Cosmetic conditions
There are diseases that affect your health greatly, and with hard and sometimes costly treatments that take their toll on your body, mind and spirit. Heart conditions, respiratory diseases, genetic disorders, digestive diseases and cancer, to name a few, are all potentially life threatening and take a major psychological toll on your life.
But there are conditions that may not be as harmful for your health, but still affect your lifestyle. For example, a mild case of hyperthyroidism may be easily fought with the right combination of drugs, but sometimes a sequel, like hoarseness caused by the pressure on your throat, may become permanent. This may not be much of a problem in men, but for a woman to suffer from an unusual hoarse and deep voice is a condition that will cause her tremendous distress and self image problems. Also, when one is infected with the herpes virus, very rarely is it a disease that affects your every day life. The only exception is when the virus outbreak is so intense that the body sees the need to fight it, which will result in the patient developing fever. The psychological sequels of displaying herpes symptoms, however, can be far more negative on the patient. First of all, it is a cosmetic change to your face that’s easily perceptible and nearly impossible to mask. Secondly, being the carrier of the herpes virus is often regarded as a synonym of having a somewhat deviant lifestyle or, at least, having incurred in deviant behavior at least once. This is, of course, a social prejudice, but there’s not much that can be done to change people’s minds on that. Even something as simple as a case of granuloma annulare, a minor skin disease that manifests itself by circular rash-like pimples on the limbs, primarily on the hands and feet, may be enough for someone to develop an issue with one’s self image.
Seeking professional help is advised in cases where you feel the sequels or the manifestations of a disease are hampering your social life and making you self conscious about your body. When it comes to affecting your lifestyle and making you dislike your image and, ultimately, yourself, there’s really no difference between having a disease and feeling the psychological toll of its symptoms making you doubt your image. So look for help and know that, even though there may not be a cure, there are always ways to look good.
