This article will mention suicide, eating disorders, and talks about different mental health disorders. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, don’t read this article. This is also a general summary of very complex topics. Please talk to a professional if you think you suffer from a mental health disorder.
If you look around the cafeteria, you may have seen the poster on this very topic. For a lot of people, mental health isn’t a foreign concept. According to the World Health Organization, one in eight people live with a mental health issue around the world, and in 2021 they found that one in seven adolescents between the ages of ten and nineteen experience some sort of mental health issue. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount of adolescents and adults dealing with different disorders, the most common being different types of anxiety and depressive disorders, has increased. It was a global health crisis that significantly affected those alive at the time. It’s no surprise that many people saw a decline in their mental health.
Mental health is a term that gets thrown around alot, but what does it really mean? Merriam-Webster defines it as “the general condition of one’s mental and emotional state”. The definition brings up the question: what is considered a mental health disorder? Mayo Clinic simply states that they are “a wide range of mental health [...] disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behavior.” This is a pretty broad explanation. The key is understanding what is causing the effects to your mental state. For example, occasionally feeling stressed over a test doesn’t automatically mean you have an anxiety disorder. Yes, it can be an indicator towards a larger issue, but that might not always be the case. Mental health conditions can be caused by a variety of things such as trauma, grief, head injuries, neurological conditions, etc. The complexity of these conditions means you can’t just look at rare instances of stress as proof of a disorder.
Due to the aforementioned complexities, mental health diagnoses can be broken down into multiple categories with several subcategories. For instance, anxiety can be split up into general, separation, social, and panic. Furthermore neurocognitive, personality, obsessive-compulsive, dissociative, depressive, and eating disorders are all able to be broken down into different, more specific, conditions. Others exist on a spectrum, like autism. Diagnosing these disorders can only legitimately be done by a licensed professional. A doctor and even certain lab tests can point out potential conditions, but it is most commonly diagnosed by a therapist. Therapists and/or psychologists are not the same as psychiatrists. A psychiatrist has the ability to prescribe a person medication. Not all mental health conditions require medication, some can be dealt with by going to sessions with a therapist. It all depends on the person affected.
Not everybody has the ability to go to a licensed professional and some might only have minor problems that don’t necessarily require said professionals. Here is a quick list of things that someone can do to help themselves with minor mental health issues.
Breathing. Sometimes taking the time to just focus on each breath and not worrying about anything else is a way to relax. Work on taking real breaths, in through the nose out through the mouth.
Getting decent sleep
Eating decent food and drinking water. Taking care of your body will make you overall just feel better.
Take time to think of at least one thing that went well during the day or something you’re grateful for. Write it down somewhere so that you can look back on it and be reminded of good things.
Fidgets. Those with attention span issues might find small fidgets that can occupy their hands beneficial. This really depends on the person and what fidgets you can get a hold of, but is worth a shot.
A person’s mental health is not anything to laugh at or shrug off. Completed suicide rates have increased over the past couple of years, along with attempted suicide rates. It’s not something to be making fun of and should be taken seriously. The year is just about over, only a few more days. The end of school means the end of a lot of stress for many. But I implore you to take the time over the summer to try and learn about healthy ways to take care of your mental health. Sure, we have all summer before worrying about school again, but it is better to go into the next school year armed with knowledge on your mental health than winging it. This isn’t trying to push you into therapy. That’s not realistic for everyone. This is a push to learn more about your own brain and listen to it. Take time to try some of the tips listed above or find other things that work for you. It will make the “winter wall” most of us seem to hit a lot more bearable if you have a mental net to fall back on.
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