Since the World Health Organization recognizes Mental Health Awareness Month in October every year, let’s talk about mental health and why we should take care of it. Sometimes people forget that taking care of your mind is as important as taking care of your body.
Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively, and can contribute to their community, according to the World Health Organization. It includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being.
Many factors can affect it as biological factors like genes or brain chemistry; Life experiences, like trauma or abuse of any kind; family history of mental health problems and our lifestyles, such as our diet, our physical state and substance use.
To maintain positive mental health, never doubt getting help from a loved one or a professional, if you think you need it; stay connected to your friends and family, get physically active by exercising, not only your mental health benefits from it, but your whole being; get enough sleep, care for others, and try to stay as positive as you can.
It’s easy to forget to take care of your mental health, that’s why we may never forget that mental health affects every single aspect of our life and the lack of treatment and avoidance of it may lead to other things such as sadness, guilt, worry, fear…
Being healthy mentally can help us achieve new goals, be a better person, and manage things we thought we never would. For example, when we take care of our mental health we learn that the bad thing about stress is not having it, but not knowing how to control it or cope with it.
It also affects our relationship with our bodies and food, making us have difficulties with them. If we don’t take mental health seriously things may fall apart, from self-harm using substances as alcohol and drugs to doubting ourselves. When we feel better, everything gets better, so that’s why mental health should be so important.