Everyday Mental Health: Awareness, Action, and Prevention Strategies
You have to live with your mind 24/7, 365 days a year. So, although May is Mental Health Awareness month, we all know that mental health is not just a one-month ordeal. It’s an all-the-time issue.
That’s why it’s important to keep tabs on your mental health year-round, not just whenever it becomes bad. There are 3 parts to keeping tabs: awareness, acting, and actively preventing. Awareness involves checking in with yourself regularly to see how you’re doing; acting means that you don’t wait when you notice things aren’t great; actively preventing is taking care of yourself all the time, not just when your mental health acts up.
We’ll go over more tips for each part in the post below. All of this together helps you live a full life despite any current issues or ones that may arise.
Mental Health Struggles Can Arise Anytime
It’s important to know that mental health struggles can arise anytime. There are certainly times you may see more of a spike, such as holidays (especially if you’ve lost someone, moved away, etc)., anniversaries of loss or major changes, stressful seasons at work, or the winter season.
However, struggles can happen at any time for any reason. Below are some causes of mental health issues, though not a complete list by any means.1
- Major changes – moving, job loss or job change, loss of friendship or relationship, death, financial issues, trauma
- Loss/grief
- Isolation/loneliness
- Physical health issues
- Long-term stress
- Childhood problems or trauma
- Genetic factors
- Social media usage
Symptoms of Mental Health Problems Arising
Here are some symptoms that your mental health may need some attention and help:2
- Tiredness or fatigue
- GI distress
- Changes in appetite
- Slowed movement or speech
- Trouble with self-care and everyday activities (showering, brushing teeth, doing the dishes, cooking, going out, etc.)
- Changes in sleep patterns (sleeping too much or too little, trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning)
- Crying more than normal or over things you normally wouldn’t
- Panic attacks
- Loss of pleasure in activities or previously enjoyed things
- Apathy about life
This list is not conclusive and everyone is different, so if you are worried or think there may be an issue, don’t hesitate to reach out to someone about it. Now, let’s get into the tips for keeping tabs on your mental health: awareness, act, actively prevent.
Tip #1: Notice Triggers (Awareness)
Noticing what may trigger your mental health spiking is so important, especially because everyone is so different. What causes issues for someone else may not be what triggers you.
This could include certain events happening (holidays, anniversaries, specific get-togethers, going to specific places), major changes occurring, being around certain people, not sleeping well or being extra tired, isolating and not having time to see people as often. Maybe work being busy or slow could trigger mental health problems. Even words spoken to you or criticism received could spike someone’s mental health struggles.
Once you notice your triggers, you can be more aware of them occurring. Awareness is also tied to regularly assessing how you’re feeling and doing. All of this helps you act quickly and potentially prevent mental health issues by avoiding those situations or triggering people to the best of your ability.
Tip #2: Let Others Know (Act)
When mental health problems do arise, please know you don’t have to do this alone. It makes things so much harder to try and handle it on your own. Part of acting is not acting alone. So, once you know your symptoms and triggers, you can let someone you trust know so they can keep watch and be prepared to help you when times and circumstances arise.
Even if you forget to tell someone ahead of time, don’t hesitate to reach out when you feel your mental health going downhill. If you don’t have anyone you feel comfortable reaching out to, we can help connect you with a trusted individual who wants to listen, talk, encourage, and support you. Click "Get Connected" on any of our pages to get connected today!
Tip #3: Use Your Toolbox (Act)
The second part of acting is using your toolbox, which of course, talking to someone (from above) can be one of your tools.
What is a toolbox? Well, just like you need a belt full of different tools to get a project done or a surgeon needs tons of tools to take care of someone physically, you too need a toolbox of things that help you take care of your mental health. These can be things that you’ve gotten from therapy or talking to someone, found online, or just discovered what works for you.
Your tools are usually things you do once you notice yourself getting sadder, more worried, or any other symptom of your mental health struggling. Tools can include, but are not limited to:
- Deep breathing
- Reaching out to someone / making plans
- Doing something creative like coloring or listening to music
- Moving your body
- Getting outside for fresh air
- Resting or taking a nap
- journaling
- Tools for coping with depression or anxiety
Try picking 1 thing from your toolbox to do each day and see how you start to feel and cope with your mental health and life!
Tip #4: Take Care of Yourself (Actively Prevent)
The last step of keeping tabs on your mental health is to actively prevent it. Doing things regularly, like keeping tabs on your mental health year-round, helps prevent major problems from arising. At least, to the best of your ability and control since we aren’t fully in control of our struggles.
This means taking care of your physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and relational health every day. After all, we are holistic beings and everything is interconnected within us.
Now, this may seem overwhelming to handle it all at once, so please be kind and patient with yourself. Remember that you can’t perfectly take care of yourself nor can you focus on every aspect of your life all the time. However, don’t wait to take care of yourself until there is a level-10 issue. Instead, take steps now and when it’s a 5-6 to ensure your health and well-being are the best they can be in any given situation.
That way when problems do inevitably arise, you feel confident focusing on that area of your mental health because you know you’ve been taking care of yourself up until then.
----------
