The mental aspects of stroke and heart attack
In the event of a stroke or a heart attack the psyche is literally overwhelmed. What happens to a person who is struck by a stroke or has their heart broken? Why do some sink into depression after a stroke? And what is Sharon Stone's secret to her full recovery? "Basic Instinct" star Sharon Stone said in 2015 about her stroke in 2001, "I feel lucky to be able to live to this age. There was actually no way I would regain all my bodily functions. When I was discharged home, I could only walk with great difficulty. I couldn't see out of my left eye or hear out of my left ear." For years afterward, she became blind on her left side in the interim. She also had no feeling in her left leg during the first few months after the stroke. She stuttered and had to relearn how to speak. Only after three years she could write her name again. And ... today she is beaming again like never before. Unfortunately, this is not the normal case.
Stroke - and what happens now?
It's a sad reality: About 50 percent of stroke patients remain altered and impaired after the incident. One in three suffers from psychological sequelae, most frequently from so-called post-stroke depression (PSD). It increases the disability while the quality of life decreases. Seniors without social support or with pre-existing mental or cognitive impairments are particularly likely to react depressively to the new situation.
Feeling down is, of course, an understandable reaction when you can no longer speak or are paralyzed. But how can depression be prevented or alleviated? Professor Matthias Endres, MD, director of the Department of Neurology at Berlin's Charité University Hospital, says the early use of drugs from the serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) group prevents the onset of depression after stroke. The transmission of nerve impulses by the neurotransmitter serotonin would be increased and the death of nerve cells reduced. Studies [1] confirm that SSRIs stabilize brain cell function and even stimulate new brain cell formation. It is not known whether Sharon Stones was already receiving SSRIs in 2001. Her fighting spirit and courage, however, were striking. And even today she is not afraid of another stroke: "I live a healthy life and I refuse to give up things I love."
Heart attack - learning to live with fear
Deaths from heart attacks are declining thanks to better acute measures. However, the suffering following the heart attack is considerable in about a quarter of patients. They suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder: anxiety, panic and sleep disorders. They constantly relive the infarction or attack. Those affected often avoid possible or causative situations and thus isolate themselves socially - with the well-known consequences for life expectancy and happiness. The stressful experience can be better dealt with in discussions than alone and thus lose its horror.
The amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine present in the brain has a direct impact on various cognitive functions such as memory, information processing and learning. Furthermore, learning is generally better with a prospect of reward. Findings by researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the UK published in the journal PLoS Biology (Public Library of Science) revealed that dopamine acts as a learning enhancer and may be useful for treating brain injuries. According to the findings, dopamine supplements together with a reward after successful training offer new possibilities for treating patients with deficits, such as stroke patients. However, the dosage is quite crucial here. Too much of the messenger substance can be dangerous, since high dopamine levels can also trigger mental disorders, such as psychosis.
Is there protection against stroke or heart attack?
The following for everyday life reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack:
- Lower your resting heart rate.
- Regular, senior-friendly endurance training helps. Most regularly, three to five times a week.
Preferably, leave the following behind:
- Smoking
- A lot of fatty food
- unnecessary stress
- unhealthy habit
- sugary food
- lack of exercise and overweight
Psychosomatic factors in stroke and myocardial infarction
According to their symbolic content, both diseases have something to do with suddenness and shock. What shock moments in your life have you not yet digested? Finding this out and dissolving old stresses is the best protection, for example through psychotherapy or group work. After all, internal stress (psychological stress) is considered one of the main stroke risk factors. It activates the sympathetic nervous system and causes a higher resting heart rate. In addition to the increased resting heart rate, this "running the sympathetic nervous system at full speed" also causes activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, which regulates hormonal cycles. Both of these factors create a cardiovascular burden that, in the worst case scenario, can lead to a heart attack. Therefore, be sure to take persistent heaviness around the heart seriously. It may express a stress factor. The symbol of the broken heart already points unmistakably to a life-threatening cut. Also the saying "my head is smoking" unmistakably expresses that there is something smoldering going on that threatens to burst into flames at any moment. Please seek help before it is too late and you become physically ill. In addition, depressed people occasionally treat their bodies more carelessly, smoking, for example, and exercising little, which in turn can promote illness.
