Mental health is a topic that has been gaining more attention lately. Especially after Simon Biles, of the Olympic team of the United States, took a step back to focus on her mental health instead of the competition. So let’s talk about it!
It’s important to remember that mental health isn’t just about emotional regulation and mental stability all the time, it includes taking care of your physical well-being. A mental decline in one’s overall health can through everything off, including physical symptoms.
Seeking out mental health assistance is “not something you should feel guilty or ashamed of,” Simon Biles told a magazine in June. Mental health is often neglected because people are afraid or ashamed to talk about their struggles with mental illness, but this shouldn’t be the case.
In this blog post, I’ll share some simple techniques for improving our mental well-being. Feel free to jump around the below points of this article:
- Identifying Signs of Mental Illness
- Understanding the Importance it has on Overall Wellness
- Ways to Enhance your Mental State
- Resources Available
- Focus on Social Connections & Self-Worth
- Practicing Mindfulness
- Six Dimensions of Wellness
- ABCDE Method for New Perspective
- Conclusion
Identify the Signs of Mental Illness
A mental decline in one’s health could create signs such as:
- Feeling sad often
- Drinking too much or alone
- Losing interest in activities
- Feeling restless and tense
- Sleeping too much, or not at all
- Not eating at all or overeating
Mental illness manifests outwardly in different ways for different mental illnesses. Defined by the APA, mental illness is behavioral patterns that are not typical and interfere with day-to-day functioning. These mental illnesses and disorders can be hard to diagnose because they are usually the result of many intertwined issues.
Below are some of the common mental illnesses:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Alcohol Use Disorder or Substance Use Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Satori Way discusses the research of intertwined issues with root causes of addiction. Below are the root causes that are closely intertwined. These are strong indicators of predicting addiction and mental illness diagnosis.
- Childhood Adversity
- Trauma Influences
- Environmental Factors
- Neurological Disorders
- Emotional Pain
- Epigenetics & Genes
Check out our insight series of 6 articles about the root causes of addiction. Identifying root causes that are affecting our life today can aid in seeing the signs of our mental decline sooner than later.
Understanding the Importance on Overall Well-being
Understanding our mental health and its role in society should be paid attention to, but mental health should be examined on an individual level as well. When mental health is neglected, physical symptoms can manifest too. Mental health should be taken just as seriously as physical well-being, especially by those who feel anxious or depressed.
With age, 50% of adults will experience a mental disorder (e.g., depression). Worldwide prevalence for any mental disorder in children and adolescents ranges between 7% and 13%. Today, mental disorders are still stigmatized but with more information about mental disorders available and more people avocating for change, social attitudes are shifting favorably towards understanding mental health more so now than ever before.
As a result, mental health is an important part of overall wellness and is shifting the narrative to be taken just as seriously as physical well-being. Especially by those who grew up in an abusive environment or feel anxious and depressed. It can manifest in many forms which can make it difficult to diagnose but the signs are not always clear cut so mental health shouldn’t be ignored for too long.
Ways to Enhance Your Mental Wellness
To identify a mental disorder, we must know the signs and what to look for such as; feeling sad, losing interest in activities, or feeling restless and tense. If these symptoms persist for weeks and cause noticeable difficulties in functioning, then an individual should strongly consider partaking in any of the following activities.
Therapy
Therapy is important because it can stand as a weekly gut check for your emotional well-being and mental health. Olympic Gymnast, Simon Biles has said in the past that talk therapy is one tool that she utilizes to manage her mental health. Cognitive therapy is one way that can help someone learn about themselves and show them new perspectives on how they react differently to situations.
If you can’t tell that you are beginning to slip into signs of depression or anxiety, a professional therapist will be able to guide you on what can best help you at the time of need. Seeing a therapist on a regular basis can help resurface these issues and process them as you go about your everyday life.
Find a Support Group
Another great opportunity for maintaining mental health without drugs or alcohol includes recognizing the importance of social connections and using them accordingly with therapies that can lessen the impact of mental illness (e.g., stress management techniques). AA, NA, SMART Recovery, and other self-help groups are all great go-tos when it comes to finding a local in-person or online meeting quickly. Or identifying an accountable friend with whom you can talk about your feelings whenever needed.
Begin Healing Emotional Pain
Healing our emotional trauma before it affects us over our lifetime is something to evaluate.Emotional pain can be a root cause of mental health issues and addiction. Every illness starts in the emotional body. When we cannot move the energy and let it pass through us, it gets stuck in our bodies. This energy then manifests into physical symptoms. We must educate ourselves and others on how to recognize these signs and speak up about them before they become debilitating and threaten our life.
Learn About Resources Available
I want to list some mental health resources for anyone who may need them. You can find a mental health professional to talk with or get advice (usually immediately or very quickly) from the following organizations:
– National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
– Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)
–Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services (SAMHSA)
– Mental Health America (MHA), formerly known as the National Mental Health Association
– International Foundation for Eating Disorders (IFED)
– National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
– American Psychological Association (APA), which is the largest mental health professional organization in the United States. They offer a free online directory to find mental health professionals near you.
There are also some mental health apps that you can download to check in on mental health. We talk about all the best ones on our free membership platform. Join us for free to check them out here!
Something to keep in mind when looking into different mental health resources: Find mental health providers that are sensitive to your family’s needs. Sharing about your family situation, what you’re currently doing day-to-day, and how it makes you feel can give great insight into what you may need on a personal level. Therapy may be able to offer more options into mental well-being strategies for the whole family.
Focus on What Promotes Connections and Self-worth
Activities that promote positive social connection include mental health care like talk therapy, spending time with friends and family members, connecting with nature, volunteering for a cause which you believe in, and activities such as dance or art therapy. These all promote mental well-being.
Self-worth can be improved by anything that makes you feel good about yourself such as taking care of your mental health, setting reasonable goals and making those small steps to reach them, doing a job or activity which is rewarding for you (e.g., writing), recognizing successes in life with gratitude, practicing mindfulness techniques like meditation and yoga, and mental health self-care.
In the age of the internet and increased mental health awareness, there are all kinds of resources available to help people find mental health resources that best suit them for their individual needs.
Practice Mindfulness To Begin Healing Your Brain
Mindfulness can be performed at any time, surrounded by whomever and wherever you prefer. This is the beauty of the practice. Mindfulness can help regulate our emotions, disprove our irrational beliefs, and put our fears at ease by putting the focus on what matters in the present moment.
For many people, being “present” means finding the right moment to focus on the here-and-now. Practicing mindfulness puts us on a path to becoming more present in our own lives.
Practicing mindfulness can help us with:
– Staying grounded and present in our thoughts, feelings, experiences, relationships, and surroundings.
– Being more mindful of what we’re feeling or thinking – both positive and negative emotions.
– Paying attention to the world around us by being aware of sensations like breathing deeply or tasting food.
– Accepting our mental state as it is and not dwelling in the past or expecting things about the future.
Check-In with the Six Dimensions of Wellness
When paying attention to mental wellness, it’s also important to be mindful of how your mental health can affect other parts of your life such as physical health, emotional stability, relationships with others, work performance, and spiritual health. It is always good to check your overall health in the six dimensions of wellness.
Dr. Bill Hettler, the mental health expert, and creator of the six dimensions of wellness offers the following advice for mental wellness.
He says it is important not only to be aware of what you’re feeling but also why you’re feeling it. This is done by practicing the ABCDE model when identifying mental health. “Many mental health difficulties are rooted in the perception of events or thoughts,” Dr. Hettler said. “This can be changed.”
ABCDE Method to Create New Perspectives
When working through any mental health or addictive cycles, it is crucial to tap into techniques like ABCDE to help enhance cognitive functions. The ABCDE method is a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) technique is the following:
Taking action on helping our brain rewire itself for success takes patience, effort, and willingness. Through the ABCDE format and other forms of cognitive therapy, millions of people have deconstructed these unhealthy belief systems over decades.
There are all kinds of mental health self-care techniques that help mental wellness. Ensuring we identify what areas need our attention is the most beneficial part of the self-healing process. Once we have identified and are aware of an issue, then we can begin healing it through practicing mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, and more.
Conclusion
Mental health is an important part of our mental wellness that can affect all aspects of life. With awareness of what we’re feeling, we can do the right research into the roots of why we’re feeling it. Identifying mental health issues and understanding their importance are necessary steps to healing.
By identifying mental health issues, we can begin healing our root issue by seeking professional help and practicing mindfulness techniques like meditation or yoga which helps with mental wellness.
With a spiritual approach and the right tools to retrain your brain – You have the power to transform your life and habits significantly. Satori Way is here to help set the stage with what is right for you, join us as a free member, and check out our 5-day course here!
Sources
Hettler, B. (2021). Six Dimensions of Wellness | National Wellness Institute. Retrieved 12 August 2021, from https://nationalwellness.org/resources/six-dimensions-of-wellness/
What Is Mental Illness?. (2021). Retrieved 18 August 2021, from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness