Step 4 - Advantages and disadvantages of the solutions
Written by
Nur Ainna Binti Roslan
Have you ever felt like you’re viewing your life from distance? Like you’re watching your life happening from outside, but feeling everything that your body and mind are feeling? Detached from your own skin, but feeling every sense that this skin feels? This is the best way I can describe what an episode of mental health feels like.
Since
you’re reading this page, I assume you’ve decided it’s time to get serious
about managing your own mental health. To help you in this worthwhile pursuit, from
our discussion point include numerous proactive solutions you can take to help to deal with mental health conditions.
First
of all, we should learn how to deal with stress. How? I advocate doing nothing.
Yes, that’s right. Do nothing. Sit there, close your eyes and let your mind go blank.
Be like Eve Legato and mesmerize yourself with flowing water. Get off the
daily merry-go-round for just a few minutes. The proof is mounting that is clearing
away clutter and letting go of your emotions can have a profoundly positive
effect on your well-being. We need to understand how the mind and body influence
each other and how shaping that relationship with activities like meditation and
positive thinking can help managing stress. The more science discovers the more
we realize managing stress can help in increasing concentration, decrease anxiety
and reduce pain. For example
meditation. Meditation can be anything you do for the purpose of slowing down
the constant chatter in your head. It involves technique concentrating on a
single point of focus to direct your thought away from stress and anxiety, If the
mind wanders, it sweeps bad thoughts from the mind to create an empty space that
can be filled with peace and serenity or with positive and productive thought.
However, the pursuit of activities to help you reduce stress might result in us
becoming too dependent on the coping mechanism used.
Second,
we should ourselves with good people, be it socially or digitally. We can befriend anyone. Sadly, not all
of our acquaintance is good. By good, it means the surrounding. Good peer
pressure can assure you of your places in society, be it online or in your
neighborhood. They will positively influence us. But, by doing so, we
will become too dependent on our growth to other people.
Third, mental health support such as befriend should
be promoted across the country. By doing this, people will be more aware
of mental health issues. They will be more aware of themselves about how it
will affect our daily life. Furthermore,
people with mental health conditions will be more aware of how to get treatment and how to cope with their illness. However, there’re some people who
misuse this service such as making a prank call.
Fourth, we should exercise regularly simply
because it’ll make us feel good. Exercise can boost your mood,
concentration, and alertness. It can even help give you a positive outlook on
life. Regular exercise can help you sleep better. And good sleep helps you
regulate your mood. It can also improve your sense of control, coping ability, and self-esteem. People who exercise regularly often report how good achieving
a goal makes them feel. Exercise can also distract you from negative thoughts
and provide opportunities to try new experiences. Apart from that, it offers an
opportunity to socialize and get social support if you exercise with others. Besides
the levels of chemicals in the brain such as serotonin, stress hormones, and endorphins
change when you exercise. Hence the physical benefits of exercise are also
important for people with mental illness. It improves your cardiovascular health and
overall physical health. This is important because people with mental health
issues are at a higher risk of suffering from chronic physical conditions such
as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and asthma.
Fifth, we need to practice self-care. For instance, we can maintain a routine, exercise, and have a healthy diet. We also need to avoid
things that will affect our health. Especially something like cigarettes,
drugs, alcohol, and et cetera. By doing that, it will provide us with a break
from stress. It can also improve physical health. But, overdoing 'me time'
might cause people to withdraw from their social life.
Lastly, positive thinking is the most powerful weapon you have in the fight against mental illness. I've seen how harmful negative, anxious and depressive thinking can be. It keeps the flight or fight mechanism in the body and this will wear down your mental and physical defenses. Optimism defeats stress. In the first place, believing everything will turn out fine at least opens you up to the possibility everything will work out for the better, something negative thinking doesn't even allow you to consider. In certain meditation practices, the goal is to sweep bad thoughts. With mindful practice, you don’t attempt to send the negative thought away instead you will quietly watch them flow through your mind like a bubbling stream. Besides, avoiding negativity can help to boost the immune system, enhance sleep quality, increase self-awareness and depressive symptoms. And you could benefit from the first moment you start avoiding the negativity in your life. Nevertheless, negative thinking can also have a positive influence. Negative people sometimes communicate better, think more clearly and make fewer mistakes, less gullible, and are better at dicision-making. The reason is that negative people have enhanced information processing strategies, which means they use critical parts of their brain more successfully than cheerful people. Though there are benefits of positive thinking, the benefits of negative thinking shouldn’t be discarded. There’s a place for both in every workplace. Thus it is important to balance between negative and positive thinking.
In conclusion, there are numerous ways you can shift to deal with mental health illness. Even the darkest thinkers are capable of calling up positive thoughts once in a while if it helps motivate you to fight with mental illness, A good place to start is with yourself. Something as simple as jotting down a few self-affirmative statements can make an immediate difference.
References;
- https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/tips-for-coping-with-depersonalisation-and-derealisation/
- https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/the-benefits-of-negative-thinking-20101217-18zsv.html
- https://activerain.com/blogsview/4737467/advantages-of-positive---disadvantages-of-negative-thinking
- https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/top-10-reasons-exercise-is-bad-for-you/
- https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/exercise-and-mental-health
