The Importance of Mental Health: Navigating the Landscape of Wellbeing
Note: This blog contains brief mentions of self-harm and other mental disorders, please proceed with caution. This is for awareness and educational purposes only and is not a substitute to professional mental health care
The History Of Mental Heath
Make it stand out
Mental health used to be seen as insanity. In Ancient Egypt, it was assumed that mental health wasdue to demonic influence or inhabitance. Would you believe people with mental illness were often treated by exorcism? Mental health and physical health align on the scale of priorities. Our mental health impacts how we react and deal with issues ranging from minor to major issues. Christine Caine an Australian activist and evangelist once said"Sometimes when you're in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've been planted". When it comes to our mental health many individuals are blinded by the hues they possess, and the paths they're paving. The bad times will pass, time keeps running like a river, you can reach for the stars.
From afar the stars seem to be candescent, however, in reality, it's incandescent, just because they could burn doesn't mean you should chase your dreams without positivity you'll lack motivation and add more onto your regrets over time. Most mental health does possess a remedy often with therapy, medication, or a combination of both. The first step in solving this issue is to admit you possess an issue. The sooner someone with a mental health condition gets help, the better the outcome. By raising awareness, we can create a cordial world with fewer issues.
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.”
The Impact of Mental Health
Your emotional, psychological and social state is deeply affected by mental illness which has an effect on how you think, feel and act in your everyday life. Some examples of this are that anxiety can make managing daily tasks hard and depression can wipe out motivation and energy. Struggles with mental health can tear apart relationships with family, friends, and lovers. It can also make communication difficult, and it could create emotional withdrawal and distance you from the one you love. Difficulty concentrating, dozing off, having low energy, and negative moods can negatively impact productivity at work or school. There's also a strong mind-body connection. Mental health issues can affect your physical health and cause heart disease. Mental health issues can lead to violence and threaten public safety. Addressing this stigma is crucial, seeing as a variety of people feel ashamed, embarrassed, or judged. There are many ways one could approach the issue to aid someone in need including interventions, normalizing the idea of help, making them feel comfortable talking about their struggles, fostering a support network. By openly discussing mental health issues with anyone, a therapist , a friend, or even a journal, and ignoring the prejudiced remarks or glances we can create a society where everyone is true to everyone and especially themselves.
Mental health should concern everyone as it immensely impacts everyone in society. When we understand the challenges that people with mental health illnesses face it encourages us to feel compassion. Open conversations, on the other hand, can help people know they are not alone or forsaken as well as this making it less likely for them to feel this way. On the contrary, individuals who are mentally well tend to have more focus, drive, productivity and vitality. They experience far less absenteeism and are better at dealing with stress. Untreated mental health illness can worsen over time, and by prioritizing our mental state we can prevent escalating our mental issues, and ensure a safe well-being. Investing in mental health is essential and would greatly benefit every individual, and greatly impact our society. Creating a society where mental health is stable would reduce many issues like violence, crimes, bullying, and more. By prioritizing and recognizing that mental health would greatly benefit efficiency in daily life tasks, it would also create a serene atmosphere where people would have time to think before they act ergo making the world a safer place, ensuring wise decisions are made, and encouraging motivation to work better in school or the workspace benefiting everyone.
Personal Growth and Healing
Source: Dribbble on Pinterest
Denial anger bargaining depression acceptance – these stages characterize most personal growth journeys towards healing. These steps often are part of the lives of those confronting mental health challenges or going through inevitable highs and lows of life. The first step is recognizing that mental health concerns take many forms. Emotional symptoms may include mood swings like mania or hypomania depression anxiety disorder mixed bipolar. Behaviorally, warning signs could be withdrawal, isolation, changes in routine, self-harm, or using unhealthy coping mechanisms like eating disorders. Physical indicators might encompass such things as changes in appetite/weight gain/loss tiredness insomnia headaches or stomachaches without obvious reasons why.
The symptoms of individual people vary. People’s mental health issues show up in different ways. Some might have only a few of these symptoms, whereas others may exhibit a broader range. Importantly, ensuring that you always maintain an open mind, be compassionate and non-judgmental when supporting someone going through such experiences.
Behavioral indicators are essential to bear in mind, as drastic changes should be concerning. For example, an extrovert doesn't just become an introvert out of the blue, a person risking their health by changing their food consumption, someone who starts to pull all-nighters, or a fall in work efficiency. A wise or mature person turning native. These are extensions we should look out for.
Be supportive. Listen to their insights, maybe even give them advice. There are so many signs that a person has a mental issue but one of the most ubiquitous ones is behavior change. It can start out as small changes or it could be a huge leap you could one day just look at that person and be like that was not who they were yesterday, but you could also that person be like something different and when they’re on a slow pace, changing themselves slowly, were more willing to accept and not question it.
Communication and observation show that you are supportive. Paying attention to what someone is saying verbally and nonverbally gives you a chance to know how they’re feeling. Noticing any changes in one’s behavior is more important than you’d think. it shows that you are aware, you care, and you're there to ask them “Is everything okay?" You should keep in mind it's not your job to diagnose them, but by recognizing the signs you can encourage the person to seek professional help before it’s too late to redeem them. Anyone who watched the show Degrassi would understand why recognizing mental issues and supporting the mentally ill person and considering how they feel is important in the show Degrassi season four episode eight was being bullied and he ended up causing such a hazard. He caused a school shooting and got on the news now this has most definitely happened in real life before maybe not at school, but every psychopath you think about had a traumatizing childhood they couldn’t talk to people they didn’t have someone to connect with have a shoulder to cry on, and that mostly caused the existence of psychopath, like Jeffrey Dahmer the clown killer the pig killer the zodiac and many more.
Mental issues should be faced by being heard and receiving advice. We don’t want another psycho on our hands this generation with a killer on the loose.
Supporting Others
Having a conversation with someone who is struggling with a mental health issue can feel daunting, but your support could make a world difference to them.
To approach a situation like that you have to keep everything confidential, gossip and words spread won’t have a good impact. Find a quiet time and place where you can have a heart to heart conversation without interruptions. When some people are talking to you or complaining to you about something they don’t want you to give them a solution right away. They want to vent to someone, they want someone to listen so listen and then give advice or a common expression during the conversation, but do not interrupt when they’re talking. Letting them know that there’s someone to rely on as a shoulder to cry on is essential. Some people show affection through words, hugs gifts..etc.
Some people showcase that they’re aware and listening by acting upon it and some people give advice about it. And when you’re to ask whether they’re all right, use the pronoun I such as I’ve noticed you’ve been acting differently lately. Is everything OK? This usually allows them to be more open and free since they know you’re the one who’s concerned about that but if you’re saying people have noticed that you’ve been acting strange, that would be a whole different conversation that person would feel like they wouldn’t wanna talk to you like you’re asking, but you don’t care you’re not putting any affection towards the question, it’s showcasing that you’re not concerned but when using the shows that you genuinely care. You should also offer support let them validate their feelings let them acknowledge that emotions are a part of being human whether that emotion is anger, envy, or any other negative emotion letting me know that that is a part of human nature and helping them to deal with it to turn that negativity into positivity, turn that anger into tranquility.
They shouldn’t just be able to identify what they’re feeling, but they should be able to know what to do about it. That’s not your job, but you should consider helping them and give them advice. Every one of us has experienced this before and the consequences analyze what you’ve done to help them become a better person and henceforth you learn from your mistakes too.
It takes time . and does not heal all wounds and the hollow void in one’s heart. Eventually, you forget the emotion felt or the memory overtime you look back and barely even remember why you felt that way about something but, the more you bottle up and tolerate the worse it’s gonna get the first time you get mad you’ll be able to control it a couple of times after that you might regret one day and eventually it could lead to violence, or worse. There are many hotlines and mental health organizations, real-life, support groups, and online support groups that can help someone dealing with this you should recommend, but it would help to get advice from a trusted friend not only would you be helping a friend but you’d also get closer to the friend. No, just because it’s better to be there for someone it’s OK if you don’t wanna talk about it, but you should consider what goes around comes around if you won’t listen to someone why should they have to listen to you? You should set boundaries if you’re uncomfortable with talking to that person about a specific situation. It's okay to say no but tell them gently and tell them kindly. Practice activities that help you be the better version of yourself, start doing daily routines, and eat healthy. These things may not seem major, but they do gravely impact one’s mood throughout the day. Simply making your friends live or they have an issue, to begin with, could make them feel like they have somewhere to go that makes them feel OK.
You should listen to your friend. You have to listen to you. In your mind, your friend is not her therapist and sometimes the advice you give or the advice you’ve been given, might not suit them. Everyone acts differently. Everyone responds differently. Everyone thinks differently.
Mental health is essential as it not only impacts a person but could impact society. By raising awareness, becoming familiar with the signs of mental health issues, and offering support, we can create a supportive community.
We also have a more detailed blog about supporting others, we recommend you check it out!
Conclusion - Awareness and Acceptance
We must educate ourselves about mental health. Recovery from mental health issues is possible. But it might take time and it’s not easy to open up recognizing that you have an issue is a step toward recovery when you first deal with an issue you start overthinking and you start getting signs of anxiety, depression any sort of mental disorders you push away people start isolating yourself you might even be in denial that you even have an issue in the first place then you’ll start getting irritated every time someone asks you are you OK that question will bother you so much when people start noticing he’ll change they will feel concerned, then go to bargaining stage where you keep telling yourself I’m OK but there are a few things I could change to be better and then move onto where they’re wondering is everything OK? Why am I first? Sometimes people won’t notice that they’ve done this to themselves, they'll get sad and upset feeling out of place when you finally accept that you have an issue and you need to talk to someone whether that’s a friend or a therapist. And that’s when you’ll start noticing changes mark my words you can never go back to who you were but you can be a better version of yourself. In history, mental illnesses can be known as insanity, but in today’s world and tomorrow it should be known as A part of being human, some people just need a shoulder to cry on or someone to talk to. We don’t want to be raising the next generation of psychos. Let history be history and ameliorate tomorrow.
Citations:
Depression. (n.d.). National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. (n.d.). https://www.fcc.gov/988-suicide-and-crisis-lifeline
Bipolar Disorder - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf. (n.d.). National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK558998/
Mental health. (n.d.). World Health Organization (WHO). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
National Alliance on Mental Illness offers support, more in a variety of ways. (n.d.). Purdue University. https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/purduetoday/releases/2020/Q4/national-alliance-on-mental-illness-offers-support,-more-in-a-variety-of-ways.html
Mental Health Treatment in the Past | Introduction to Psychology | Page 4. (n.d.). Lumen Learning – Simple Book Production. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-psychology/chapter/mental-health-treatment-past-and-present/4
About Mental Health. (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm
