World Mental Health Day is Every Day

 As far as the human condition is concerned, mental health has to be one of the most important issues of our times. We read about it every day in the news regarding our schools and horrible gun violence, and in our government with some crazy politicians. And we are dealing with it, or rather not dealing with it, collectively on the Internet with bots that intentionally, cruelly stir up chaos in our collective unconscious and in our lives. It is now critical that we each pay attention to our personal mental health and wellbeing, and to nurture ourselves whenever we are feeling depressed or stressed. It’s truly important to seek treatment from a qualified professional if we are unable to break out of a difficult mental health pattern ourselves, regardless of its origin. The thing about mental health is that it is not often a visible, quickly treatable injury like a broken leg which can be seen and understood as needing medical treatment. Mental Health issues are much more subtle and complicated, making them harder for us to recognize in ourselves and in others. This is why we need psychologists and psychiatrists who look for patterns of thoughts and behaviors in order to diagnose and to treat a mental illness. As I said, this is a more subtle form of illness, and it takes time for a professional to correctly evaluate and to clinically treat. Some illnesses are more obvious and common, like and anxiety and depression, but finding the right medications when needed, often takes trial and error. And we are each the test tubes in which they need to be tried in order to find the right one for us. This is the reality of any medication we may be prescribed for any medical condition, and it’s no different for mental health medications.

Scientists and doctors around our world are still learning more and more every day about the chemistry of the mind and body and how the wrong mix interacts to create mental illnesses. There are many aspects of the body and mind that can contribute to mental wellness and to mental illness. Human neurology, for instance, is a complicated and subtle system in all of our bodies which is directly involved in our mental health. The brain and the nervous system are like an internal universe that is not as well understood compared to other parts of the body. The brain itself is still mysterious in many ways and is being carefully studied and researched to glean more understanding on how it functions and why. The endocrine system, another complicated system. is made up of glands that produce hormones that regulate the chemistry throughout the body and brain, also affect our moods and mental wellbeing. Scientists are still studying how their interactions play a role in mental health and how to repair any imbalances when they occur. Think of someone who has a thyroid issue, either too much or too little, and this definitely affects anxiety and depression depending on which way the imbalance occurs. And this is just one of the glands of the endocrine system. The good news is that research and development of medications is an ongoing search in medical research laboratories the world over. New discoveries happen every day and the work goes on to solve the intricacies of the body/mind interplay involved in mental and physical health.

So, how does the medical profession define mental illness? Here I have included a couple paragraphs from the world-renowned Mayo Clinic:

“Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviors.

Many people have mental health concerns from time to time. But a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function.

A mental illness can make you miserable and can cause problems in your daily life, such as at school or work or in relationships. In most cases, symptoms can be managed with a combination of medications and talk therapy (psychotherapy).” -The Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968

From what I have learned and experienced, mental illness can range from an illness that can be addressed and healed in a relatively short period of time, it can be an extended illness like recovering from a depression caused by the loss of a loved one, or it can be one that is a lifetime challenge. Illnesses like the latter case can be caused, as I mentioned above, by a chemical or physical imbalance in the brain, an endocrine imbalance in both the brain and body, or a genetic inheritance that predisposes a person to illness. There can also be serious emotional imbalances in the personality of a person due to the environment they grew up in and/or how they were raised. Mental illness can also be caused by a physical injury to the sensitive brain tissue due to a serious accident. Abuse, prolonged trauma (PTSD) or a terrible loss can also be factors that determine mental and emotional wellbeing. Or it can be any combination of the above factors that can cause anyone of us to suffer from mental illness at some point in our lives. Mental illness is part of being human and, thank goodness, it is not the stigma that it used to be. Seeking treatment in 2024 is as easy as picking up the phone or going on a Zoom call for an initial visit. There are national hotlines in the USA that we can call if we need to in a medical emergency. 988 is all we need to dial to get help from the National Hotline for Mental Health Crises and Suicide Prevention.

The fact is that we human beings are vulnerable creatures and life can be pretty unpredictable. How we care for ourselves in the face of a world that challenges us with so many dicey situations is The Key to keeping as much of our sanity intact as possible. Mental wellness is something we each need to cultivate and maintain in ourselves and for ourselves as much as we can. So, what can we do wholistically to keep ourselves relatively happy and well? First, assuming that we can care for our basic physical needs – not everyone in the world is able to at any given moment in time – this gives us a base, of safety and security that helps us to feel grounded and stable. So, having a job that pays the bills for food, shelter, clothing, and personal safety gives us a sense of emotional and physical stability. So, the first brick in our foundation for good mental health is making sure that our survival needs are met with a good job to pay for our needs. It also helps if we like the work we are doing, who we are working with, and who we work for to earn a paycheck. Job satisfaction is an important part of how we feel about ourselves in the world. If we hate the job we are doing or the people we work with or for, this is going to undermine our emotional wellbeing. Having a job we love going to is another brick in a stable foundation. Who we live with at home also matters a great deal. Do we and the people we live with love and respect each other? Having good relationships with the people we live with can be an oasis to go home to at the end of each work day. If not, it can potentially be a pretty miserable situation, or even hell on earth which is absolutely going to negatively affect our wellbeing. Our friendships are also important, much like our home life. Feeling liked, respected, and accepted by our friends, especially as children, contributes to how we perceive ourselves in our community. Knowing we have a place and are valued members of a group of friends contributes to our self-esteem which is another brick in our mental health foundation.

What we eat, drink, and do to maintain our bodies is another brick in the mortar that will sustain our mental health. Keeping our guts healthy, you may be surprised to learn, plays a part in mental wellbeing. The digestive track is called the second brain, and a lot goes on in there that maintains our wellbeing. So, what you put in your mouth as food or drink has the potential to either help or hinder your own happiness. Read a few labels on packaged foods and see how just many preservatives and other chemicals are inside of them. Yuck! YouTube and Instagram have lots of chefs and their recipes that they teach us how to make from scratch from organic, fresh foods. It’s not that hard to cook, say on Saturday or Sunday, for the week and then have delicious dinners waiting to be thawed and reheated. And for more body care, did you know that having a regular form of exercise relieves stress and releases endorphins which are happy hormones that generate a feeling of wellbeing? So don’t avoid the gym on the way home from work tonight! I know, just walking in the door of the gym can be hard when we are dog tired, but it will pay off on how we walk out of the gym after one hour of sweating off the stress of the day! Avoiding over drinking and “recreational drugs” is another, huge piece of holistic selfcare. Illegal drug use and alcoholism fill our hospitals’ psych wards and emergency rooms probably more than any other issue, and this is one we actually can have some control over. Not taking illegal drugs or drinking to excess, from the outset, is a positive choice that we have the power to make for our mental and physical health. It can literally save our lives – especially considering the horrible fentanyl crisis. An ounce of prevention in these kinds of circumstances is worth a lifetime of cure by simply choosing NOT to go down these rabbit holes of despair. Then there is prescribed medication to consider. And, if any of us are on mental health medication, taking it is key to our wellbeing. There is no shame in needing a medication for physical illnesses nor should there be shame for needing mental health medication. Our bodies are just so intricate, so complex, and every family seems to have a genetic predisposition to some type of health issue or another. Neurological imbalances are included on the list of inherited medical issues. If someone can take insulin for Type 1 Diabetes and be held in compassion, why should we be hard on ourselves if we need to take antidepressants or antianxiety medications, to name some common genetic predispositions. In just these two examples, medicine is an important tool to maintain mental health and are miracles of modern medicine, just like insulin.

And on an even greater scale, if we ever truly want to have a chance for any other topics of worldwide importance to be resolved, I sincerely believe that we need to pay attention first to the mental health of those people we place in authority above us. It seems advisable, after the past decade, that anyone who wishes to gain political prominence over a country, any country, they should be required by law to pass a complete battery of psychological and physical exams, and drug tests, that they would have to legally agree in running for that office would then be made part of the public record. Any discrepancies that would contribute to the inability of an individual to govern would be discovered ahead of time and the individual would be advised to seek compassionate treatment, rather than being allowed to run for office. I think this would go a long way to contributing to the safety and to the mental health of the entire world as well as each individual’s…

As I said above, we human beings are vulnerable creatures and there is a myriad of interconnecting factors that contribute to our maintaining our wellbeing. Taking the time to recognize what we need to have good mental and emotional health and doing our best to achieve and maintain them is being proactive in our selfcare. There are ways to be preventive – diet, exercise, good relationships, positive work environments – and there are ways to seek and receive treatment when we go through those really rough patches that we all will hit at one time or another in a long, well-lived life. Life really is a roller coaster ride, and we all need to buckle up from time to time to survive those dark tunnels we all go through.

So, maybe give a think on this topic and how you might make choices for yourself that will be positive and proactive just for you? Remember, you are worth it!

Namaste,

Jean 🌱