What We Can Learn From The Health Psychology Definition

Everyone wants to be in the best health possible, but many factors can determine your health. Health is also quite varying. Someone who practices healthy habits can end up sick. Meanwhile, someone who practices unhealthy habits seems to live a long life. Why is this? One such way we can learn more about health and how it works is through health psychology.

What is health psychology?

Health psychology is a field of psychology that focuses on the many factors that can influence one's health. They may look to one's behavior patterns, biology, social factors, and determine what can influence their health, as well as illness. Health psychology may also be called medical psychology, or behavioral medicine.

To summarize, here are some aspects that can influence one's health. All of these items and more are studied in health psychology.

• As you probably know, one's genetic code can influence our health. Someone whose parents had cancer may be more susceptible to cancer. Meanwhile, someone whose grandmother lived to be 100 may have a higher chance of living to be 100. While biology can influence our health, your actions play a part as well.
• How does mental health affect your overall health? Someone who is suffering from depression, may have other health issues that can impact their quality of life. A health psychologist looks at all the situations and sees how your brain reacts and affects your health.
• How does one's behavior affect your health? People who have bad eating habits are going to have worse health than others who eat mostly fruits and veggies. A person who stays up all night may be less healthy than the person who takes time to get rest. A health psychologist will study one's behavior and see how it influences one's life.
• Social factors. How does a sociable person fare when it comes to health? Does someone's location affect their overall health? A health psychologist will answer these questions and more.
• How someone copes with a disease. Does worrying about the disease affect its outcome more than having a positive outlook? Research shows that to be true.
• Improving the healthcare system, we have now. Our healthcare system isn't without its many faults, and a health psychologist strives to improve it.

A health psychologist wants everyone to be in their best health possible and they want to prevent disease and other ailments. To do that, they need to see how people act in response to danger and disease.

So overall, health psychology is focused on figuring out how health and illness work, and see how psychological factoring can impact how someone's health can affect them.

Everyone wants to be in the best health possible, but many factors can determine your health. Health is also quite varying. Someone who practices healthy habits can end up sick. Meanwhile, someone who practices unhealthy habits seems to live a long life. Why is this? One such way we can learn more about health and how it works is through health psychology.

Let's give an example. Most people know that smoking is bad for you. However, many people still smoke. Why do they smoke, despite knowing the impact it can have? There may be many reasons for it, such as treating stress or their social environment. A health psychologist tries to get to the bottom of the issue and figure out why some people stick to bad habits.

Diseases that can be influenced by behavior

Here is a list of diseases where one's psychological behavior can influence a disease. These include:

• Stress and bad habits can lead to stroke.
• Heart disease. Unhealthy eating and bad behaviors can influence how the heart behaves, and possibly lead to disease.
• HIV/AIDS. We all know that a promiscuous lifestyle can impact you contracting the disease.
• Birth defects. How you behave and what you consume when you're pregnant can influence the health of your infant once they are born.

In fact, half the deaths in the US could have been prevented if the behavior in the individual changes. Changing your behavior now can impact your overall health and make you more resilient if or when you get an illness.

What issues does health psychology tackle?

When one comes to visit a health psychologist, there are a few issues that they may be treated for.

• Reducing stress. Stress is a natural and healthy way to tackle issues that are bothering you, but when you have too much stress, it is a problem. A health psychologist can help you reduce your stress levels by finding ways to cope with your problems. Aside from that your therapist can also help you with issues regarding memory, in which the main problem is encoding. Encoding psychology definition pertains to the first-way memory is created.
• Weight management. If you're overweight, it can lead to various health problems. This can be solved by improving your diet and exercising, two factors that a health psychologist will also tackle.
• Quitting smoking or drinking. These behaviors can cause serious health effects, and a health psychologist will work with you to quit smoking.
• Sleeping better. A lack of sleep can make you less alert, and you can be prone to health problems. A health psychologist helps you by figuring out what's causing your poor sleep patterns.
• Sexual behaviors. Sex is a natural part of life, but if you participate in risky sexual behaviors, you may be prone to disease. A health psychologist can help you by teaching you how to practice healthy sexual behaviors.
• Hospice care. If someone is terminally ill, a health psychologist can be there to counsel them and their families on the changing dynamics.

When a health psychologist approaches a disease, they do so by the psycho-bio-social model. This believes that health is a result of many factors, such as biological, psychological, and social.

When to see a health psychologist

You don't need to be a health nut to want to visit a health psychologist. Everyone goes through times when they have an illness or just feel off. A health psychologist can get the ball rolling in your life and allow you to live healthier. You can visit a health psychologist for many reasons, such as quitting a bad habit, or if you're just curious how you can improve your health.

The field itself is growing as more people are becoming more health conscious. There is not a better time than now to get into health psychology. If you're a person who wants to improve their health or an aspiring psychologist This is a field that provides many insights.

Takeaway

When it comes to good health, you have to make the first step. There are many unhealthy habits you can change yourself, and good habits you can learn, but sometimes, it can be difficult to change yourself. Speaking to a health psychologist can be able to help you in many different ways. By talking to a therapist near you, you can learn how to improve your health and live an overall better life regardless of the circumstances that surround you.