Mental health plays an immensely important part in our overall well-being. It affects how we think, feel, act, relate to others, and handle everyday stress as well as, our ability to make healthy choices. Mental health is very important throughout every stage in your life but maintaining good mental health can be a challenge because of the many different things that could affect it in different ways.
The human body needs both good mental and physical health to be able to function properly. People with poor mental health also tend to experience poor physical health as well. Positive mental health allows us to be more productive, maintain healthy relationships, and reach and realize our full potential. The three main keys to good mental health are a good diet, exercise, and plenty of sleep. Eating healthy, staying hydrated, exercising, relaxing, setting goals, writing in a journal, and making sleep a priority will all help to contribute to more overall positive mental health.
Signs of a mental illness can include losing the ability to concentrate, feeling sad or confused, extreme and overwhelming feelings of guilt or fear, social isolation, anxiety, and significant energy loss or tiredness. Social media can also play a huge role in anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness because there is so much negative energy on the internet and it is much easier and faster to spread.
Poor mental health can stem from many different experiences such as childhood abuse, trauma, stress, neglect, abandonment, isolation, loneliness, social disadvantage, discrimination, and or bereavement. Fifty million Americans a year tend to struggle with a mental illness and one in every five young people ends up developing a mental illness sometime throughout their lifetime. Although there’s no way to prevent or cure a mental illness, it is possible for it to be treated. Untreated mental illness can result in serious disability, unemployment, homelessness, substance abuse, and suicide.
Depression is the highest leading form of mental illness in the world. Since the COVID pandemic, suicide rates have risen from 12.9% to 25.2% according to Google. During quarantine, because everyone was isolated while also dealing with the stress of financial problems, mental health issues, and difficulty accessing health care, it caused depression rates to increase. Many people usually feel afraid to speak out and talk about what they are feeling or what they are going through because they worry about being judged, looked at differently, or even pushed away, instead of getting the help they need. People with mental illness feel as if they are a burden and don’t speak out until it’s too late. They felt as if they didn’t have someone to turn to and because of that, they saw suicide as their only way out.
Suicide is never the only option or the right answer, there needs to be more attention brought to the situation. Always reach out to get the help you need because it’s never worth it. Mental health and suicide awareness should be talked about more than just in September and more things should be done to prevent and help others before it’s too late.
