EVERYDAY “MENTAL HEALTH”
When hearing the words “Mental Health” many people really think of “Mental Illness”. When we hear the words “Physical Fitness” people do not think of Physical Illness. Projects like Mental Health Awareness Month works at shifting the common beliefs towards an attitude of the importance of maintaining good mental health as we do good physical health.
Taking care of ourselves and getting regular checkups is a healthy part of staying healthy. We can do a self check of our mental health status by being aware of how our life styles, relationships, nutrition and work life are going. Mind effects body effects mind etc. If we are neglecting some aspect in our day to day life our mind and body will be affected.
What to look for: Irritability, impatience, over-eating, loss of appetite, loss of interest in sex and/or recreating, increased use of alcohol or other substances, insomnia, fatigue.
Too often people are unaware of how the day to day stresses build to cause serious problems in other areas of our lives. Often the connection is not made until it’s too late. Workplace stress can have its outlet on irritability at home, depression, alcoholism or other substance abuse.
If caught early, everyday stresses can be managed by some changes regarding the offending stressor. If these cannot be altered or if the stress has already caused some serious symptoms a psychologist can help. Like any other health issue, the sooner there is identification of the symptoms and the sooner one gets to psychological help the sooner the issue can be can be resolved.
Elaine Rodino, Ph.D. 5/18/11
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