Every day, people are under different types of stress. Sources of stress may include family matters such as divorce, work issues, financial problems, personal conflicts, even everyday routines, a new life crisis, or a sudden tragic event. That’s why it’s important to keep your mental health in check before it’s too late.
Mental health refers to an individual’s psychological status as influenced by mood, behavior, and source of stress. Seeking support is crucial for mental health, including support from your family and peer groups, as well as a mental health expert’s intervention to rule out the possibilities of psychological problems, thus providing proper holistic medicine treatment.
In this article, you’ll learn the importance of seeking support for your mental health, which can serve as your reference point to help achieve overall good health.
Avoid Major Depression
Clinical depression, major depressive disorder, or major depression is characterized by everyday signs and symptoms that cause feelings of guilt or restlessness, fatigue, insomnia, and a loss of interest in routine activities and relationships. These signs and symptoms are present and can linger for at least two weeks. Other signs and symptoms of major depression include significant weight loss and recurring thoughts of suicide or death.
Women are twice as likely to experience signs and symptoms of depression than men. According to research, the role of emotional awareness is one major variable of depression among young girls. Females tend to have low clarity on what they feel, which increases their risk of depression when they enter puberty. These psychological vulnerabilities may be responsible for girls’ higher risk of depression than boys.
Here are the findings of the said study:
- Controlling impulse and managing moods and behaviors is difficult among young girls.
- The inability to accurately describe and label emotions have been linked with adulthood interpersonal issues.
- Women who cannot describe their emotions tend to be less intimate in romantic relationships. They’re also vulnerable to one-sided relationships.
Men, though at lower risk than women, are not exempt from acquiring depression and other mental health problems. Health issues, like prostate cancer, sterility, and alopecia can be sources of major stress among men. Business or work-related issues can also affect the mental health of men who assume the role of breadwinners in the family.
Children and adolescents may also suffer from depression, and if your child struggles with depression have them try a youth support group. Youth support groups provide productive activities and sharing experiences to help your child find better ways of dealing with stress and situations that young people usually struggle with.
Keep Physical And Mental Health In Check
Physical and mental health are connected. People who feel emotionally complicated tend to show more awareness of what they feel, demonstrating healthier interpersonal adjustment. Also, they have better social adaptability and cognitive complexity. However, some people can’t express their emotions well enough and tend to demonstrate negative physical health effects, such as obesity due to overeating caused by depression.
You may have unique psychological issues that you deal with every day, so having solid family support is also vital. If you live alone, talking to a close friend or a therapist is a good idea to help release any emotional burden.
Check out these expert tips to help keep your physical and mental health in check:
- Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle: This is imperative for maintaining mental health for a more optimistic mind setting and avoid too much worry. Eat healthier foods, like fruits and vegetables, and restrict high-sugar or high-carbohydrate foods. Also, it pays off to exercise regularly or at least 30 minutes every day to work out your muscles, joints, and bones.
- Holistic Medicine: Holistic medicine, including yoga, meditation, and crystals will help improve your mood. While there are no clinical trials or there’s a lack of scientific research about the healing benefits of crystals, they look colorful and attractive to the wearer, which can affect mood as influenced by color psychology. To know more about crystals and their healing benefits follow this link https://www.mycrystals.com/
- Consult A Mental Health Expert: Consulting mental health experts, like a psychologist or psychiatrist, is important to avoid aggravating signs and symptoms of depression and other psychological disorders.
Find Better Ways To Cope
Triggers of clinical depression may include divorce, separation, death of a loved one, social isolation, personal conflicts, and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. It may also include major life changes, such as retirement, change of job, graduation, or moving.
Knowing that someone is willing to listen to your stories, such as a friend, family member, or a counselor can help you express tension, feelings, and thoughts. You’ll find better ways to divert your energy and focus on purposeful activities rather than thinking about the problem repeatedly for most hours of the day.
The following are some examples of how seeking family or professional support can help your mental health:
- Peer Group Support: Joining group therapy sessions will provide you with better insights as to how others manage their stress. Get to relate to other people’s stories and listen to what mental health professionals have to say. Peer support groups are usually offered by rehabilitation centers, community centers, and even created by patients themselves with the supervision of a psychiatrist or psychologist.
- Career Support: If you’re worried about not becoming successful in your career, you might want to seek career support. You’ll find career specialists who can review and update your resume before sending it to your prospective employer. With an up-to-date resume, it shows all the relevant things you have achieved to align with the job you’re applying for. You can track everything, better promote yourself, and easily take advantage of new opportunities that come along the way. Also, updating your resume increases your awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. Fill the gaps and obtain the right qualifications before applying for a higher position with minimal chances of getting turned down.
- Rehabilitative Support For Substance Abuse: Alcoholism and drug abuse are negative ways of coping. Some people believe that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs can make them forget their problems. However, this is only temporary, and when they become sober or awake, their problems come rushing back. By seeking rehabilitation, alcoholics or drug addicts won’t only help eliminate intoxicating substances out of their body, but also find better ways to cope with life’s challenges, such as using cognitive-behavioral therapy.
- Other Meaningful Ways To Cope With Stress: Gardening and artwork, like painting, drawing, and woodwork, can help you find productive outlets with which to spend your time and energy. Instead of feeling sad about what’s going on in your life or in the world, you can be productive and unleash your tension and stress at the same time. Also, writing poems and songs, blogging, singing, dancing, and sports are good examples of coping with stress.
- Activities, like making bead jewelry and crafts and knitting clothes, which rely on repetitive hand movements can help soothe and relax your mind and body. They can be great for clearing mental clutter and serve as mindless distractions from stress. Completing a creative project can feel very rewarding and can boost your mood and confidence.
Reduce Or Eliminate Suicidal Tendencies
Just recently, the world has been struck with a pandemic, which remains a global crisis. Lockdown and community quarantine have been an uphill battle for a lot of people, leading to feelings of sadness, isolation, and even suicidal thoughts.
With a strong support system from your family, peers, and mental health professionals, suicidal thoughts can be reduced. Patients feel more emotionally secure knowing that support is available even during this trying time. While social distancing and quarantine may still be reinforced, and traveling is restricted, there are other ways to seek support and communicate with your loved ones and medical experts, including the following:
- Telehealth: With the availability of internet connection and internet-capable devices, doctors and patients can communicate and provide early diagnosis and treatment, even for mental health problems. Medical doctors, life coaches, and other professionals offer telehealth services that can help promote good mental health. You’ll even find free consultations from charitable organizations.
- Social Media Group Support: One perfect avenue to find social support is via social media network support groups. Mental health professionals have also created helpful social media support groups to help patients express their thoughts and emotions. Know that you can shoot them a message once you have joined these groups to ask for expert help.
- Community Support Groups: You don’t have to go far to find support for your mental health. Local governments have developed community centers and support groups to ensure the overall health of local citizens as supervised by community health professionals.
Improve Skin And Overall Health
People who are under constant stress or are depressed tend to have unhealthy skin. If you’re depressed, you’ll likely eat unhealthy food or not get enough rest and sleep, which can lead to a compromised immune system. Because of sleep deprivation, an unhealthy diet, low immunity, and poor hygiene, skin health is also neglected.
Seeking medical and family support early when the signs and symptoms of mental health problems arise is vital for skin health and a person’s overall health. By seeing a dermatologist early, prompt treatment for acne is provided to prevent it from getting worse. Also, consulting a psychiatrist or psychologist will help address mental health issues.
Here are some examples of skin conditions that can be caused by stress:
- Pimples: One of the most common skin conditions among teenagers or adolescents is acne vulgaris or pimples caused by sebum (oil) buildup that blocks pores, which can be worsened by mental health problems.
- Atopic Dermatitis: Eczema is a common type of atopic dermatitis or inflammation of the skin that causes the swelling of the skin with an itchy rash.
- Rosacea: Signs and symptoms of rosacea include redness of the face, pus-filled bumps, swelling of the eyelids, and visible blood vessels that may extend to the ears, chest, and back. The dermatologist will inspect your eyes and skin, and ask questions to rule out other possible medical conditions that look like rosacea, such as an allergic skin reaction and lupus.
- Psoriasis: This skin condition is a chronic autoimmune disorder that speeds up skin cell growth, resulting in thick, scaly, or silvery skin patches. Dermatologists diagnose psoriasis through skin checks. A confirmatory test is a skin biopsy or taking a skin sample and examining it under a microscope. Treating psoriasis may involve oral or injected medications, such as retinoids to reduce skin cell production, and steroids to relieve inflammation.
- Herpes Zoster Or Shingles: This is a viral infection that causes a painful rash, which is believed to be aggravated by stress. While shingles may clear in a few weeks without treatment, seeking a dermatologist’s help can help hasten recovery and prevent severe complications, such as bacterial infection and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).
- Fungal Infections: Candida is a group of yeasts that cause fungal skin conditions involving the skin, hair, and nails, such as athlete’s foot, oral thrush, balanitis, and ringworm.
Obtain Financial Support During A Time Of Crisis
Support groups can also help find ways to support patients financially. For example, those who cannot afford private rehabilitation services can be helped by social workers through the local government to find public facilities that help alcoholics and drug addicts.
Community support groups can also offer income-generating activities while helping patients psychologically, such as making art and crafts for sale in local trade fairs and in local stores for a consignment basis. Patients can also be helped with finding financial support through social security, government-financed health insurance, and local jobs available.
Peace Of Mind
Knowing that support is available, people have peace of mind and assurance that they aren’t alone in dealing with their problems. That’s why information dissemination is crucial on the part of the public health sector, most especially during this pandemic, wherein more people are vulnerable to developing psychological health problems.
Educating yourself by reading this similar article can help you gain better insights on managing your stress and problems. You’ll be calmer, relaxed, and assured that help is always available in your local community and the digital community whenever you need one.
Watching inspirational videos on YouTube or reading quotes online can help you recover from the emotional pain and suffering you’re experiencing at the moment. Check out instructional blogs and videos on how to better cope with stress, such as breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation.
Conclusion
Seeking support for your mental health is vital to avoid your condition from getting worse. Even minor mental health issues can easily ramp up, which will affect your physical health. That’s why seeking family support, peer support, career and personal development support, and mental health expert support is essential.
By doing so, you avoid major depression, suicidal tendencies, or any unhealthy like alcoholism and substance abuse. With a strong support system, you’ll find better ways to cope up, allowing you to express your thoughts and emotions freely, healthily, and safely.
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
