When Alopecia isn’t Alone

I started to lose my hair when I was about 6 years old, but even before then I was dealing with other autoimmune conditions. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with severe allergies, asthma, eczema, and other mystery autoimmune symptoms that have increased as I’ve gotten older. What does autoimmune even mean? As it’s understood today, autoimmunity refers to the body attacking what seem to be otherwise healthy cells and tissue. In other words, you body attacks itself without any clear reason, often leading to an increase in inflammation in the body.

Now, this definition isn’t quite satisfactory in my opinion. Just saying that the body is attacking itself without reason can be extremely frustrating. Going to the doctor looking for a root cause of your symptoms and only receiving a bandaid or, even worse, nothing at all is a physically and emotionally exhausting process. For those of us with alopecia, there’s a higher likelihood that we’ll be diagnosed with other autoimmune conditions as well such as the ones I listed above along with thyroid diseases and type 1 diabetes.

Living with one autoimmune condition, let alone a multiple, can feel like a constant battle between yourself and your body, increasing the toll on mental health. Throughout my life dealing with a variety of autoimmune conditions, I’ve learned the importance of self-regulation. In fact, self-regulation could be seen as the opposite of autoimmunity in many ways. While autoimmunity is your immune system attacking the body, self-regulation aims to help the immune system to function regularly and allow you to return to a state of rest and digest. While it’s not a cure, regulating your nervous system can improve mental health and impact the frequency of autoimmune flares.

Some of my favorite ways to self-regulate are:

• Mindfulness practices such as meditation, deep breathing, and grounding exercises. Mindfulness means that we’re present-focused, allowing our minds and bodies to feel more safe and calm in the moment. Studies on mindfulness have shown that it can lower inflammation in the body and reduce stress hormones as well.
• Physical movement such as yoga, walking, and dancing are also great ways to release emotional energy and self-regulate. Movement contributes to better circulation and lymphatic flow, allowing our bodies to let go of stress.
• Journaling and creative expression are powerful tools that increase self-awareness and allow for the processing of emotions.
• Connection with others has also been shown to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is responsible for activating our rest and digest state, improving immune function.

There are so many other practices that we can engage in that are powerful tools that can be used for self-regulation as well. When living with autoimmunity, the important thing is that we’re providing ourselves with the resources to manage emotions and stress and give our bodies the chance to move out of survival mode and into a more restful state.

If you’re interested in learning more about coping with autoimmunity, please feel free to contact me at sarah@embraceyoucoaching.com!