Well-being: Function, Task & Diseases

Well-being occurs sporadically for many people, phasically for some, and always for the others after a certain point. Well-being means being in tune with external influences. The flip side is poor well-being or depressed well-being.

What is well-being?

If enough happiness hormones are flowing into our brain, we feel good and therefore are in a happy state. If enough happiness hormones flow into our brain, we feel good and are therefore in a happy status. A feeling of well-being is interpreted differently by many, because one’s own experiences and impressions are always passed on. It can be said that some facts speak for themselves and always mean the same thing: Well-being occurs after or during a certain act, which satisfies us. No matter if we feel good during or after a meal or if we feel good in front of the TV with a cozy blanket: Well-being always has something to do with a good inner attitude.

Function and task

Should well-being after a hard day’s work in the sauna or in the cozy cinema chair, we feel good and relaxed. After all, the body also wants to relax after a stressful day full of thoughts and routine, and if this occurs, happiness hormones are released in the brain. If things are also going well in health, love and at work, our sense of well-being reaches a new limit. We feel free, happy and strong. Well-being can motivate and animate us to do amazingly productive things in this mentally strong state. So, if relaxing phases are inserted during or between work processes, the function of well-being is quite positive. During the breaks, we draw strength for further tasks we need to accomplish in life in order to move forward. Therefore, in order to increase one’s own well-being, there are personal preferences for many: Some, as already mentioned, go to the sauna, others achieve their best well-being on vacation, and still others like to embrace their own family after a long day. Well-being thus sets in for each person at a different time and with different intensity.

Diseases and ailments

As with other diseases, depression can also be chronic and/or pathological. A depression sets in, for example, when a person cannot perceive the just-mentioned happiness hormone exchange in the brain or this is not balanced at all. This can have several causes and consequently be diagnosed differently. If, for example, someone loses a family member or a good friend, his or her job and/or the girlfriend or boyfriend cheats, this can have considerable after-effects for some people. Well-being is then clouded and, at worst, depression settles in. This can emerge when the ill person believes there is no hope left in his or her life. Many depression sufferers sometimes deal with suicidal thoughts. Depression settles in over the years and cannot be overcome overnight. Thus, many sufferers turn to drugs and alcohol. Since drugs as well as medicines cause our brain to briefly devote itself to a different mode of functioning, the happiness hormones that the brain normally produces on its own can be artificially produced for a short time. If the drugs or medicines then run out, the user often falls into an even sadder state and is thus even further away from feeling good. Sport is a good medicine in this respect: if you want to increase your own well-being again, sport in any form is the best way to do it. Also, especially people with overweight or obesity are plagued by mood swings and depression, because food is also a source of happiness, so that during or before, as well as after eating, a certain sense of well-being sets in. So depression can definitely lead to further illnesses, because since the well-being simply does not want to set in during a depression, this is often created by external intake of unhealthy things for a short time.