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Psychology.
Emotional Abuse, PTSD, & Your Immune System.
More reasons why psychological abuse is physical abuse.
Recurring illnesses and infections are a sign of psychological trauma. Abuse victims are often diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with more extreme and prolonged symptoms referred to as complex PTSD or CPTSD.
“ … people with PTSD were 1.8 times as likely to have any infection than those without PTSD … most notably urinary tract infection [for women] and skin infection [for men].” — Tammy Jiang & colleagues.
Immune and emotional responses both help us to interact with the environment. A new area of research, affective immunology, is looking at the relationship between emotions and the immune system.
Studies found that long-term PTSD increases inflammatory factors and decreases anti-inflammatory factors. PTSD and several immune disorders have a shared genetic expression including irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
“… somatic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and disorders have a high rate of co-morbidity with PTSD.”
High levels of glucocorticoid stress hormone cause apoptosis, or cell suicide, of pre-b cells as they exit bone marrow. As a result, findings show reduced B lymphocytes in people under stress compared to the general population. However, longitudinal research is needed to establish immunological changes in response to prolonged psychological distress.
Multiple studies show that psychological violence is just as damaging as physical violence. Intimate partner violence (IPV) decreases the proliferation of factors that suppress herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), and IPV increases the chances of HSV-1 reactivating.
Furthermore, the immune system may already be at risk where ACES or adverse childhood experiences…
