Understanding the Role of Personality Development on Health

Understanding the Role of Personality Development on Health

Health and Personality Development

You will come across people with varying personality traits in life, everywhere. Some of them are extrovert and confident while the number of shy and introvert persons are also a lot. Then there are those whose sole aim is pleasing everyone and there are impulsive people too. While it may remain unknown to many, personality traits are inherently linked to the well being of a person, for both genders. Researchers have found out personality traits plays a key role in staying healthy and coping with ailments in the long run. Personality traits tend to have direct impact on social life, lifestyle and these affect your health in major way eventually. When you understand your personality is contributing to health woes, you can adopt suitable strategies and get benefits. While basic personality traits do not change, changing the response to environment and interactions can happen. The key is handling negativity and stress.


Like millions of women and men around, you might be worried about issues faceting your health and take numerous measures to ensure you stay healthy. From trying organic diets to working out at weekends, you can resort to a lot of things to stay healthy. However, you may not have thought about how personality issues have an impact on health. Of late, lots of studies are being conducted on the role of personality development on health and the findings may seem surprising to you. The researchers have found links between health and personality development.


How Personality Affects Your Health?

On a closer analysis, it is logical that personality traits are linked to health conditions. Stress, anger, anxiety and similar feelings impact how certain body functions run. A relaxed state of mind also has an impact on health and the same is true about depressed mindset and anxiety. Stress, anxiety and depression tend to take a toll on cardiac health. When you are able to recognize the personality traits and learn impacts on health, you can make amendments to boost health prospects.


A Closer Peek into Role of Personality Development on Health

Below listed are the nuances of how personality affects your mental health:

Hostility:

Personality affect for mental health

In office or neighborhood, you are likely to come across people who have an inherently hostile attitude towards everything or others around. These men and women have a hard charging and impatient nature. These people are more prone to developing cardiac ailments than others, says researchers. This is because these people tend to eat and smoke a lot and find little time to work out. As they age, they tend to put on more weight and develop cholesterol too. A lot of them face serious cardiac problems even before they reach the 50s. The experts say these people face heart problems owing to high amounts of stress hormone cortisol leading to inflammation in coronary arteries. For these people, trying out meditation, yoga and ways to control their anger may help.


Impulsive Nature:

Both hostile and non-hostile persons can be impulsive at times. Impulsive thinking and acts can lead to gross mistakes and this can later lead to frustration and resultant stress. This in the long run has an impact on health.


Relaxed Mindset:

Healthy personality development

While they are not so frequent to come across, you can also spot people who have a calm demeanor at all times. These women and men tend to get less affected by environment or reaction of others around them. Incidentally, they think logically and make the right move most of the times. So, eventually they get less stressed in life and this has a positive impact on their health. Their nature and resultant health condition is a proof of role of personality development on health.


People Pleasers:

These people are possibly the easiest to spot everywhere. These men and women are always afraid of ruffling others and try to please everyone around. They also try to accomplish things the way they are told. This trait can be both good and bad for health, in the long run. They are likely to take medications on time and complete full course, since they are compliant in nature. However, they always remain worried about doing things that may offend others which leads to low self-esteem and depression. This is another instance of role of personality development on health.

Shy:

Role of Personality Development on Health

Shy people do not fare well when it comes to overall health. They are the ones to develop depression more than others. Owing to their reluctance to open up to others and they are also less likely to discuss health issues and seek medical help actively.


Extrovert and Confident:

People who are extrovert in nature and have confidence about what they do tend to enjoy better health than introverts and pessimistic lot, say study findings. Their confidence level leads to reduced stress which in turn ensures better cardiac health. They also tend to remain active and refrain from leading a sedentary lifestyle which is eventually good for health. However, these people also tend to be risk takers which may affect their wellbeing and make them prone to accidents. So, role of personality development on health is evident for these people too.


Romantic:

Personality affect your health

There are women and men with predominantly romantic mindset. They become and remain attached to their partners, spouses and loved ones more than others. They tend to spend more time with the beloved one and indulge in romantic thoughts and acts most of the time. While it helps reduce stress in mind and helps them stay in a good mindset, there can be drawbacks too. These people tend to become too attached to their partners and develop attachment syndromes. So, when the relation worsens or a break up takes place they can become absolutely depressed.


What You Can Do for Healthy Personality Development

It is not possible to change your basic personality traits. However, with time and introspection you can think and understand how your personality traits can work for or against your wellbeing and health. Taking suitable measures can help you improve things to an extent.


The first thing you can do is trying to understand the role of personality development on health. You may tend to get angry quickly but ask yourself if it is doing you and your health any good. You may still get angry but these are ways to express the anger in a more suitable manner so that does not leave you stressed out! Similarly, for an introvert and shy person, it may be hard to approach others to discuss health woes or get out of their comfort zone. However, it is not tedious to find people you can open up to. Sometimes, trying mediation techniques or forms of yoga may help people to cope with elevated stress and depression. Sometimes, seeking professional aid such as counseling can help people understand their traits and how they can adopt approaches to ensure better health.

Reviewed By:

Dr. Kaushal M. Bhavsar (MBBS, MD)

Assistant Professor in Pulmonary Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Ahmedabad