According to the survey of WHO, about 7.5% of Indians suffer from some mental disorder. It’s also estimated that around 13% of the world population has been affected by bad mental health or mental illness.
A 2019 study by a British charity, Mental Health Research UK, found that 42.5% of India’s corporate sector employees have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. That is, almost every second employee. Also, according to India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences(NIMHANS), nearly 150 million Indian’s need immediate treatment, but only 30 million are getting it.
All these stats are based on surveys conducted by different institutions. These stats can be more incremental as only some people prefer stepping ahead and speak about their mental health problems.
People are so busy with their lives that they might not even notice that they are experiencing mental health problems.
This blog will discuss what mental health is and what steps you can take to improve it.
What is Mental Health?
Mental health denotes the quality of your mind or brain. It is the foundation for the well-being and effective functioning of individuals. Our mental health condition shows how we think, feel, and act in a situation. An individual with good mental health always succeeds in life and has more control over life.
If you’re in good mental health, you can:
- make the most of your potential
- learn and adapt to new things fast
- manage good or bad emotions
- form and maintain a good relationship with others
- live a healthy life
- tackle any unsuitable situation in your life
What are the signs of bad mental health?
There are many signs that show’s whether a person is suffering from bad mental health or not.
Here are some of the major signs of bad mental health:-
1. Feeling anxious all time
Our world has become a place in which being stress-free is difficult. Our day-to-day life has become more complicated. We keep thinking about the same thing, getting stressed about it, and abusing our minds the whole day. Getting nervous or worried about something happening or will happen in the future is a sign of bad mental health.
2. Feeling depressed
Depression is a kind of disease that people often ignore. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is the most depressed country globally, followed by China and the USA.
Around 200 million people in India have been diagnosed with depression as of 2019, accounting for nearly 5% of the country’s population, and this number is expected to rise by 2020.
Feeling unhappy or getting negative thoughts, i.e., thought of harming yourself, thought of suicide, thought of feeling broke, is a serious sign of depression, and if not treated at the right time, it can lead to death.
Related reading: A Simple Best Effective Way to Reduce Stress in Few Minutes
3. Unable to control your emotions
Specific situations in which you cannot control your anger or emotions, a brief fight with your friend or co-worker, lead you to depression or overthinking.
4. Fatigue
Fatigue is a kind of illness in which you feel very tired or sleepy. You don’t have the power or motivation to perform any great things in your life.
It’s exist’s in your life mainly due to lack of exercise or poor diet. Feelings like lack of energy, sleepiness, tiredness, overweight, boredom, grief, consuming too much caffeine indicate fatigue.
How are we affecting our mental health?
Here are some most common ways we are affecting our mental health:-
- Avoiding exercise
One of the main causes of your poor mental health is a lack of daily exercise. According to research, exercising can improve your mood and help you fight depression and anxiety. - Eating an unhealthy diet
A poor diet has a direct effect on your life. Eating unhealthy foods can have a direct impact on your mood, as well as drain your mental and physical energy.
“As you nourish your body, so you nourish your mind” – The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. - Not sleeping enough
When you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel tired, have mood swings, and be extremely angry when you wake up. These feeling in the long run may lead to serious problems like heart diease, diabetes and high blood pressure. - Obsessive thinking
Having the same thought in your mind or thinking about a particular accident repeatedly throughout the day can put negative pressure on your mind, leading to depression, anxiety, and other mental problems. - Working too much
People working more than 7-8 hours a day without any refreshment are putting too much pressure on their minds and bodies, increasing the risk of more serious mental and physical health problems.
How to Improve your mental health?
Mental health can be improved in various ways, but if you’ve been experiencing the above symptoms for a long time, you should seek treatment from a physician or doctor as soon as possible.
Here are some effective ways to improve your mental health:-
Exercise daily
Exercising is one of the best ways to keep your health in perfect shape. It gives your immune system a boost and increases your energy levels by 200% by making you happier. Also, it increases the heart rate, promoting blood flow and pure oxygen to your mind to nourish it.
Whenever you feel like you have a stressful day, go for simple exercising leaving all the tense world behind you.
Meditation
Would you believe me if I told you that there is practice, which is 4000 thousand years old and is believed to affect people’s lives, both physically and mentally in a positive way, will you perform this practice??
If Yes, then keep reading.
Mindfulness Meditation is one of those practices that many people are performing daily to fight stress and depression in their daily life.
Just choose a silent place or room, close your eyes, leave the world of stress behind you, take a few deep breaths, and focus on your exhale and inhale. Your mind will wander and you will think about many things during this practice, but it is what you must learn, not acting on your thoughts.
Eating a healthy diet
Eating dead or unhealthy food is one of the main issues of an unhealthy body and mind. Our digestive system is one of the most important machines in our body. If you are eating unhealthy and junk food, it becomes really hard to digest and since your digestive system is the most energy-consuming process of your entire body.
“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need”. – Ayurvedic Proverb
Get good quality sleep
Getting quality sleep is more important than getting enough sleep. It is quality and not the quantity of sleep that is more important. It is better to have 6 hours of uninterrupted deep sleep than 10 hours of disturbed sleep. Quality deep sleep will elevate your mood, and you will be more energized and focused on your goals.
Listen to your favourite music
Music can make us feel uplifted, happy and can improve our health too. Whenever you feel stressed or anxious about something, give yourself quality time, listen to your favourite music.
Research from the University of Missouri published in The Journal Of Positive Psychology found that music can positively affect our well-being for the first time.
Final words
Always focus on your health, whether it is mentally or physically. Living a healthy life is still a dream for many people; that’s why I have started this mission.
Nothing can replace your health. You can have another job, house, car, bank account, but you cannot have another body.
