What is Mental Health?

Mental health involves everything that has a relation with our emotional, psychological and social well being. How we think and feel are as important as our physical illnesses as sometimes we might be physically fine but psychologically toxic. When we are mentally disturbed, it affects our way of thinking, feeling and acting. Our mental state determines how we handle stressful situations, make life decisions and behave with others. It is vital at every stage of our life, starting from early childhood and teenage life up to adulthood.

You might have noticed that some children who have been exposed to a lot of violence or come from a broken family have violent behaviors. It is all due to the effect of their early life on their mental health. According to a recent study, depression occurs in 1 or 2 % of children before puberty. However, anyone can become a victim of their own mind. If you experience mental health issues, it can affect your overall behavior including your thinking and mood.

There are many factors which contribute to mental illnesses :

• Genes or brain chemistry
• Trauma or being a victim of abuse
• A family history of mental health problems

Mental health problems are more common than you can imagine, however, nowadays you can seek out for professional help. There is nothing to be ashamed of as it is as normal as any kind of physical sickness. It has been proven that people with mental issues can feel better over time and even recover completely.
Early signs of mental health problems

How will you know if you or someone close to you is living with a mental health issue? According to medical practitioners, a person who is experiencing a mental problem might show one or more of the feelings or behaviors mentioned below :

• Withdrawing from people or daily routine
• Experiencing abnormal aches or pains
• Feeling completely hopeless or helpless
• Having no energy or feeling completely low all the time
• Eating or sleeping too much or not at all
• Constantly arguing with family and friends
• Hearing voices in your head or believing things which are not true
• Thinking about self-harming 
• Being more prone to drinking, smoking or taking drugs
• Experiencing severe mood swings which ruin all your relationships
• Feeling numb
• Having persistent memories which makes you feel like crying
• The constant feeling of confusion, forgetfulness, anger, worry or restlessness
• Not being able to keep your routine going.

If you can relate to any of the above symptoms, you might want to seek medical help as they are early signs of a problem.

How to achieve wellness if you are going through a mental problem?

The best way to achieve wellness while going through a mental dilemma is maintaining a positive mindset. However, it is completely understandable that it is hard for a mental patient to do this as the emotions are stronger than his will at that time. There are many benefits of positive mental health such as :

• Living life at your full potential
• Coping well with even the most stressful moments of life
• Being more productive at work
• Contributing meaningfully to your community

There are many ways that a person can adopt if he/ she wants to maintain positive mental health which includes :

• Staying positive in every situation
• Connecting with others
• Being physically active
• Getting enough sleep
• Reaching out for professional help if needed
• Giving help to others
• Working on own coping skills

Fortunately, there are a lot of ways through which one can prevent mental illnesses. Prevention is possible. For example, if a child is exposed to trauma at a very young age. It is vital to recognize the risk factors and addressing them accordingly. Promoting social-emotional wellness of youth bring a lot of positive aspects such as :

• Increase in lifespan
• Better family life 
• Stronger economy
• Lower crime rates
• Less health care costs
• Better education
• An increase in overall productivity

For all those who believe that healing from mental problems is impossible should get their facts checked once again. Many people suffer from mental issues but eventually get better if they get help. Treatment and recovery are always ongoing processes. The most important step is to get help.

The goal is to help people who are going through trauma or abuses by improving their lifestyle through health and wellness. It is important to encourage them to live a self-directed life and strive to achieve their full potential. They have to go through a full recovery plan along with their psychological counselor. This plan consists of :

• Enabling patients to identify their goals in terms of wellness
• Looking for activities to help to achieve those goals
• Tracking the positive changes in the mental health problems
• Identifying triggers and tackling them to lower stress level