How Do You Know If Your Mental Health Has Deteriorated
How do you know if your mental health has deteriorated? As a rule, people do not notice when something is not right with them. Because, as we know, we live in a society that normalizes anxiety and stress. A society that tells us that if we are depressed, it is simply because we do not know how to deal with our lives.
Many people have a distorted view of mental health. For them, mental well-being is just something that relates to insanity or reason and weakness or strength. But this is a big mistake, because anyone can experience psychological problems at some point in their lives. It is a fact that does not make us less capable, but only human. To illustrate this, we quote here the definition given by the World Health Organization (WHO) of mental health:
And of course, we must acknowledge that we do not always achieve these goals. We do not always feel emotionally balanced enough to even handle our daily challenges. Remember that mental well-being is not something that comes by itself. Sometimes we have very little of it and sometimes we miss it completely. That’s when we suffer.
Ask yourself if your mental health has deteriorated
It is easy to forget that mental health is one of the pillars that underpins a country’s social, human and economic progress. When we miss this, everything goes wrong and nothing seems to be right. At the same time, mental well-being depends on many different factors: emotional support, job opportunities, health care and an environment that is free from conflict, discrimination and violence. One could say that there is a system of continuous feedback between us and everything that surrounds us. In fact, everything around us has an effect on us. Therefore, we should examine each of these factors and see how they affect us psychologically at the moment. This is something we must understand in order to get a uniform picture of our mental health.
If you have no difficulty telling people that you have diabetes or heart disease, then you should also have no trouble saying that you suffer from postpartum depression, bipolar disorder or generalized anxiety disorder.
That we normalize mental illnesses and disorders means that we accept and incorporate them. Above all, it means that we must respect the individuals who suffer from them. In addition, it is extremely important that we know how to detect these diseases at an early stage and that we know when we should seek professional help. Read on to learn to recognize the signs that your mental health has deteriorated.
Signs that may mean that your mental health has deteriorated
You feel nervous, anxious and irritable
Mood swings are often the first sign of having a problem. The feeling of being more irritated and grumpy, lacking patience and getting hooked on things are all clear signals. However, you should not worry unless this is something that has affected you for more than three weeks.
Forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating
Sometimes you may have difficulty focusing, making decisions and following the thread of a conversation. In such moments, it is very common to forget things. Maybe you forget that you would meet someone or do something. Often, however, there is some form of anxiety disorder behind this type of behavior.
Changes in sleep and eating habits
One way for you to find out if your mental health has deteriorated is to analyze how you sleep and eat. The problems can be expressed in a sudden onset of insomnia, or vice versa in an excessive need for sleep, the feeling of always being exhausted and not being able to think about anything but falling asleep.
Furthermore, it is important that you think about your eating habits. Binge eating and decreased appetite are both signs that some disorder may be present.
Lack of zest for life and isolation
If you have gradually withdrawn from the world around you, felt apathetic and given up all your hobbies, then this could be a signal that something is wrong. After all, your psychological well-being is something that depends on your ability to enjoy your free time and feel joy in being with family and friends.
Therefore, you should think about asking for help if you have lost interest in such things.
Fixation on certain things
It happens that you become so obsessed with something that you can not think of anything else. This is not just about irrational and negative thoughts, such as that everything will go wrong or that you are useless. Rather, it is that you are in a very difficult situation. For example, you are constantly searching for certain things on the internet. Or maybe you imagine that someone is constantly spying on you.
Constant crying
Sometimes it doesn’t really matter if something terrible has happened or if you feel that your world is collapsing. Because you simply feel sad and just want to cry. In fact, it can even happen often, but it does not last long but everything soon returns to normal.
But to find out if your mental health has really been harmed, you need to dig a little deeper into your mood. If you can not get out of your gloomy mood and you constantly feel the need to cry, you need to talk to someone who can help you.
Thoughts of suicide can be a sign that your mental health has deteriorated
There is nothing as disturbing as a person thinking about what the world would look like without him or her. Such a person just wants to end his suffering and thinks that a good solution would be to “cease to exist”. One should always take suicidal thoughts seriously. If you have been feeling this way lately, do not hesitate to seek professional help.
Finally, you can always ask the people around you if they think your mental health has deteriorated. It may be that your loved ones are more observant than you are. Protect your mental health in the same way you protect your physical health. Because both aspects are equally important for your quality of life.
