Been feeling kinda down for more than a week now. Maybe from lack of physical activity or because I'm always at home. I don't feel like going out. I've gotten like 2 or 3 invites but I don't go out.
I just want to stay home and do whatever and nothing. Maybe I'm depressed. Maybe I'm just bored or maybe I'm still feeling burned out from working two jobs. I dunno. (Edit after a day: Now that I've had more time to think about it, I finally know the culprit. Wait for it in another post. Hahaha.) But of course I don't always feel this way but you know they say it's all in the mind, right?
Sometimes it can be the whole body causing the mind to think stuff, it can be the food you eat, the environment you're in, the people you meet and so on. Ultimately it's still your mind that will make you do what you do. It's still what you think you want to do or should or will do that you will do. If your mind is not alright then what will you think of doing?
Have you noticed there seems to be an increase of attention to mental health issues now more than ever? Why? Perhaps due to the increase of celebrity suicides or the increasing mind related jobs and problems than the usual physical related jobs.
(source)
My brother said he heard someone say that depression is a sickness of the rich, poor people can't afford to be depressed otherwise they will die from hunger or something like that. Well I think it is the sickness of the intellectuals, those who use their mind more to do any work and earn from it rather than when using more of the body.
If your mind isn't functioning well, how will you behave and interact with other people and what do you think will your body do? Or as quoted below:
Mental health has an impact on physical health and vice versa.1
There are a lot of mental health issues that people need help with. Some people turn to alcohol or drugs to cope with life and thus develop addictions making it both a mental health problem and a drug/drinking problem. 2 Each one making one or the other worse than before. If one doesn't get treatment perhaps the person will be damaged by it like what the brain scan shows below.
We can all try to determine if we are mentally healthy or not by taking them online personality disorder tests but those are not definitive. Plus, it seems like it is only a problem to consider if it has already worsened. If someone already tried to commit suicide or if having severe depression disrupts work or every day life then that's the only time people usually seek help.
Sometimes other people need to intervene to help people with mental illnesses because they already need it even though the person may be in denial or unaware. It is always hard for people to accept that their mind (or their loved ones') is not normal or functioning normally as before.
Difference of Mental Health and Mental Illness
These two terms can get interchanged sometimes but the two are different from each other.3 Any mental illness or disorder, like having personality disorders, is a consequence of poor mental health (sometimes including poor physical health too). Meaning, a mental health problem results in mental disorders or illnesses.
Everybody has mental health issues much like we all have physical health issues. The problem is, we only focus on body health issues more than we do the mind health ones, thus we only start to fix or do something about it when it is already worse and very evident.
Mental Health Problems in Popular Media
Mental health issues affect all ages. Teenagers have their teenage angst and emo stage. For senior citizens, Alzheimer's Disease is the mental illness4 that is hard to accept. If you have a loved one who has it, or even Dementia, you will know how sad and heartbreaking it can be living with people who used to be bright and sharp minded. You will never know how emotionally painful it is until a family member has it.
This topic has also been dealt with in movies and TV shows. Movies like Still Alice and some South Korean movies show the struggles of people with this illness. (I haven't watched Dementia by Nora Aunor yet because it's a horror movie but it got the Best Film award in the 2015 St. Tropez International Film Festival among other awards.)
Short term memory problems have also been dealt with in films like Memento and even split or multiple personality in Fight Club and Split. Sometimes our minds can play tricks on us and other people while some people can abuse others or be abused because of mental disability if someone knew about it. It's always a pity and a sad story to have any kind of mental illness so we have to take care of our minds, not only our bodies.
Different Kinds of Mental Health Issues
The most common forms of mental illness are anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia disorders.5
Other mental illnesses can be due to physical deterioration like old age, nerve diseases or physical injury to the head or spine etc. These are more commonly known as Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinsons disease etc. Heck even HIV or cancer can cause depression.
What does it mean to have good mental health?
Mental health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties.6
It also means that you are socially and physically active, eat and sleep well and have purpose and meaning in your everyday life. (Hahaha, now I know why I'm feeling down lately. Lol.)
Why City Dwellers Need to Focus on Mental Health More Than Others
How we function well in our everyday life is related to how well our brain or mental health is. Think of it like being physically sick, like having flu, of course you will ask the day off or take medicine for it. If your head or body aches you will buy paracetamol. What will you buy when you are having an anxiety attack or if you are brokenhearted? Do you buy alcohol or cigarettes or illegal drugs or do you talk to people you can confide in?
I think the only solution to mental health problems also lies in people who care to listen to their fellowmen. Some people do not know how to write diaries, they need to talk it out with other people. The problem is, if you dump your life issues on other people instead of solving and facing the problems, the one you dumped it to will either hate you or help you.
This is why there are psychiatrists instead who can help us talk it out and such but some people cannot afford to pay for one or don't want the social stigma of going to a "shrink" thus most people succumb to vices while others seek other forms of "self-medication."
Living in a concrete jungle makes us angry, ruthless or heartless people thus more crimes are committed and people feel more depressed. Also we are more exposed to chemicals and processed food plus we focus more on work and earning money using computers or mobile phones etc. Aside from that, we have microwaves and lots of cell sites and other bad things for human health. That's why it is important to have plants and trees in cities in order for us to be nicer people.7 Happy people are nicer and kinder to others.8 If you do more nature walks or trips, it will add to your overall mental well being.
And having pets will definitely make us feel better because of the companionship and unconditional love we get from them. If you're too busy making a living, getting a pet may let you make time to play and/or walk it outside or just cuddle with it.
People say happiness is a choice so let's all find ways to be happy in the city, suburbs or anywhere we live for all our mental health's sake.
How to Have better Mental Health
There are many things we can do to help improve our mental condition:
1 If you would like to seek the help of doctors, you can definitely contact a local one and you might get prescription drugs to help you out. Prescribed medicine can help you if worst comes to worst.
In case you have no one to talk to, there are suicide hotlines or just simple counseling hotlines that you can call when you think you can't take your life problems anymore. Their contact numbers are readily available to you via search engines in case you feel the need to talk and are afraid to be judged by people you care about or who loves you.
2 Alternatively, you can do other ways to achieve better mental health like doing meditation9 or other physical activities like yoga or dancing to develop and maintain good psychiatric conditions. Eating a well balanced diet or doing health detoxes and socializing can help too.
3 Other people use Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) to help with mental health issues like anxiety, negative thinking, depression etc.10
This method can help us understand the feelings and thoughts that influence our behaviors11 so we can do something better than destructive or negative behavior/reactions that make life more difficult.
4 Aside from those mentioned above, there are those that resort to Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). This is where you combine tapping on body points with saying positive words or sentences or beliefs.
Focusing on positive words or thoughts and actions alone can also help improve our mental health as scientific studies have discovered.12 Being grateful for the things we have or acknowledging the wonderful things that happened instead of complaining about all the bad things we experienced within the day will definitely help improve our outlook in life.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't call out somebody who wronged or hurt us. It also doesn't mean we can't express our anger at injustices or unfairness of the world. But when we're feeling down, it's better to acknowledge and accept it can happen then combat it with good thoughts or think of win win situations when we can.
5 Sometimes alternative medicine can help people too in lieu of prescribed medicine. Recommended herbal plants are St. John's Wort, Ginko Biloba,13 Kava, food supplements like Magnesium, B vitamins or Omega 3, etc to name a few aside from also having acupuncture or full body massages done or even Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Hypnosis etc.14
6 Creative arts therapy15 like painting, writing and listening to or making music can also improve our mood and mind.16 p
Listening to music and writing is probably the cheapest alternative of them all. When you're sad, lonely or whatever, just listen to positive uplifting music like gospel songs or inspirational songs, or listen to classical music. You can even listen to nature inspired sounds on YouTube to relax or ease your mind.
If you're raging inside, well now, go hardcore screamo and sing your heart out why not? Hahaha. Sing out all that anger and tell me if you don't feel better afterwards. No point suppressing your anger, it will just eat you up inside if you bottle it all up so maybe sing it out and help ease it out of your system.
You can also write a letter then burn it so all those things that are bothering your mind will figuratively go away and let you move on. Or put it all in your diary. You can even write a blog or story out of your problems (like I'm doing now, hahaha) or make a movie out of it or something to get it out of your system .
I know of someone who was able to cope with her miscarriage by dabbling in painting. When she was better suddenly she couldn't paint anymore however much she tried so she just didn't use them art materials. One day, she saw me post a pic on Instagram that I bought some art brushes. Hey she then decided to give all her watercolor paint stuff to me! Haha! That made me very happy indeed. :D She kept asking why she couldn't paint anymore so I told her she didn't need it anymore that's why.
7 The best and sometimes healthiest alternative though is to go outside or what others call nature or ecotherapy.17 Go to the park, rest under a tree, swim in the ocean, sunbathe on the sand, walk in the forest barefoot, hike up a mountain etc. Nature has it's own way of healing us. Even Stanford researchers say so.18 There's just something about nature that makes us feel better and happier.
You don't need an expert to tell you you will feel better when you are in nature because it just happens. When you immerse yourself in the great outdoors, you feel better and alive and one with the world. :)
So the next time we're feeling sad or depressed, we can go ahead and just hug a tree maybe and smell the flowers or the fresh spring air in someone's garden somewhere. This is why people like going on vacations and holidays. We city folk tend to experience a bit more happiness and relaxation when in nature.19
Oh, or maybe go visit zoos, farms or get a pet too. Animals can improve our mental state as well. :) It also makes our hearts feel warm and fuzzy when we cuddle a dog or cat or even bunnies! ♥
Okay yeah, I should go out tomorrow so I won't feel sad or something anymore being cooped up in this house. Haha.
Have any other ways to cope with being alive and contribute to better mental health? Feel free to share below. :)
That's all and I hope you have found (or find) whichever works for you to improve your mental health too. :D
References:
1 World Health Organization, Dec 2017 • 2 HelpGuide.org, Apr 2018 • 3 Capital EAP, Aug 2016 • 4 Chicago Bridge, June 2011 • 5 Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation • 6 HelpGuide.org, Mar 2018 • 7 Treehugger.com, Feb 2012 • 8 howstuffworks, Jun 2009 • 9 US NCBI, Jan 2008 • 10 sharecare • 11 verywellmind, Jul 2017 • 12 Huffington Post, Sep 2017 • 13 Examine.com, Sep 2017 • 14 bestpsychologydegrees.com • 15 Psychology Today, Jun 2014 • 16 USA Today, Dec 2013 • 17 Natural England, Feb 2016 • 18 Stanford News, Jun 2015 • 19 The New York Times, Well, Jul 2015
For my art, writings and other posts, feel free to check my blog page.
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