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BRIEF INSIGHTS INTO MENTAL HEALTH

During my undergrad days as a student of Psychology I never really could comprehend the full grasp of mental health and the role it plays on the daily lives of people. I can say one of the reasons for this was that my courses were solely theoretical in nature, not much of practical, one of the many flaws of the educational system being run in the institution I attended but this isn’t our focus in this write-up.

When I started coming in contact with Abnormal Psychology and started learning about mental disorders, I was fascinated and intrigued by the wide array of mental disorders present in our world today. I was aware of mental illness and what I thought it looked like judging from the mentally ill people that parade our locality but getting to work in a mental hospital made me understand that mental illness is more than that and entails a whole lot more than the physical appearance.

In our world today mental health is no longer a new topic, it's getting more publicized at a larger scale due to the rise in mental illness especially when talking about the suicide rates that plagues our present day world. Still a lot of people tend to overlook it and treat it as a little part of their lives when in reality one's mental health is what determines how one functions in the society, how he or she is able to bring balance to every aspect of life

What is mental health really?

According to WHO Mental Health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. This is a very good definition and is encompassing. From my little knowledge I would say mental health is a state of balance between mind and body. Our mind the seat of our thoughts and our body the channel through which these thoughts are actualized.

Thoughts we entertain in our mind can be negative or positive, healthy or unhealthy and they’re influenced by what we see, hear or feel, in turn they affect the way we behave or react. So in essence when trying to stay mentally healthy we must be intentional about the thoughts we allow to take roots in us. We must constantly take out time to introspect and drain out every negative thoughts that might want to affect our mental well-being.

• ·       Mental illness can happen to anybody

It’s not an illness meant only for a group of people. Everyone no matter the race, age, ethnicity, stature, financial status, possess certain predisposing factors that increases the tendency for a mental illness. These factors could be genetic or biological, psychological that is our personality and social factors e.g affluence. There will be times when an individual is faced with difficulties or stress and these factors could affect the way he/she reacts to these issues and when thoughts and reaction is negative it could lead to a mental breakdown.

By mental breakdown I do not necessarily mean this individual will be wearing tattered clothes or eating from a trash can, this breakdown can present itself in loss of appetite, loss of sleep, loss of interests in things previously enjoyed etc.

• ·       Mental illness isn't just depression or an absolute loss of sanity

When someone is said to be mentally ill the image that comes to a lot of people's mind especially in a country like ours is someone half naked, wearing tattered clothes, rough hair and eating from the bin or someone who is sad and looking grumpy all day long but it’s not always like that. There are different types of mental problems which affects certain aspects of our lives, for example someone diagnosed with Panic Disorder can still be functioning well as an employee in an organization but breaks down when faced with situations or events that predispose this disorder, also a friend who always seem so happy and friendly could be suffering from a Dependent Personality Disorder who breaks down when a slight discomfort is experienced in interpersonal relationships.

• ·       Mental illness has no cure

Modern day innovation and technology has helped to produce drugs that help in the management of mental illnesses. These drugs don’t particularly cure the illness but just helps an individual to be able to live with this illness and function to a certain level in the society. Presence of a mental illness doesn’t mean that an individual can’t excel in life, it just means the person has to be more intentional in their efforts towards managing any of these illness e.g using drugs that have been prescribed to avoid a relapse, visiting the therapist from time to time to monitor one’s treatment progress.

• ·       Mental health is just as important as physical health

Mental wellness is directly proportional to physical wellness, when things go wrong mentally our physical health is affected. So next time you’re thinking about eating healthy to maintain an optimal physical health, also think about what you’re feeding your mind with. When things seem to be going off, find a close relative or friend to confide in or a therapist to talk to. Don’t wait till it becomes a total breakdown because mental health is expensive and I mean very expensive to manage.

 

Thanks for reading.

Daramola Iyanuloluwa

Images; freepik @pikisuperstar; google photos