Being diagnosed with lupus can be a traumatic experience, as it is a chronic condition that can persist throughout your lifetime. The severe symptoms resulting from this disorder can make your life difficult. This autoimmune disorder can have an adverse impact on your everyday life, as it can affect different parts of the body.
People suffering from lupus are found to experience mental health issues like anxiety, stress, and depression. These conditions can cause your symptoms to become more severe thereby making your condition extremely worse. Therefore, lupus and mental health issues can create a vicious cycle that can impact your health and general well-being in an adverse way.
There can be several factors that can contribute to mental disorders in people suffering from lupus. So we analyze the relationship between lupus and various mental health concerns:
Factors That Can Contribute To Mental Health Issues In Lupus Patients
There can be several factors that can contribute to the development of various mental disorders in people suffering from lupus. Some of them are mentioned below:
The Outward Effects Caused Lupus And Its Treatment: Lupus can lead to a lot of visible symptoms like skin rashes. Such visible lupus symptoms can have a severe impact on a person’s self-confidence.
Additionally, the corticosteroid medications used to treat lupus rash and other symptoms can cause you to gain weight. This can also affect your self-esteem.
Therefore, lupus patients can experience changes in their appearance because of the disease and its treatment. This can cause distress in them which can lead to the development of depression and other mental issues.
Difficulty To Engage In Activities You Love: Lupus can bring along fatigue, pain, and a wide range of other symptoms that can interfere with your ability to engage in different activities you love. The problems caused by this condition can even make it difficult for you to complete your everyday chores. These issues can also affect the mental health of lupus patients.
Different Lupus Symptoms: You can experience a wide range of symptoms as a result of this condition. The persistent and severe pain, fatigue, inflammation and swelling in the joints, etc. can wear you down and cause frustration and irritability.
Social Isolation: When living with lupus, you can get drained of energy just by doing your everyday activities which makes you feel tired all the time. This can prevent you from participating in social gatherings or spending quality time with your friends and family.
All these problems can lead to the development of anxiety, depression, mood swings, and stress in lupus patients. So if you are suffering from this condition, it is important for you to find ways to effectively cope with these problems.
