Why is it important to take care of mental health?

Why is it important to take care of mental health?

October 10 is Mental Health Day. This topic is not usually discussed openly, but nevertheless it is important to understand that the state of mind is just as important as the physical one.

How often have you thought about the state of your mental health? This question is expected to confuse many, and will make some smile: it is not customary to talk openly about mental health. And yet, your mental state is just as important as your physical state. October 10 is Mental Health Day, and the editors of the Social Navigator will try to answer this and other questions: why can and should we talk about this, what problems may arise and what needs to be done?

Mental health what is it about?

This is not necessarily a story about dangerous mentally ill people who attack passersby with a knife. Or an anecdote about the incompetent Napoleon from ward number six. The problems that can arise in the field of mental health are as diverse as physical ailments: a person can suffer from disorders that will not affect his life so dramatically that he will have to be isolated from society.

At the same time, they can have a big impact on his daily life: increased anxiety, sleep problems, depression and other symptoms that prevent us from functioning normally, but which we so often tend not to pay attention to.

Such a person becomes a hostage to his own thoughts; they can be different, depending on the diagnosis. Very often there is a direct connection between the psyche and the physical state of a person: trauma leads to depression, disorder deprives one of sleep.

Let s look at what makes talking about mental health especially serious.

Several reasons why

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every fourth or fifth person on the planet suffers from one or another mental disorder, and every second person can acquire it during their lifetime, so it is simply unreasonable to close yourself off from this topic.

However, many people do not take mental health seriously.

The WHO says the most common disorder is depression. Popular culture has turned the word depression synonymous with “the blues,” but in fact this condition is more than just seasonal sadness, and becomes another obstacle on the path to a healthy and fulfilling life. People are afraid or embarrassed to ask for help, and do not want to share their experiences with loved ones. What if they turn away? Or they will say that all your problems are stupidity, from idleness, satiety: “Look at how others live, what people have going on, but everything is fine with you, pull yourself together, smile and ask them all!”

Mental disorders can be treated, and it is complex: there are medications, therapy, physical activity, and much more. It is important to understand that a person “falls” into depression. This happens due to circumstances; no one will consciously plunge into such a state, so in no case should you blame him or point out his weakness of character. Firstly, this is not true, and secondly, it can only make the situation worse.

Anti-stigmatization virus

This fall, the flash mob #faceofdepression — “The Face of Depression” — is gaining popularity online. The action has become truly viral: users from all over the world post on social networks their own photographs taken during the period when they suffered from a severe disorder. There are also more tragic pictures, they are posted by people whose loved ones could not cope with their condition and committed suicide.

Unfortunately, the latter is a fairly common consequence of disorders that were not addressed in time. According to the World Health Organization, about 800,000 people die each year due to suicide, that is, about one person every 40 seconds, and it is the second leading cause of death for people aged 15-29 years.

The main thing that the collection of these photographs showed is that mental illness has no face. There is no common feature that would indicate that inside a person there is a constant struggle with himself. Some participants even look quite happy.

Speaking of happiness: even the most successful, rich, beautiful what other conditions are there? suffer from mental disorders. Many celebrities talk about this openly to show by example: you don’t need to be afraid or ashamed of what’s happening to you, on the contrary, you need to talk about your condition and engage in therapy.

How can you tell if something is wrong?

It can often be quite difficult to notice the problem: a bad mood is not always a symptom of depression.

There are a number of common symptoms that you should pay attention to. According to WHO, signs of disorders include disturbances in thinking, mood or behavior that go beyond existing cultural beliefs and norms, and are divided into five types:

physical (e.g. pain, sleep disturbance);
emotional (for example, feelings of sadness, fear, anxiety);
cognitive (eg, difficulty thinking clearly, pathological beliefs, memory impairment);
behavioral symptoms (e.g. aggression, lack of ability to perform every daily functions);
perceptual symptoms (for example, the patient seems to see or hear things that other people do not see or hear).

If these symptoms are persistent and interfere with normal life, you should seek help from program offered by Modern Recovery Arizona

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