Mental well-being is important for a happy life. We often blame our living conditions for our unhappiness. But is it really that simple? Have you ever seen a person with same or even worse living conditions than yours, who is happier? Or did your mood swings ever surprise you? Well, maybe it’s not just you.
Image Source : https://pixabay.com
You may get gloomy about something or start getting angry about something. But maybe the cause of that gloom or anger is completely different, while we end up blaming ourselves. Some people may even feel sad or lonely for no reason since it may be because of the way your body’s chemical factory works. Certain hormones like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins can make you happy when released in the brain. Similarly, there are stress hormones. The things we experience may trigger the release of any one of these hormones and influence us emotionally.
There can be many obvious things going on in your life that may make you unhappy or sad. However, there are many surprising reasons for your emotional conditions and the release of these hormones that you probably didn’t know before. You should watch out for the following reasons which may influence how you feel:
- Medication
Certain drugs can make you an unhappy person despite a perfect life. Side effects of some drugs like reserpine for high blood pressure, beta-blockers, morphine, codeine, and anticholinergics include gloominess and emotional melancholy.
- Past tragedy
You may not notice, but if you’re holding on to a bad experience, such as a rejection, a breakup, a personal conflict, or a death of your beloved pet, you must think about recalibrating your brain because it can lead to chronic unhappiness in the longer run.
- Your Genes
Surprisingly it’s not only you who may contribute to your unhappiness. It may be in your genes. But you don’t need to panic since this problem can be addressed.
- Getting your high
It’s a great feeling, but there is a reason it’s called getting high. When the effect sheds off you may end up feeling very low.
- ** Your Biology**
Doctors have found differences between the brains of happy and unhappy people. A small memory region of your brain called hippocampus works as a serotonin receptor. In unhappy people, the hippocampus was found to be smaller, which means it had few receptors on it. Serotonin is a great chemical to help you calm down. Some scientists think that it’s the way people are born, while others think that Cortisol, a poisonous stress hormone can have toxic effects on the hippocampus.
- Chronic Illness
Chronic illnesses may stick to you for long times. However, they gradually start morphing your behavior and mood as well before you know. Chronic illnesses can often be cured by exercise, diet, lifestyle, and habits. Illnesses like heart disease, arthritis, diabetes hypothyroidism, AIDS, and others may cause unhappiness.
- Sleeplessness
Sleeplessness may sound like an ordinary practice. But it can have deleterious effects on your body, in case if you don’t know about Russian Sleep Experiment. While sleeping all the toxic substances are washed off from your brain and that’s how you feel fresh and happy the next day.
- Eating the right Junk
When your friend asks you why you are sad? You may never answer “Because I had a pizza last night”. It may be surprising to learn that what we eat can be responsible for our happiness. So, what is the happy food? Well, the healthy food is always the happy food, since your happiness also depends on your mental health. An unhealthy meal can affect your emotional well-being and happiness.
People who go for healthy vegetables, meat, fruits, fish and whole grains are more likely to be happy than those you go for fries, refined grains, processed food and sugary items. Our moods can be regulated by nutrients we consume since they can have effects on control of blood sugar and brain functioning. Similarly, anxiety may be caused by consuming few calories or by excessive dieting. Overeating can also have the same impacts, so you need to go for moderation. Foods like legumes, whole grains and other complex carbs can have soothing effects on our overall mood.
Unhealthy food will also make your mind disoriented, moody, foggy and confused, which will diminish your self-esteem as a result. It is also studied that dieting can make you emotionally stressed. Calories and carbs, both have essential roles in brain functioning, and reducing their intake can have bad effects on the brain.
The improper time of your meals, consuming fatty foods at night, caffeine intake before sleeping hours or overeating can seriously affect your sleep as well as your digestion. Disturbances in either one of these will directly affect your mood. Lack of Omega-3 fatty acids from fish and vegetable oils in your diet can also make us unhappy.
- Weather
You may be a winter person or summer lover because your body adjusts to your atmosphere and the weather changes. For some people, it’s difficult for their bodies to readily adjust to the changes and they end up feeling sad for no reason.
- Smoking Habits
Nicotine in your cigarettes can trigger the release of serotonin and dopamine in your brain, which is why smokers crave for the feeling they get after smoking. However, as soon as the effect ends, it brings a feeling of anxiety, give you mood swings and imbalance your brain chemicals. This is what makes a smoker so much dependent on it and gives them terrible moods.
Conclusion
So, you may hate your boss a little more today, but it might be the pill you had in the morning that is doing it. You may be annoyed about having to do an assignment you’re having difficulty to focus on, because you had a bad sleep last night or have a bad tummy.
Knowing yourself better by considering how your body behaves and responds to different things will help us get along with our glorious bodies better, and eventually help us discover how to keep it healthy and happy. So, think about it the next time you’re about to fall for it.