WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND HOW TO DEAL WITH MENTAL HEALTH

Hi Everyone,

As we are reaching the back end of mental awareness month, now would be a good time to think about your own mental health or be conscious of others’. Mental illness is hard to detect, but with the right consultant and the right diagnoses or procedures, treatments are, fortunately, mostly available.

Although hard to detect, according to an Australian-funded health organisation “healthdirect”, here are some ‘signs’ you might have that could be related to your mental health destabilising.

• Feeling Anxious or Worried

  • If you feel you are getting anxious constantly whether that be of work or personal issues, anxiety could be one of the signs of mental health disorder.

• Feeling Depressed or Unhappy

  • If you ever feel sad for more than one or two weeks, you found no motivation whatsoever or you feel a lack of energy, this could be a sign of depression which would lead to mental health disorder.

• Emotional Outbursts

  • If, all of a sudden, your mood changes or is changing very often, or you feel the need to put out the anger on someone, that could be another sign of mental health problems.

• Sleep Problems

  • If you are having sleep problems, whether that is not enough sleep, not being able to sleep, or even sleeping for too long, that could lead to sleeping disorders which would contribute to mental health problems.

• Weight or Appetite Changes

  • If you feel lighter than usual or you are experiencing unusual weight loss then this might be one of the signs of an eating disorder, which would need to be looked at.

• Quiet or Withdrawn

  • If you or one of your friends isolate themselves from social life for a long period of time, make sure to be in touch with them as this may be caused by depression or mental disorders.

• Substance Abuse

  • If you or your friends drink a lot of alcohol or more than usual, this could be a sign that you or your friend is struggling with life and therefore may need help.

• Feeling Guilty or Worthless

  • Common sayings like ‘I want to die’, My life is a failure’ or ‘I just want to be happy’ may sound completely normal given the pace we are living at but sometimes these ‘sayings’ are genuine and could potentially lead to suicidal thoughts. If you feel that you have these thoughts constantly and are in need of help, contact (02) 713 6793 (for English: 02 713 6791) or 1323.

• Changes in Behaviour or Feelings

  • Sudden change in behaviour or thoughts may be attributed to a person developing a mental health disorder. If you or your friend seem ‘off’ the best thing to do is to talk to them.

For thousands of years before our current era, numerous attempts to cure mental illness have been made although only a few would get treatment, but, now more than ever, there is an increasing rate of receiving mental illness treatment with statistics showing an increase from 23.1% of people with mental illness who received treatment in the year 2000 to 37.3% in 2014.

Without getting into details about medical treatment, here are some way you can make yourself feel better, according to the National Health Service (NHS) of the UK.

• Manage your Stress Levels

  • Time management is very useful, especially in our daily routines but also in managing your stress level. Try to do something else like exercise or having more leisure time could positively change your stress level and help you feel more relaxed.

• Enjoy Yourself

  • This may sound like a cliché thing to say but doing things that you enjoy doing or are good at will help you enjoy yourself more and more. Also, try to avoid activities that would help you feel happy at the moment but worse afterward like too much alcohol or junk food as these may be damaging for you in the long run.

• Boost your self-esteem

  • The way you feel about yourself is important to your mental health, putting yourself down could help be motivated for some, but ultimately it will damage your self-esteem. Try to say nice things to yourself like ‘There is always the next time’, ‘I can do it’ or ‘I believe in myself’, so, not necessarily putting yourself above others but to be proud and confident in yourself is crucial to boosting your self-esteem.

• Have a Healthy Lifestyle

  • This can vary into many methods including limiting your alcohol intake, having a well-balanced diet, getting enough sleep or doing some exercise. However, there are many more ways of living a healthy lifestyle, these are just some examples.

• Talk and Share

  • Having someone to talk to is important when it comes to your mental health. Sharing your thoughts with someone, expressing how you feel even if the person you talking to is mostly listening will help boost your morale because you would get to express the thoughts in your head that may been trapped in you for a long time.

• Build your Resilience

  • If you are resilience you will be able to cope with the ups and downs in your life, finding a good in bad situations is crucial to this. Writing, either to keep to yourself or publishing it for others to read will help you go through your hard times and help you build resilience.

Now that the pandemic is starting to ease up a bit, people are now getting together and spending more time together. Some, however, may not be with us anymore, whether because they have lost their lives or just simply because you are not friends with them anymore, it is crucial to have someone around, just one. Someone that you could talk to, share your experiences with and support you. It is also worth noting that you should never be ignorant towards your own mental health, whether that may be because you think others have experienced it worse than you or that people may look down on you. Your mental health should be your first priority and dismissing it could potentially impact your performances both in work and life in general.

We are now on a well-deserved 2 month break, we hope that you will have a nice break, many trips coming up to keep you going and we will see you again hopefully on campus in 2-month time, but, for now, thank you everyone and have a nice holiday!

For any further inquiries, contact us through email at balac14stuco@gmail.com and for more news, follow us on Instagram (@balac.fm)

Written by: Noppasin Yafa

Proofread by: Prang Navawongs