Mental Health Overview: Symptoms and Recovery
What is Mental Health?
Mental health affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts. It can affect your mood, your behavior, and how you handle different situations. Mental health is extremely important to have, and it provides stability in your life. Research has shown that people that maintain positive mental health actually use their medical services less. Having good mental health can help you realize your full potential, cope with stressful situations, and make meaningful contributions to those around you.
Causes of Unhealthy Mental Health
Whether it is social, emotional, or psychological, there are many factors that affect your mental health. These factors can include:
- Genetic or family history
- Biological factors, or brain chemistry
- Traumatic life experiences
Signs of Unhealthy Mental Health
There are several warning signs of unhealthy mental health ranging from very minor cases, to very severe symptoms. Here are some possible unhealthy mental health symptoms.
Minor:
- Eating too much or too little
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Lack of social activities
- Feeling like nothing matters
Intermediate to Severe:
- Having unexplained aches and pains
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Increase in alcohol, nicotine, and drugs usage
- Hearing voices
- Believing things that are not true
- Thinking of harming yourself or others
- Inability to perform daily tasks such as working
Benefits of Positive Mental Health
It is extremely important to maintain positive mental health. Staying mentally healthy supports your ability to:
- Make good life choices
- Develop and maintain healthy relationships
- Maintain good physical health
- Cope with stressful situations
- Grow your potential
How to Stay Mentally Healthy
Socialize: Social interaction is necessary for every individual. Developing and maintaining good relationships with the people around you helps you build an enjoyable and exciting life. Put in the time and effort to socialize, and you will be rewarded greatly.
Find a Hobby: What do you like to do? Find time to discover what you are interested in, and set aside time to do the activities that you enjoy. If you don’t have free time, make an effort to find some. You need some time to enjoy yourself. Enjoying and participating in your hobby can help you socialize as well.
Contribute to Your Community: Volunteer your time for a cause that you care about. Whether it is taking time to walk the dogs at the local humane society, or just working on a community garden, getting involved with your community can help you relax, and feel good about the impact that you are making at the same time.
Take Care of Your Body: By treating your body well, you will feel good in your own skin. Stay active, and feed your body healthy nutrients. This doesn’t mean you have to go to a gym. Go on walks or runs around the neighborhood, ride your bike by the boardwalk. Staying active can help you cope with the stress that you are currently dealing with.
Deal With Stress: Try avoiding situations that make you stressed. If you have to deal with a situation, try thinking it out rationally, and take part in your hobbies or activities to help relive the stress.
Rest: Your body needs sleep to reset and recharge. Make sure you are getting a good amount of sleep every night. Practice good sleeping habits. By resting and recharging your body, you will have more energy to participate in the things you love, and deal with stressful situations more easily.
Ask for Help: This can be anything from venting to a friend, asking for advice from a counselor, or seeking community mental health service. It is important to maintain good mental health, so if you need assistance, contact a professional.
How to Get Professional Help
Lifeline Connections provides effective mental health treatments. We tailor our programs to each specific patient, and can provide individual, or group therapy. We provide you the tools that you need to regain stability in your life. If you need professional assistance on achieving positive mental health, contact Lifeline Connections today.
