Mental health. It’s something we all need to take care of and thankfully something our society is starting to take more seriously. However, it can still be difficult to put a focus on this important aspect of our health. Things get in the way, maybe we’re embarrassed, or maybe we just don’t know where to begin. It can be intimidating to know how to focus on improving or maintaining good mental health.
I Don’t Have a Disorder, Why Should I Care?
You don’t need to have a diagnosable mental health disorder in order to care about this aspect of health. Our physical health and our mental health are very closely linked. Neglecting one can often cause issues in the other. Staying ahead of that by putting a focus on maintaining mental health or improving it can help also maintain physical health.
Poor mental health can also contribute to developing a diagnosable disorder. You may not have one now, but if your mental health starts to suffer and you don’t have any way of improving it, you could go on to develop depression or anxiety. Prevention in this case would have been the key.
When our mental health is suffering, we can often let other areas of our lives slide. Relationships with others, sleep, work, these things and more can all be impacted by difficult stretches.
How Can I Focus on Mental Health?
There are a lot of ways we can work on improving mental health. It’s important to sit down and really think about what areas of life you feel good in currently and which you think you could use more help with. For example, do you find that you have great relationships but you tend to feel overwhelmed or stressed at work? Then focusing on maintaining those relationships and improving your work stress would be a route to go down. Without knowing how you’re really doing it can be difficult to know what needs improvement and what just needs some regular maintenance.
Some people work well with lists, be that on paper or digitally, and others work better just thinking things through or talking out loud. Whatever method works for you, use it to evaluate your current mental health strengths and weaknesses so you can build a plan going forward.
What Are Things I Can Do?
Maintaining healthy routines like exercising regularly, getting good sleep, and eating balanced meals can be a great start. It can also be good to try and work on things like breathing exercises or other grounding techniques in order to help get you through stressful moments.
Make sure to keep your relationships strong. Technology can help a lot with this but try not to rely on it entirely. When it comes to improving mental health, face-to-face time can often be more beneficial to talking to someone through text or video call.
If you have a pet, consider spending more time with them. Pets can help reduce blood pressure and loneliness. If you don’t have one, don’t worry! This is just one method of reducing loneliness. You can volunteer, pick up a new hobby that involves spending time with others, or just focus more on your friends and family.
Try being more positive. This doesn’t mean to only be positive or to deny negative feelings or experiences. That’s toxic positivity and it’s usually counterintuitive. Instead, try being more positive in the sense of when good things happen, hold onto those happy feelings. Use that to try and combat small annoyances or upsets in your life and soften the blow of negative experiences.
Practicing gratitude every day can be helpful, too. It doesn’t have to be big things that you’re grateful for. Sometimes just being grateful for your favorite kind of weather can have a positive effect on. It’s about taking the time to notice the small things in life that make it better, easier, or just more pleasant.
What if These Things Don’t Work?
If you’ve tried every improvement trick in the book, then you may need outside help. This can be either seeing a therapist or a psychiatrist for medication. Seeing a therapist can help us with improving mental health by giving up a place to talk about the difficult things with someone who is a neutral party.
Another option, usually best done in conjunction with therapy, is seeking medication from a trained professional in psychiatric medication management. Some mental health problems need the chemical changes that come with medication in order to best manage them. If working on things on your own and with a therapist haven’t been enough to help manage your symptoms, then medication may be necessary.
Resources:
https://www.family-institute.org/sharing-our-expertise/50-ways-improve-mental-health
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/caring-for-your-mental-health
https://medlineplus.gov/howtoimprovementalhealth.html
https://www.mhanational.org/31-tips-boost-your-mental-health