Mental health and matters pertaining to the emotional health and well-being of the individual have always been present. Unfortunately, not until the last few years has it been considered an authentic ārealā illness by many.
Slight dips, longer periods, and sometimes potentially fatal emotional health and well-being levels vary greatly from person to person. Contrary to some peopleās incorrect belief, people from all walks of life can be affected by one or more mental health illnesses, regardless of status in society, the amount of money in the bank, their age, gender, or any other variant.
Continue reading to learn how the general publicās mental health and well-being is being challenged in the modern world.
- People are Encouraged to Get Outside
Psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, and medical doctors have all cited the copious advantages to people ensuring they go for even a twenty-minute walk for many years.
There are, in fact, a myriad of benefits to spending time outdoors, preferably surrounded by nature and safely basking in the sunshine to your emotional health and well-being. Spending time outdoors is a wholly natural way to boost your mood, a brilliant way to help you socialize and form good connections with new people, and is a way to feel a part of your community which decreases feelings of isolation and loneliness.Ā
Plus, there are other benefits. If you choose to walk more, you could save money on the gas for your vehicle. It may not be a lot, but it could stretch your money further each month if you walk to certain locations instead of driving. As money concerns are one of the top causes of mental health illnesses, switching to walking could help in multiple ways.
Being in and around nature and the natural environment is also a good method to connect you to nature in a fundamental way and has been proven to be a catalyst in the reduction in levels of anger and stress. Walking or even running outdoors every day is also a way to improve your levels of physical health and boost your confidence and self-esteem.
- School Counselors are More Prominent & More Important
If you are over the age of fifty, it is highly likely that there was no such thing as a school counselor, or if there was, they would have more than likely been an out-of-touch person to who you never felt like you could open up to.
The role of a school counselor has changed over the years and is continuing to do so. It is now not only now substantially more widely known and accessible to everyone, but matters pertaining to mental health and student privacy are now of top priority.
Children and young adults are just as susceptible to experiencing a dip in their serotonin production levels in the brain; therefore, depression and feelings of anxiety are exceedingly common across the ages. However, it would be pertinent to point out that it is far better for such mental health issues and diagnoses to be clear earlier in life. This ensures that once they become an adult, they have a solid outlet for their emotions and feelings.
The role of the modern school counselor includes the following duties:
- The facilitation of prevention programs as well as crisis intervention methods within the school and support for individual students
- The analysis of the particular studentās performance both inside the classroom and outside of it
- Assisting with ensuring that each student knows there is a safe space to come and discuss anything that is on their mind
- Helping different students across all ages develop their individual plans relating to their academic progress, which relate directly to their specific strengths and skills
- Collaborating and communicating with other professional members of staff in the school
- Working on building a relationship based on trust and honesty within a non-judgmental setting
- Mental Health Nurses are More in Demand Than Ever Before
Perhaps quite obviously, this next point centers around the significant increase in demand when it comes to different states and different medical facilities needing more mental health nurses.
Mental health nursing is one of four main divisions of specialty under the proverbial umbrella of nursing, the others being children nursing, adult nursing, and learning disabilities nursing. Nurses are now placed under an intense amount of pressure from both their own senior bosses and other nurses, as well as the media and members of the public.Ā
It is incredibly hard, if not practically impossible, to accurately ascertain if it is true that more people are living with one or more mental issues in the modern world. It may be because there is finally information readily available or that people are willing to talk.
If you are someone who may well be interested in working in the field of mental health nursing in the future, then it is incredibly important that you know and understand the extreme levels of emotional stress you may be placed under.
If, however, you are not someone with a generally strong level of emotional well-being, becoming a mental health nurse is something that is usually advised against. Essentially, you must be of an emotionally sound mind yourself to deal with the daily stresses and emotional turmoil that clients who come to you for advice and guidance are experiencing.
- Loneliness & Isolation Have Vastly Increased
Depression, in its purest form, wants to pull you away from your partner, your children, your family, and your friends. It isolates you from hobbies, physical activities, and even your workplace. This is why people who feel lonely often have depression in some form.
If you are feeling particularly low and feel as if the whole world is against you, or you simply have nobody to talk to and nowhere to go, then you should book an appointment with your medical doctor as soon as possible. In the meantime, the following tips may well stave off feelings of loneliness:
- Focus on Relationships
Focus on spending time with your solid and long-lasting relationships instead of throwing yourself out there in a room full of strangers; it should be quality over quantity in this situation.
- Treat Yourself
You could start to treat yourself when out shopping at the mall or even just at the grocery store. If you are someone who always buys things that you need rather than the things you want as well, then you need to try this alternative way of shopping and treat yourself.
- Take a Break from the World
Deactivate your social media account but keep your messenger applications and programs: comparing yourself automatically while browsing Facebook, for example, to other people you hardly know will only make you feel less worthy than you already do. Try to remember that some people would give their proverbial right arm to be able to please others rather than themselves, and often this stems from comparing to others on the internet. Take a break from it and learn how to love yourself just as you are.
- Think about Your Qualities
Remember that you matter, you are loved, and you are cared for. Even when you are feeling at your worst, try to concentrate on your good points. It wonāt always be easy, but it could help you get through the most trying of days. To help you do this, you could write this down in a journal.
- Get Your Feelings Out on Paper
If you donāt want to write about your qualities, write down how you feel in a letter or a journal or write down what you are grateful for. Donāt like writing? Embrace your creative side by starting to paint, draw and generally express your imagination on paper.Ā
- Put Yourself Out There
It may not be easy to push yourself to do new things, but you should try something new every day, from the simple to the sublime to the downright ridiculous. Pushing yourself can help you overcome your fears and anxiety and show you that you can do anything.
- Social Media Has a Lot to Answer For
As mentioned briefly above, social media is an incredibly strong and ever-increasing reason people can struggle. Therefore, people must come off social media entirely and deactivate and delete all their social media profiles across all platforms when they feel like this.
Social media and the way it has taken over some peopleās lives, particularly young adults and teenagers, has an intensely negative effect on mental health.Ā
Firstly, because so many people seem to have their smartphones permanently glued to the inside of their hands, their natural sleeping patterns are becoming severely disrupted, mainly as they use their phones and other devices in bed. Social media platforms are deliberately designed to not only source and store as much data and personal information as possible about its users but to make their users addicted to the content.
Another incredibly distressing way in which social media platforms have proven to be having a negative effect on their users is that numerous studies have found that some social media sites are directly linked with less satisfaction and more self-criticism.
Mental health issues have been around as long as the beginning of humanity, and as human beings evolve and adapt to their surroundings and learn more about the world around them, the more scientists and doctors come to understand the inner workings of the human mind.
With ever-expanding technologies and medical equipment, it is becoming easier not just to accurately and effectively treat issues pertaining to mental health but also to justify to the doubters that depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems are valid and real.
