We are used to immediately asking what made us sick when we get sick. And we want to eradicate the creator of the illness as soon as possible, so that we can feel well again. This concept of health and disease is called pathogenesis. The symptom of illness (e.g., headache) and the cause (e.g., tension) are described and then “fought,” for example, with a headache pill.
More or less healthy or sick
Salutogenesis represents a completely different and much more modern approach. With its holistic approach, it starts from the health aspect of a symptom. The symptom as a warning signal suggesting us to look for the real causes of the disease. After all, even tension is only a symptom of another cause, e.g. stress.
In salutogenesis, therefore, the main focus is on the “path to recovery” that the symptom shows the patient. According to the salutogenesis model, developed by Israeli-American medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994) in the 1970s, there is no absolute state of health or disease. According to his conception, a person is more or less healthy or sick and continuously moves toward either a pole of health or a pole of illness.
It is also not asked what makes us sick, but much more about the factors that keep us healthy. Why does one person get sick under similar external stresses and another stay healthy? Antonovsky’s insight: It depends on the individual resistance reserves whether we remain healthy or become ill under external stress. These in turn are higher, the better we are financially, the higher our level of knowledge, intelligence and self-confidence.
In addition, our lifestyle plays a role and whether we are socially well integrated, i.e. whether we find the balance between overload and underload. According to Antonovsky, one of the most important resistance resources is the sense of coherence. This very theoretical term refers to a comprehensive feeling of security.
It consists in the confidence that one understands the environment adequately, that one has the ability to influence it, and that one understands the daily demands as a positive challenge and does not feel overwhelmed. Accordingly, health is a holistic human task that involves body, mind and spirit and is based, above all, on feeling secure and safe in our environment.
In our series, we will take a closer look at the different facets of health and wellness. So learn more about the topics:
- Strengthen the soul – what our intuition can do everything.
- What do I radiate?
- Stimulate the mind
- Diet and exercise
- Gentle forms of exercise and relaxation
