Mental Health is a state of well-being in which a person understands his or her own abilities, is able to cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and make a contribution to his or her community.
Mental illness, also known as mental health conditions or disorders have the tendency to affect an individual’s mood, thinking and general behaviour. They come in several forms, a few of which are:
- Depression – Also known as major depressive disorder, depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how one feels, thinks and acts.
- Anxiety Disorder – Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert the individual to dangers and help doctors or other healthcare professionals prepare and pay attention.
- Schizophrenia – This is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in a combination of hallucinations, delusions, extremely disordered thinking and behaviour. This can further ruin daily functioning and can be very disabling if the illness is left untreated.
- Eating disorder – People with this disorder experience severe disturbances that affect their eating behaviours as well as related thoughts and emotions.
- Substance abuse disorder – Also called Drug addiction, this disorder affects a person’s brain and behaviour. It can also lead to an inability to control the use of a legal/illegal drug or medication.
- Bipolar Mood Disorder – Formerly called manic depression, this disorder causes extreme mood swings that can include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).
- Personality Disorders – This type of mental disorder gives the individual a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking, functioning and behaviour.
Signs and Symptoms of Mental Health
How can one tell if anyone, friend or family member, is experiencing any mental health challenge? Below is a list of common traits that suggest a mental health challenge.
- Abnormal sadness.
- Confusion
- Inability to concentrate.
- Excessive fears or worries
- Extreme feelings of guilt.
- Extreme mood changes of highs and lows.
- Withdrawal from friends and activities.
- Significant fatigue and sleeping problems.
- Erratic behaviour – which can progress, to violence.
- Talking to one’s self.
- Visual, auditory or tactile hallucinations.
- Extreme paranoia.
If you have by chance spotted a friend or family member who appears to be struggling with Mental Health challenges in their daily lifestyle, here’s a list of things you can do to help them.
- Listen without judgement – When someone begins to say things like “they want to kill themselves” or “cutting themselves helps them feel better”, the best thing to do is to listen without judging them. This is because such emotions can be alarming and can also lead to serious injuries or in extreme cases death. It is therefore advisable to understand why they feel this way and if possible, talk to them with a calm voice.
- Ask them if they need help – After the conversation do well to ask them if they desire help with their current mental state. In these cases, it is usually best to seek the view of a therapist or ask a doctor for advice on how best to proceed.
- Avoid confrontation – People who are mentally ill do not need a confrontation or arguments; they will easily switch to defense mode should they be faced with any such thing. Rather, treat them like you would any other person who, of course, is not experiencing any mental challenge.
- Find out if the individual would like you to contact someone – This is necessary because the individual with the mental challenge may have a family member or friend who understands them better than you do. It is usually best to find out those closest to the person since they will be able to inform you of about any medication the individual should be taking as well as identify if his or her personality traits are any different from their normal persona.
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Infant Mental Health
According to Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre, ‘Infant mental health, also called “early childhood mental health,” refers to the mental health of young children from birth to age five. Very young children need lots of help from their parents and closest caregivers to learn how to express and manage their emotions in healthy ways. For this reason, parents’ relationships with their children play an important role in the mental health of infants and young children.’
This implies that it is possible to get your child checked for any signs of mental health challenges but will also be difficult to determine at that age. This is due to the fact that every child develops differently in their own way, hence this process will take a lot of observation, time and patience from the parents. Also, there are a lot of factors that can affect the way a child grows and that is why it is always best to seek a doctor’s advice and guidance on how best to take charge of the situation.
It is heart-breaking that such challenges are present in our society. We may hear of our closest and dearest friends or family members going through these eerie experiences and have no idea how it feels because we haven’t gone through the process ourselves. The sad truth is, it can happen to any of us. The words that get thrown around so casually such as; depression, anxiety, bipolar, mood swings, crazy, stress/stressed and so much more are very real.
These emotions are the very thing that are killing people out there. We get shocked when we hear news about people close to us ending their lives because they were depressed, yet we may have ignored all the signs that something wasn’t right with them. Most times we choose to either turn a blind eye or not take them seriously even when they try to express how they feel, through our use of words or phrases like, “get over it” or when we make funny statements like “my bipolar ex did this” and so on… This is not right because such behaviour takes away the true meaning of those words and allows the situation to be taken lightly.
“Mental Health is not a destination but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going. The therapist is like a driving instructor, not a chauffeur.”
― Noam Shpancer, The Good Psychologist.
Sources:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/13114578-ha-psikholog-ha-tov
Mimi Machakaire is a Zimbabwean with a Diploma in Film Production from the University of Zimbabwe and a Diploma in journalism from Rutherford Hayes University, in the United States of America. She has a great passion for writing, journalism and storytelling. She currently resides in Maseru city, Lesotho.
Great article! The better we can understand ourselves and each other, the better we can grow and take care of our communities.
Bringing awareness to and dismantling the stigma behind mental health will help each and every person, and everyone as a whole.
Lovely piece and more importantly, truthful. I believe we can all be better if we keep choosing to be more understanding.