Mental health is a state of mental well-being that allows you to cope with stressful situations, realize your potential, succeed in school and work, and contribute to society.
There are 7 main criteria for mental health:
- Awareness of the continuity of your mental and physical self: that is, from the moment you wake up throughout your waking hours, you understand who you are, where you are, what you are doing and why.
- Control over your own behavior. You recognize your emotions and understand what dictates your reactions and actions.
- Match your reaction to current events. It’s normal to be sad or angry because of some unpleasant circumstances and to rejoice at new acquisitions, achievements or victories. But the occurrence of strong feelings for no reason should alert you.
- Critical attitude towards yourself. Essentially, this is an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, the ability to doubt the correctness of your actions, evaluate them and consciously change if necessary.
- Identity of experiences in similar situations. If you usually enjoy meeting friends or the success of your team at work, then if irritation, anger or grief arises in such cases, you should be wary.
- Adaptability of behavior. When faced with new circumstances, a mentally healthy person evaluates them and plans his actions.
- The ability to plan your life and take action to achieve your goals.
Prevention of mental health disorders
As for other diseases, mental disorders are distinguished by three levels of prevention.
Primary prevention affects people who do not experience mental problems and feel absolutely healthy mentally. If this sounds like you, then the list of measures will probably seem familiar to you.
Follow your diet and sleep schedule. This is not only important for maintaining mental health, but also reduces the risk of developing a number of diseases.
Be active: regular exercise improves sleep quality, improves mood, and reduces anxiety, stress and the risk of depression.
Limit your use of alcohol and psychoactive substances. Alcohol is a depressant. Its frequent use violates the production of neurotransmitters, which can ultimately lead to addiction and cause serious harm to mental health.
If you are faced with a difficult or traumatic situation, do not hesitate to seek professional help from a psychologist. Get benefit from Phoenix teen IOP for the mental wellness of your loved ones.
Secondary prevention concerns people who already have certain disorders in the early stages. One of the most important components of secondary prevention is screening. Reasons for checking may include early signs of mental health problems:
- Lack of appetite or uncontrollable overeating
- Insomnia or excessive sleepiness
- Detachment from the usual social circle and usual activities
- Indifference to what is happening
- Unexplained headaches
- Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
- Smoking, drinking alcohol and using psychotropic substances (more often and more than usual)
- Unexplained attacks of anger, irritability, fear, embarrassment, or despair
- Increased conflicts with friends and family
- Sudden mood swings that negatively affect communication with others
- Thoughts about harming yourself or others
- Inability to perform daily activities
Tertiary prevention is the treatment of already identified mental disorders. It is dealt with by psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Treatment for mental illness usually requires an integrated approach: medication, therapy, sometimes hospital stay and almost always lifestyle changes. In addition, treatment often does not immediately relieve symptoms and can be quite long: from several weeks to months and even years. People who have suffered such disorders require special attention to their condition over a long period of time to avoid relapses.
Mental Health Techniques
Communicate.
It is important to share your experiences, feel valued, give and receive emotional support, as well as positive emotions and shared experiences. Spend time with your family, loved ones, relatives and friends you rarely see, with colleagues at work. Don’t rely on social networks and instant messengers: they quickly become a habit that isolates you from the live communication that we all need.
Be physically active.
You shouldn’t force yourself to go to the fitness club or go for a run every day if it doesn’t bring you pleasure. Choose activities that you enjoy: this could be dancing, walking the dog, yoga, martial arts and much more. You can set goals for yourself to be more disciplined, but make sure that the goal you choose is comfortable and achievable.
Learn new things.
The rules are the same as above: choose what you like so as not to impose unpleasant obligations on yourself. The subject of training can be not only professional skills, but also, for example, handicrafts, cooking, drawing, music, a foreign language. Ultimately, learning to teach by becoming a mentor at work or in a hobby is also learning a new useful skill.
Give.
It’s not just about material objects: gifts and surprises, charity or volunteer work. Gratitude, appreciation of someone’s achievements, willingness to listen and support, proactive help also help us feel needed
Appreciate the present moment.
Be aware of what and why you are doing right now, what you feel about this and what these feelings are associated with. This helps you evaluate all the components of your life and change them so that you get more satisfaction and positive emotions.
Watch your health.
Mental and physical health are interconnected. Frequent stress and a busy schedule often lead to heart and vascular diseases, cancer and other abnormalities. To avoid critical consequences for yourself and your family, undergo regular preventive examinations and sign up for insurance against dangerous diseases.
Take care of yourself.
Get a new hairstyle, go to the SPA or a massage, watch a movie or go to the theater. Take regular time to relax and don’t let yourself neglect it.
