In any given year, about 20 percent of Americans experience mental health problems. This is according to a study done by the National Institute of Mental Health. However, most of the people who have these mental conditions are embarrassed about the symptoms while others are not sure of what to do and therefore keep the problems to themselves.
Some of them feel angry or ashamed of themselves once they discover that they are suffering from any mental issue. Besides, these people are afraid of the stigma, as they fear what other people will say once they know that they have a mental illness.
Most of the common mental health issues are as a result of brain injuries or memory loss, which may be influenced by some of the day-to-day activities that might harm your brain. Therefore, there is an excellent need to look at some of the things that can lead to a mental illness and avoid them. Here are the 6 things that you did not know are ruining your mental health.
1. Lack of exercise
Apart from maintaining a better body shape, exercising helps in improving your mood. Therefore, it can help in relieving anxiety and depression symptoms, which are associated with mental health issues. This is because regular exercises enhance the release of hormones and brain chemicals that offer psychological benefits, which promote your mental health.
It is essential to ensure that you have regular exercises even if it means setting aside about 10 to 20 minutes of simple physical activity like a brisk walking per day. If you find it hard to follow your workout schedule, then you should consider a more relaxed event. Besides, studies have also linked even the easiest exercise routines with mood improvement.
2. Failing to Sleep Enough
Lack of enough sleep makes you wake with stress, irritability, and gloom in the following day. Chronic sleep disturbance or deprivation increases your risk of suffering from anxiety and depression disorders.
Therefore, it is advisable to ensure that you get enough sleep by practicing healthy behaviors like reducing the intake of alcohol or caffeine in before you go to bed.
It is also advisable to avoid using your smartphone, computer and tablet at night as the light from the devices might suppress melatonin (sleep hormone) and affect the circadian rhythm.
3. Over Thinking
Obsessive thinking causes your brain and body to get into the fight or flight state, which leads to stress. Therefore, feeding your mind with negative thoughts repeatedly can ruin your mental health. Negative thoughts such us my girlfriend cheated on me or I’m too fat, or ‘i’m not rich enough ‘ can only bring you frustration.
This is because it raises your heart and breathing rates and causes your body to produce stress hormones that include cortisol and adrenaline, which ruins your emotional and physical health.
Therefore, it is advisable to identify the thoughts that keep on crowding your mind and try to avoid them. You can snap obsessive thinking by taking deep breaths or tying your wrist with a rubber band and pull it back every time you are ruminating. Pulling the rubber band serves as a reminder to warn you against turning the same thoughts in your mind repeatedly and therefore trains you on how to change your thoughts.
Finally, you can regularly include foods that contain phosphatidylserine or take supplements if you find that you have to fight obsessive thinking often. This amino acid derivative compound helps in improving memory, cognitive capacity and lowering cortisol levels.
However, Phosphatidylserine supplementation is mainly relevant to an older individual as the body synthesizes it.
4. Poor Anger Management
Poor ways of dealing with anger and frustrations such as suppressing anger can gradually ruin your mental health. It is impossible to avoid anger and frustrations as they are typical reactions challenges that we face in life, but we can use the right ways to manage them.
However, if you suppress these feelings and allow your grievances and grudges to fester in your mind, they can lead to devastating effects on your mental health.
Moreover, studies have also linked angry brooding (a form of obsessive thinking) and suppressed anger to some of the symptoms of depression. This means that it is okay to show your negative emotions rather than bottling them up. However, you should show them in the right ways to avoid hurting others or ruining your relationships.
One of the appropriate ways of expressing your anger is communicating your negative emotion in a self-confident but calmer manner. This allows you to feel comfortable later and therefore protects your mind from depressive thoughts, which could ruin your mental health.
However, if find communicating your anger is not a good option, then it is advisable to let go of the bitterness because studies have shown that forgiving offers excellent psychological health benefits.
5. Inferiority Simplex
The feeling of being inferior to others may lead to depression and anxiety disorders, which affects your mental health. However, it is good to understand that no person has less value than other people do. Therefore, we all deserve love and acceptance, especially from ourselves.
Loving and accepting yourself helps in treating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. This requires understanding that each person is fighting a different battle in life as each one of us tries to overcome some problems underneath the surface.
Therefore, you should not look down upon yourself because this will only ruin your mental health.
When experience any mental health issue, it is good to know that most people deal with them at one point in their lives, so you are not alone. Moreover, suffering mental health issues does not make you a bad person, but a strong and multi-faceted individual.
6. Thinking that You can Not Improve Your State of Mind Without Medications
Finally, the other thing that you did not know ruins your mental health believes that you cannot improve your state of mind without using medications or supplements. Most drugs are effective in improving one’s psychological state, but some include harmful ingredients and side effects such as Addium.
These may cause more damage to the users than good. Addium is a supplement that helps in improving the cognitive ability, but comes with some side effects.
Moreover, some of the medications may give you a hard time to get over them, as they are highly addictive. Therefore, it is advisable to alternative means that are equally effective but safe such as mindfulness and meditation. According to several studies, meditation and mindfulness are just as effective as medication in overcoming depression and anxiety problems.
Other effective ways of improving your mental health include maintaining a healthy relationship, taking a balanced diet, getting a fulfilling job, exercise and self-care. Therefore, is important to know that your body has enough power to mental health issues that you should exhaust before reaching for medications and other harmful solutions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, most people are now aware of mental health issues, but still, there is much stigma being directed at people with mental illnesses. This is because there are so many misconceptions that are associated with psychological health.
However, the truth is that mental health problems are common illnesses that affect more people than you might think and therefore can affect any person.
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