The Link Between Autoimmune Disease and Mental Health Issues

Lady Gaga has never shied away from sharing the truth about her personal health issues and what she has called her “mental health crisis.” In 2018, while accepting an award from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

An autoimmune disorder, fibromyalgia causes pain and tenderness throughout the body. In some people, the pain can be so debilitating, it interferes with daily living.

“Chronic pain is no joke,” she said in an interview with Vogue.

In her acceptance speech at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, she said the chronic pain she felt from the autoimmune disease was also accompanied by “panic attacks, acute trauma responses, and debilitating mental spirals that have included suicidal ideation and masochistic behavior.”

Lady Gaga is one of millions of Americans who struggle with both autoimmune disease and mental health issues.

In this blog, you’ll discover more about the link between these conditions, their root causes, why traditional treatment falls short, and better ways to treat them.

WHAT ARE AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS?

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system malfunctions, leading it to attack and destroy your own healthy tissues by mistake.

The immune system is your body’s natural protector. It is responsible for two main functions:

• Defense—It guards against external invaders, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It also scans your body for internal troublemakers, such as cancer cells.
• Tolerance—The immune system regulates your tolerance level with regards to potential environmental triggers, such as allergens like pollen, beestings, grasses, wheat, peanuts, soy, and corn.

Your immune system carries out this important mission using the following methods:

• Finding any internal cells/tissues or external invaders that are troublesome
• Enlisting white blood cells to mount an attack against the culprits
• Tagging and destroying both internal and external problems
• Remembering invaders and troublemakers in case they return

Performing these functions at optimal levels helps keep you healthy. However, when your immune system’s defenses don’t perform their duties adequately, or your system’s tolerance level falls too low or becomes overwhelmed, it makes you more vulnerable to infections and diseases like cancer.

When your immune system is overactive or mistakes healthy tissue for troublemakers, it can lead to autoimmune disorders.

There are more than 100 different autoimmune disorders. These conditions include multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and type 1 diabetes.

Autoimmune disorders are associated with a wide array of signs and symptoms, including pain, fatigue, digestive issues, skin problems, swelling, and more.

Overall, autoimmune disorders affect more than 50 million Americans. Women account for nearly 80% of all cases.

AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS AND MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS

Many autoimmune illnesses are linked with psychiatric issues. In fact, over half of all individuals with autoimmune disorders also experience mental health problems, according to research published in Rheumatology.

In this 2023 study, researchers surveyed 1,853 patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs), as well as 289 clinicians. They found that among SARD patients, 57% had anxiety and 55% had depression. In addition, 89% were struggling with fatigue and 70% were experiencing cognitive dysfunction.

Other research has found that having an autoimmune disease is associated with an increased risk of mental health issues, including:

• Mood disorders (45% increased risk)
• Schizophrenia (45% increased risk)
• Bipolar disorder
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), also called attention-deficit disorder (ADD)
• Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease

THE ROOT CAUSES OF AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

Researchers are still trying to pinpoint the exact causes of autoimmune disorders, but many factors can play a role in their development.

• Leaky gut
• Environmental allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, mold
• Food allergens, such as gluten and dairy
• Exposure to toxins, such as black mold
• Obesity
• Head trauma
• Lack of exercise or excessive exercise
• Poor diet
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Chronic stress
• Sleep disorders
• Hidden infections, such as Lyme disease

A growing body of evidence suggests that these factors are some of the same root causes associated with symptoms of mental illness. This helps explain why it is not uncommon for people like Lady Gaga—and perhaps you—to suffer from both autoimmune conditions and psychiatric issues.

WHY TRADITIONAL MEDICAL TREATMENT FALLS SHORT

The traditional treatment protocol for autoimmune disorders centers on suppressing the immune system with strong medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, or anti-cancer drugs like methotrexate.

A doctor might give you one medicine to treat arthritis and another one for Crohn’s disease. And if you’re also suffering from depressive symptoms or ADD/ADHD, they may give you antidepressant medication or prescription stimulants to treat them. But this isn’t the best approach, and it can lead to unwanted side effects that make you feel worse.

A BETTER TREATMENT PLAN FOR AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE AND MENTAL WELLNESS

After helping over 100,000 patients at Amen Clinics over the past 30-plus years, it has become clear that there’s a better solution.

To get your immune system to stop attacking your body and start cooperating with it, you need to address the 11 major underlying risk factors that harm your brain, body, memory, and mental health.

In addition, you need to learn to love and care about your immune system. Here are some strategies to help you optimize it:

• Get the following lab tests to understand the health of your immune system—complete blood count (CBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and antinuclear antibodies (ANA).
• Check your vitamin D level and take a nutritional supplement to optimize it if necessary.
• Get tested for common infections, such as Lyme disease, herpes simplex 1 and 2, Epstein Barr virus, and toxoplasma gondii.
• Avoid common food allergens, such as gluten, dairy, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans.
• Take therapeutic mushrooms—such as Lion’s mane, reishi, shiitake, and cordyceps—which have been shown to have immune-enhancing effects.
• Lower your stress with proven strategies, such as diaphragmatic breathing, meditation or prayer, and listening to calming music.

Putting these strategies into action can help re-balance your immune system to improve autoimmune disease symptoms as well as mental health symptoms.

In addition, it’s important to understand that your brain is involved in both autoimmune diseases and mental health problems.

The functional brain-imaging work at Amen Clinics using SPECT brain scans shows that both autoimmune disorders and mental health issues are associated with unhealthy activity in the brain.

Seeing areas of the brain where there is too much activity or too little activity can help guide mental health professionals in developing a more effective treatment plan.

If you’re struggling with one or more autoimmune issues as well as mental health problems, it’s critical to see a mental health professional. Choose one who understands that a person’s brain and biology impact mental health. 

Anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues can’t wait. At Amen Clinics, we’re here for you. We offer in-clinic brain scanning and appointments, as well as mental telehealth, clinical evaluations, and therapy for adults, teens, children, and couples. Find out more by speaking to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here