Mental Health And Self Care
“The strongest people are those who win battles we know nothing about”
October 10th 2021, was World Mental Health Day so it feels appropriate to write on the subject of the importance of self-care and its impact it can have upon your own mental health.
According to the Mind mental health charity, a staggering one in four people experience a mental health problem each year, such as anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, panic disorders, bipolar, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorders. There are many, many more illnesses of course, but these are just a few for now.
As a former qualified mental health professional, I urge anyone who is struggling mentally, to seek help from their GP as soon as possible because help is available. I grew up surrounded by certain close relations suffering from a variety of severe mental illnesses, so I have witnessed it from both perspectives but it was at a time when it wasn't talked about and was something that people were made to feel ashamed of and ridiculed for. It was never discussed openly despite being there yet thankfully attitudes have changed.
I am grateful that so far in my life I have not experienced mental illness myself but I am aware that could change at any time because mental illness does not discriminate. There have been dark times of my life when I have felt as though I was losing control but found solitude helped me to stay grounded ~ that is my personal coping mechanism.
Under each of the above common mental health problems that I outlined, there are a huge variety of different symptoms which vary from person to person. Although there will be common factors, no two people suffering from a particular mental illness will experience exactly the same feelings or symptoms. A good example of this is to compare it with arthritis which is a common physical illness, affecting the joints. The latest arthritis statistics show that more than 350 million people suffer from arthritis in the world with more than one hundred types that affect many different parts of the body.
As we have recently accepted mental illnesses much more readily than in days gone by and the stigma has been lifted, people are at last feeling able to reach out for help and get a diagnosis and appropriate treatments. Whatever the reason for mental illness, self-care plays a major part in the management of it, along with medications, talking therapies and various psychotherapies. However, this can prove difficult as if we are not feeling worthy, we dislike ourselves and self-esteem is at a low point, then why on earth would we want to take care of ourselves?
Nothing can hurt or torment us as much as our own thoughts so we need to inwardly show kindness, patience, tolerance, understanding and gentleness. We can do this by being our own best friend sometimes our only friend ~ and this arrives in the form of self-care that we can administer to ourselves.
Self-care will again differ from person to person and what comforts one person may not work for another ~ but it's simply a matter of getting the right balance for you. Whether it is eating nourishing food little and often, therapeutically scented baths, comfortable clothing, going out into nature, distracting yourself with books or television, feeding the birds, aromatherapy, making a list of goals for yourself, positive daily affirmations such as ‘ I am enough’ (made popular by the wonderful Marisa Peer), removing yourself from toxic friendships, decluttering your environment, meditation exercises, crystal therapies, practicing mindfulness, journaling, abstinence from social media, exploring or renewing your faith and spiritual beliefs…..there are endless possibilities!
The most important factor to remember is that better days ARE ahead and they are just around the corner ~ that is a promise. You are here for a reason and maybe that reason is yet to be shown to you but it is definitely there somewhere, waiting for the right time to reveal itself.