The Importance Of Mental Hygiene And How To Maintain It

If we were to look for a clear definition of mental health, it would first refer to the well-being and harmony in which a person can express all his possibilities, not only the presence of mental problems. This means that mental health implies eliminating stress in everyday life and the resulting productivity and contribution to the broader environment.

Mental health is simply one of the basic factors affecting the general health of an individual and is a much more complex concept than the mere presence of specific problems. And not only that, but mental health also affects the physical aspect, so if it is not balanced, physical changes often occur; that is, mental health becomes the cause of various ailments and diseases. In the text below, we’ll discuss what affects our mental health, the importance of maintaining mental hygiene, and how we can preserve it.

Factors affecting mental health

Factors affecting mental health are countless and concern all aspects of life and its circumstances. Broadly, they can be divided into social, psychological, biological, and general health or disease factors, which can be further broken down in more detail. The modern pace of life imposes numerous doubts when it comes to everyday life and affects the social, economic, and biological condition of man.

Material insecurity, a lack of self-confidence, emotional unfulfillment, social instability, discrimination, limited education, a lack of free time, unhealthy lifestyle habits, and many other things can damage mental health. The demand for constant productivity and efficiency on the private and business levels does not leave much room for personal desires and potentials, and this discrepancy often leads to the appearance of anxiety, depression, aggression, listlessness, a lack of motivation, anger, and other consequences.

What states can we get into due to the lack of mental hygiene?

In the case of neglecting mental health, i.e., mental hygiene, it can be said that similar effects occur when avoiding body hygiene. Although every psychologist will recommend that we dedicate at least an hour to ourselves during the day, we often wonder how this is possible.

However, if we look at mental hygiene as a set of techniques and measures that are actually the prevention of mental disorders, we can definitely apply some of them every day, such as, for example, listening to music that we like for fifteen minutes, and we come to the conclusion that small steps in the matter lead to great long-term positive results.

The very thought of even a minimal amount of time spent in one’s own peace can be a motivation for the numerous obligations we face every day. If attention is not paid to the mental state for a long time, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and even suicidal thoughts are common. As the folks at SoCal Mental Health explain, taking care of your mental health through different treatment services can help you combat day-to-day struggles. The treatments are also designed according to specific and different psychiatric symptoms and help stabilize present problems. 

Some common problems: 

Anxiety is perhaps an ever more common psychological problem, which is best illustrated by worrying about things that we don’t even know if and how they could happen, anxiety that grips us in moments when, conditionally speaking, we feel that we are under threat – from too many obligations, from a certain person, and the like. Anxiety becomes a mental health problem when it interferes with our daily functioning, and when it manifests itself in frequent panic attacks, that is, difficulty breathing and uncontrolled reactions.

Depression, on the other hand, is almost always a long-term mood fluctuation. It stands out as one of the three most common causes of illness in the world. Its causes are numerous, and the most common are a combination of biological and psychosocial factors. In practice, it is characterized by a sense of guilt, loss of joy, callousness, indifference, anxiety, a sense of worthlessness, and pessimism, but also a lack of motivation, a concentration disorder, slowness of speech, headache, back pain, and exhaustion. In the treatment of depression, both psychological and pharmacological therapy is used, with antidepressants in the foreground, but if it is detected in time, depression is effectively treated.

Sleep disorders and eating disorders are direct consequences of a poor mental state. Inability to sleep, waking up during the night, poor sleep, and then the loss of or excessive appetite are some of the obvious indicators that there is something inside that disturbs the usual habits, and in the long run, it can significantly endanger health.

Methods of maintaining mental hygiene

Writing a diary – Our thoughts are mostly subjective feelings, just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That’s why it’s very important that when we feel bad, we share it with someone because that “someone” will significantly give us a more objective and logical point of view and help us make the right decision. We will be more aware that there is always “someone” for us.

Meditation– Many spiritual scholars consider our breathing to be one of the most important parameters of our lives. We start life with a sigh and end it with an exhalation, while in the meantime, often none of us takes care of how we actually breathe. Meditation focuses primarily on that. We all know the rule that when we are upset, we count to 10 and breathe deeply. In fact, counting to 10 helps us take our mind off what upsets us, while deep breathing calms the trauma we have inflicted on the body (and our body remembers trauma!).

Training– In a healthy body, there is a healthy mind. 15 minutes of physical activity a day can do wonders. It can be the aforementioned yoga, exercises at home, a walk in nature, or climbing the stairs. Training also lowers the amount of cortisol and increases the number of endorphins.

Improving social life- Be careful who you associate with because just as some people can fill you with energy, most can very easily take it away from you – they are not called “energy vampires” for nothing. Surround yourself with people with whom you will share goals, will work to achieve them, and with whom you will share your bad experiences as lessons, not as something that will necessarily happen to them.

Do something you’re good at – There’s no such thing as a person who isn’t good at something; they just might not have discovered it yet. Someone is good at drawing, someone at editing pictures, someone at writing texts, someone at cooking. Do what you’re good at as it will fill you with a sense of confidence and self-esteem. 

Hopefully, you’ll find the above useful in maintaining your mental hygiene. Remember to make sure to take good care of yourself, and it all begins by taking the right steps.