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…
