Understanding our Mental Health

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It can affect how we think, feel and act. It can determine the way we handle stress, relate to others, and influence the choices we make as well.

There are many factors that can affect our mental health condition. Some factors include

• Biological

• Experiences in life (trauma/accidents)

• Family history

There are also several warning signs that can help one to know if they/someone around them is suffering from it

• Feeling helpless or hopeless

• Unable to sleep properly

• Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual

• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, angry, upset, worried, or afraid

• Fight with family and friends over small matters

• Experiencing severe mood swings

• Having persistent thoughts that you can't get out of your head

• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true

• Thinking of harming yourself or others

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What are some of the things we can do to mitigate it?

1: Get enough physical exercise

Exercise helps to release dopamine, which makes us feel good about ourselves. It also keeps our body healthy in the meantime!

2: Yoga/Meditation

These activities help us to be mindful and be at peace with ourselves. Although the process would not be an easy one and often people do get distracted along the way and give up, being persistent about it would help train our resilience.

3: Get enough sleep

resilience. Make sure you have a proper sleep cycle so that your body would become accustomed to the recovery hours. This helps to better repair our bodies and brain. With adequate amount of sleep and proper sleep cycles, our brain would be able to function better.