Mental Health
How Does Your Mental Health Affect Your Physical Health?
Mental health refers to how humans think, feel and behave as they confront everyday life’s difficulties. Mental health impacts how individuals view themselves, how to relate to others and make important decisions. Mental health influences how people see themselves, how they treat others and the world in general. The importance of a good mental health program is that it can help individuals learn how to manage their mental health and develop skills needed for their every day living. There are many different programs that focus on individual needs, such as those of alcohol or drug addicts, depression and other mood disorders.
The three major components of a mental health program:
- Therapy
- Medication
- Support.
Mental Healing
Therapy deals with healing the mind through behavioral changes. Medication is used to treat mental illnesses as well as alleviate symptoms of other physical illnesses, like high blood pressure. Finally, supportive therapy helps an individual to cope with emotional distress and other symptoms of their illness.
Therapy for mood disorders typically deals with mood swings, anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia during the night, social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. Other common disorders associated with mental health are schizophrenia, depression, eating disorders and alcoholism. Learning to deal with these conditions can be difficult and requires ongoing treatment. It is important for those who suffer from any of these conditions to seek treatment because the condition may get worse without treatment. In some cases, patients can go on treating their illness, but they may not have complete recovery.
People with anxiety disorders experience varying degrees of anxiety depending on what causes the anxiety. The severity of the anxiety varies and some people may not have any anxiety at all. People who do have an anxiety disorder usually have thoughts of panic and fear, whether real or imagined. They worry about things that are not normal for them and are usually afraid of having a serious accident. In severe cases, people may become anxious about almost everything, including things that cannot be imagined by them such as flying.
A person’s diet and exercise can also affect their mood and anxiety level. People who eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly are more likely to be healthy and feel better than those who do not eat healthy and don’t exercise regularly. Adding some green vegetables, low fat dairy products and plenty of exercise can greatly improve mental health and improve anxiety and depression. When there is poor diet and or poor exercise, a person’s mental health will be affected.
Depression is a serious mental health problem and should be treated. There are many treatments including psychotherapy, medication and support groups for those who suffer from depression. Stress can lead to a variety of physical health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. While it is never a good idea to discount the link between mental health and physical health, it can certainly help to take some measures to manage and prevent stress.