Understanding Health, Healing And Illness

Illness and health are a part of our life. It is perhaps a reminder that we are human. However, very few of us actually realize these terms and what they really reflect. Let’s take a deeper look into the ideologies that these words represent and to get a better understanding of these concepts.

Health

Most often than not, health is considered to be a person’s physical condition and well-being. Basically, being free of any sort of illness or disease. However, a person’s health is a measure of much more than just the physical well-being. A person’s health can holistically be defined as the mental and physical state of a person as well as their social state.

Health inherently defines how well we function and how we feel; not just in physical measurable terms but also emotions. This, altogether, is reflected in one’s social well being, and their behaviour. A person’s health can be determined by several factors, which can broadly be defined as biomedical factors, social factors, socioeconomic factors, environmental factors and safety factors.

Illness

Illness can be a mental or physical sickness that prevents your mind or body to function properly. Although most people may use the terms interchangeably, there is a technical difference between illness and disease. A disease a more general term used to explain the cause of certain physical symptoms. An illness, on the contrary, is a term coined for a more subjective experience that prevents the normal functions of the body.

Healing

Healing is defined as the process of recovery from an illness or a disease. Like illnesses, the process of healing is different for each person, whether they are recovering from the flu, or depression. In many cases, this process is also a spiritual one, where a person reconnects with their beliefs, and discovers themselves or their inner peace.

For an illness, or disease, the process of healing is fairly standard. Take the prescribed medicine on time, regularly, and wait for the symptoms to disappear. For some, the medicine might take action in a day, for some a week. But that’s the standard process. For a mental disease, this process can be quite different for people, even though they have been through the same experience. For such cases, how a person copes is part of their healing process.

What is essential to understand here is that the process of healing can take time. There is no need to rush it. The health of a person is important for their survival, and it needs to be ensured that their illness is treated, and they get time to heal.