anemia and Psychology
Anemia is a condition that occurs as a result of insufficient red blood cells in the blood. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin that binds the oxygen and delivers it to different body tissues. It’s not difficult to foresee and admire the courage of people who suffer from anemia. These people cope with their problem even though these issues may seem insignificant to others.
Being an anemic causes many physical problems in a person like the skin color changes to a darker tone - mostly yellow - and the spine bends a little, while excruciating pains is felt in the body, which creates the feeling of being tired all the time. People who suffer from anemia report getting exhausted all the time even by doing a small chore or exercise. These things can have immense effects on the brain of the patient, leaving him either under trauma of not being able to do things as his counterparts or with the feeling of not being able to complete even half a kilometer on the treadmill machine. These things can easily impact his subconscious thinking and perception of people by also creating anger, frustration and deep non-vented emotions which can make him more subpar, introvert and an outcast all in his brain. These problems prevail in many individuals today who have been victimized by anemia.
There are many women who can lose extreme blood during their menstruation which can cause deficiency of iron in the body; thereby, leading to anemia in few cases. This is often referred to as iron-deficiency anemia.
How Anemia Causes Mental Disorder?
Psychology explains the phenomenon of anxiety to be the prime reason anemia causes mental disorders in its patients. Anxiety patients have a natural tendency to be worried about the basic things in a manner which seems uncomfortable for other observers. These people may often experience sudden death feelings from even small things such as the pricking of a common pin in rare cases; it causes unnecessary tension in the body thus making the person agitated and always on the edge.
Apart from this, dizziness, fatigue, problem in concentration and thinking abilities and headaches are also associated with anemia and are regarded as general mental health symptoms of anemia. It has been suggested that anemia is one of the illnesses that has the most prevalent mental health symptoms in America.
Some people often feel less energetic or loss of energy, light headed, sleeping problems and tired. The symptoms usually overlap with the symptoms of depression which can sometimes make it difficult to diagnose the mental disorder in anemia. The symptoms of anemia also coincide with the symptoms of anxiety as well. Many psychiatrists suggest that anemia can be a contributive cause of the symptoms of anxiety and depression; however, it is inappropriate to consider that this can put the patients recovering from alcohol and drugs at relapse risk. The overall well-being of a person can be majorly impacted if he/she feels fatigue due to anemia; thereby, making a person feel depressed.
Many people have reported to go on violent streaks due to their panic attacks. Anemia patients are prone to anxiety because of iron deficiency. Since the brain does not receive enough iron and proteins to work normally, this causes the brain to be more hyper tensed. This can be elaborated as to the feeling of instincts which takes place when people are stuck under water or in avalanches. The brain then acts out in the strangest ways possible causing the patient to be deemed as an outlaw of the society he or she lives in.
Many scientists consider that manifestation of body with some underlying disease is signified, if a person has anemia. Shortness of breath has been reported in patients with severe anemia. Mild anemia, on the contrary, has been reported to have very minor or no effect on the patient. The mood of a person is also likely to be affected due to the underlying cause or disorder that is causing anemia. Some of the identified causes include underactive thyroid, inflammatory arthritis, kidney disease and other chronic disease.
If a patient suffers from anemia due to deficiency of vitamin such as deficiency of B12, then there are fewer chances that the patient suffers from dementia/memory loss and depression. There are more chances to suffer with memory disturbances, if anemia occurs in old age because old people are more prone to suffer from memory-related problems. A patient with this condition has to stay motivated so that they can fight against the mental problems associated with anemia. One can choose to join health communities that can help them to stay positive and not let their condition put stress on them. The medications and diet are also important as they can help the patient to stay fit and avoid the occurrence of other associated complications of anemia and can also help in increasing the levels of iron in their blood.
Anemia can also be hereditary dating back to ancestors and can run in many people’s family lines. This causes them to take medication for the rest of their lives and create an image of themselves as patients and basically different from others in the most unnatural way.
The Bottom Line
Psychologists treat anemic patients to make them feel not different, but rather part of the same society where every other person comes from. These doctors make the people realize how they belong to the same society as others. They also help them understand that instead of letting their brains control them, they should rather cope with the situation and be responsible enough to fight it back.