Does your personality impact your health?
While there may be no current scientific evidence that definitively states that your personality can have a direct effect on your health, I certainly believe that it does. People with happy, upbeat and outgoing personalities tend to get sick less often. People who are depressed or down a lot of the time tend to have significantly more health problems and it tends to take them longer to get better. This is just personal observation. In some cases, it could quite possibly be chemistry and hormones. I also believe that personality is either a reflection of or the result of certain thought processes. Positive thinking is something that everyone says can have a huge impact on your health. A positive mindset also tends to lend itself to more positive outlook on life.
studies in animals have proven that alpha status within the group (feeling like a winner) boosts the immune system, whereas not being an alpha, (feeling like a loser) depresses the immune system. Not everyone in a group can be top dog, but not every top dog posesses the inner self-assurance necessary to feel like a winner internally. It is this feeling of being at peace with oneself,aware of your successes, repentant and forgiving of your failures that improves the probability of health. Emotional stress by itself is neutral. Its effects on health depend whether it is acting on a personality at peace or at war with the self.
