by Angie Pollock

Created on: August 26, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2008

Emotions can lead to an overwhelming sense of joy but sometimes our emotional state can cause pain both physical and mental. Disease is defined as a particular destructive process in an organism or any harmful condition. Treating a disease should not only include the treatment of the disease itself but what triggered the illness in the first place. Our emotional state can be a main trigger for disease, disorders and other body ailments.

Bulimia and anorexia are diseases, depression is a disease, alcohol and drug abuse are diseases. Many times these types of diseases and disorders are triggered by some type of emotion in an individual's life. Three of the most common emotional states that affect our overall health are stress, depression and anger. Over time, the body begins to break down from the constant strain that these negative emotions put on the body.

Forty-three percent of adults suffer from some type of harmful health effect brought on by stress. Our body is designed to react to different stressful situations-it's how we stay alert of our surroundings. When we are faced with negative stress on a continual basis, the body becomes over exerted and the tensions build. Stress can become stored up in the body's muscles with each individual's body reacting differently to the stress factors. These stored emotions can affect our immune systems, the digestive tract and a variety of other body functions.

Those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Combat Stress Disorder have health issues such as depression, stomach ulcers, panic attacks, anxiety disorders and/or chronic fatigue. Stress is also directly linked to heart problems, high blood pressure and skin conditions. Stress is such an overwhelming factor to our health and safety that even "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration" (OSHA) has acknowledged that stress is a hazard in the workplace.

Every individual will go through some type of sadness in their lifetime with many of those people experiencing a more complex state of sadness and an overwhelming feeling of despair. This is depression. Clinical depression has been linked with heart disease and heart attacks. Why? People who tend to stay in a "happy" state have higher levels of fibrinogen and cortisol in their blood stream which makes them less susceptible to cardiovascular disease.

There isn't any doubt that depression can lead individuals to abusing alcohol and drugs. It is common for those who have health problems to also suffer

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