The Mind-Body Connection - with CBT Therapist Lex Hristova
🧠The missing piece in how we treat chronic illness.
If you live with a chronic condition like fibromyalgia or IBS, you will likely already know that the physical symptoms are only part of the picture.
Lex Hristova, CBT Therapist, explores the relationship between physical and mental health, and why addressing one without the other so often falls short.
The connection runs in both directions. Chronic health conditions can contribute to anxiety and depression. And anxiety and depression, in turn, can worsen physical symptoms. The meaning we attach to pain matters. When physical sensations are interpreted through the lens of fear or hopelessness, the nervous system responds accordingly, triggering fight or flight, increasing muscle tension, and heightening sensitivity to pain.
Depression adds another layer. Negative interpretations of experience, the belief that things will not improve or that coping is impossible, can ironically increase how intensely physical sensations are felt.
CBT cannot eliminate chronic symptoms. But it can help individuals recognise the links between what is happening in the body and what is happening in the mind. And in doing so, create real and meaningful change in both.
Have you ever noticed your mental health directly affecting how your physical symptoms feel?
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