Could it be your EMOTIONAL environment that's causing illness?

Could environmental factors affect health? Not simply the physical factors like living in a damp environment, or where there is little or no sanitation, where it's dirty or cluttered or where you're cold etc but more of an emotional environment.  A place where there isn't enough support and emotional nourishment? Where needs of only some of the people are met, but not everyone in the household gets their needs met. Where people are criticized for each little misdemeanor, where its not safe to explore other options than the one prescribed by the other members of the household. Where there is so much shouting, that smaller voices can't be heard. When its not possible to say the things you truly think, or behave authentically for fear of ridicule or belittlement or shame. All of these things diminish the self, making it turn inward. An emotionally nourished body is free to grow unhindered.

Think about the times when you've been ill, maybe just before the time that you became ill. What was going on in your life at that point?  Did someone do or say something that quite literally 'turned your stomach'? Were you 'holding something back' (constipation)

 Did you have a recurring illness that simply went away when the emotional stimuli went away too?  Did you get a cough, and then when you managed to 'get off your chest' what you needed to say, the cough went away? Did you get a sore throat at a time when you couldn't say what you wanted to say? Did you get angry or frustrated and end up with some kind of inflammatory condition, be it an ulcer or a skin rash or any illness ending in 'itis' (meaning inflammation) If you took away the source of the emotional discomfort, chances are the 'dis-ease' would also vanish.

When you've been brought up with constant criticism, its possible to continue to criticize yourself long after the original person has left your life, died or moved away. It's like their echo continues long into the night. This I strongly suspect can lead to illness, to great lumps of negative energy building up, ulcers breaking out.

If your emotional environment isn't very healthy  (and not everyone does live in an emotionally healthy environment, some people don't realise that it isn't very healthy, they're so used to playing out roles that were set so many years ago, that they can't see that actually they're not being supported or that they are pushing their own needs to one side in order to meet the needs of other people) you might find that you have illnesses that simply won't go away.

How do you overcome this? Either you have to retrain the people in your life to be more supportive and meet your needs or leave them entirely to create for yourself an emotionally kind environment. It may be that before you try to retrain those around you, you have to adjust your own thinking a little, to reflect the fact that you too have needs that need to be met. It might mean that you have to decide what really matters to you, and to begin to prioritize these needs.

 It might mean adjusting the way you allow people to speak to you or treat you, so that they understand that you are important too. If you're used to not having your needs met, this can be a challenge at first. It can be a revelation. It might mean making new boundaries, and if necessary writing them down so you can refer back to them, It could be something as simple as not letting people get away with cancelling an arrangement at last minute - as your time is important too. It could be asking them to ring ahead if they know they're going to be late to meet you. It could be acknowledging that you're happy for them to have some 'me' time but actually you too need a bit of time off away from the kids, the pets, the household responsibility etc. Eventually you will find that your needs are being met, because you've been brave enough to isolate that you too have needs (and lets face it we all have needs, its healthy and its human to do this) you might find that the other people around you view you with a healthier sense of respect because of this. Who knows where this might lead?