Mental health, defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”: Information courtesy Wikipedia.
Our mental health incorporates our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It dictates how we think, act, what decisions we take, how we relate to others and handle situations and people.
Life, people, circumstances, thoughts, emotions, all these are constantly evolving. In an ideal world, humans should move with the flow, take the change in our stride, adapt to what is new, and get on with life. That is defined as growth.
Emotions like feeling mentally and physically exhausted, mood swings, feeling helpless and despondent, and wondering about how you could cope with or face situations, are what everyone goes through at various points in life. Stressful situations even cause some people to overeat or starve, while others choose to either over-exercise or just let go and choose to be a couch potato.
Such feelings and emotions come and go. It is when these feelings persist and seem to have become a part of you and your life and when they impair your decision-making ability, that is when you should worry about your mental health, and taking care of it.
Mental Health is not only the most misunderstood term, but it has also got a lot of bad press. For a lot of people, Mental Health still translates to ‘being mad’. However, his derogatory term could not be further from the truth.
Our Mental Health is as important as our physical health. If you fracture your limb, would you just tape it up yourself and leave it to heal. Even if you do, would it heal completely and as it should? I doubt it. It will probably be misshapen and issues related to it would crop up again.
It is the same with Mental Health. If you find that you aren’t ‘feeling like yourself’, and are constantly exhausted. If you find it difficult to make decisions and feel overwhelmed by the seesaw of emotions. No amount of ‘talking to friends, exercising and ‘feeling positive’ helps. If your sleep and eating cycle is disrupted and your behavior is causing rifts in your relationships, it would be a good idea to look into your Mental Health.
Seeing a Mental Health professional when you can’t cope with your mental turmoil is the best decision you can take for yourself and those around you. A Mental Health Professional knows how to help you, and can.
This is my 1st post for #CauseAChatter a campaign with Blogchatter. I chose #MentalHealth and will be writing a post a month on this topic.
This is my 6th post for the Blogchatter #MyFriendAlexa Campaign.
You can read my 1st post here
My 2nd post here
My 3rd post here
My 4th post here
My 5th post here
I agree with you and really liked this informative post
Kental health is of utmost importance which we tend to ignore many times.
Nice and very informative post.
Really good article.
A lot needs to be done to the stigma off and to make people understand what it truly means and why one must pay attention to it.
very insightful post, thanks for sharing it.
Very well written. A sensitive and important topic. Mental health is still not considered an important point of discussion
It’s high time we actually talked about this issue and faced it
Such a great article… Loved reading it
In society like ours its hard to make it normal about mental health. Most of the issues are from the society. ggood post
Yeah in India, mental health means being mental. someone who cannot handle their own lives. in a way it is true but it doesn’t have to stop there. We should try and help these individuals especially if we have already gone through it and come out of it and can relate to it better.
I like how you put it, we wouldn’t tape ourselves if we had a fracture, then why shouldn’t we get proper help for mental health!