3 Reasons Mental Health Matters - LifeHack (2023)

Mental health matters. Taking care of our mental health helps with our resilience and recovery from whatever happens.

Anyone can have a bad day, but that doesn't mean it's a bad life. What matters is how we respond and take care of our mental health.

Mental health is important at every stage of our lives. It encompasses our general well-being and affects our lives in many ways.

Why is mental health important?

Research shows that one in five adults in the United States (43.8 million people) has a mental illness, which accounts for 18.5% of our total population.^[1]This means that mental health issues are pervasive in our population and impact everything we do.

According to HealthyPeople.gov, "Neuropsychiatric disorders are the leading cause of disability in the United States."^[2]Left untreated, mental illness leads to widespread disabilities. It prevents us from showing up every day, stifling our abilities and slowing our pace.

Unfortunately, when mental health is neglected, suicide rates increase. Mental health is important because it affects everything. It affects our ability to cope, adapt, and solve problems. It also affects our ability to be happy, productive, and well-adjusted.

Mental health is an issue that is very often stigmatized in our society. If someone has a mental health problem, they are less likely to get help because of the stigma and shame.

But there is nothing to be ashamed of. The wiring in your brain is not your fault. Yet we pretend it's our fault and downplay its importance.

Mental illness is misunderstood even by those who have never experienced it. It is up to us to stand up for our needs and educate others about our problems.

We become experts in “lived experience”.

There is a spectrum in how we experience things. Sometimes we can lose control, but we generally get it back. Or we experience extremes of high and low emotions and are unable to handle them. We can be anywhere in between.

Things fall apart if left untreated. But that doesn't mean it's too late. Everything is possible. Remembering this gives us the opportunity to fight again.

There are three reasons why mental health is so important.

1. Mental health affects physical health

If someone had cancer, we would not blame them for having this disease in their body. So why do we put the stigma and blame for mental health problems on the brain?

Mental illness is just as important as any other illness, and it can take your life just as easily as any other.

For example, depression can lead to suicidal thoughts and, if left untreated, to suicide attempts. We are not balanced people if we only focus on physical health.

Mind and body are connected. Many mental illnesses cause stress, which weakens the immune system. That means more illnesses and overwork.

Stress and anxiety can affect our physical health. According to WebMD, "worrying causes your body to release stress hormones, which speed up your heart rate and breathing, raise your blood sugar, and send more blood to your arms and legs. Over time, this can affect the heart, blood vessels, muscles and other systems."^[3]

When stress enters our body, we start to switch off. as we canto deal with stressthat's all. Left untreated, mental health issues can lead to another breakdown.

Many people turn to drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms, affecting their overall health and stability. If not treated well, it becomes a cycle of destructive behavior. This affects your physical well-being and you can continue to grow like a snowball.

Stress affects physical well-being and the ability to take care of oneself, and this can create destructive patterns.

Sometimes, when we get to that point, we don't even learn that mental health matters. We must not ignore it, otherwise other areas of our lives could suffer.

2. End stigma and shame to live a better life

It's important to talk about mental health so that others can talk about it too.

Psych Central discusses how we feel ashamed because we perceive we're broken or not normal. Thinking of ourselves as humble affects our ability to deal with it.^[4]

Part of the healing process is changing those feelings. Our imperfections do not mean lack of value. When we recognize this, we can also help others to change these feelings and accept themselves.

Stigma breeds shame. Shame leads to destructive behavior. Destructive behavior leads to impairment of the self.

Stigma spreads when we don't talk about mental health and what it means.

When it comes down to it, those who have a mental illness need treatment. But without awareness and breaking the stigma surrounding their condition, they won't feel comfortable asking anyone for help. This reinforces the stigma and encourages more struggle and shame.

If we can't say something, we give it more power.

In Name It to Tame It, a common emotion exercise, we disempower the emotion by naming it. Not to mention our emotions, they become more powerful and take over us and the lives of others.

When we talk to each other, the problem becomes smaller and less control over our lives. We can set each other free if we are not ashamed of our mental health.

When we become authentic, we regain power over our lives. By denying the existence and importance of mental health, we deny ourselves. We lose our ability to solve problems and find solutions in our daily lives.

However, we can say without shame, “I am not my mental illness. I'm more than that. I'm not afraid to speak up because it's not my fault."

When we do this, we strengthen ourselves and the world. We learn to listen to our triggers and warning signs so we don't get caught in a downward spiral, and we show more compassion for others who experience it. Overall, this makes for a more connected world.

"One day you will tell your story of how you got over what you went through and it will become part of someone else's survival guide." -A stranger

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When we help ourselves, we also help others.. We can pay attention to the world and make it a kinder and more loving place. We can identify what problems need solving by acknowledging our own and we can share our stories to help accomplish that. We remove the shame.

3. Mental health affects everything

Our mental health affects the way we approach life. Lack of treatment leads to hopelessness and sadness, worthlessness, guilt, fear and worry, anxiety and loss of control.

Our relationships can suffer. Our performance in any situation, like school or work, can drop. Withdrawal and isolation can occur.

We can also lose interest in things we once enjoyed. Task completion and time management can fall apart. We can also find it difficult to concentrate, or we can brood and focus on cleaning up or organizing.

Our relationship with food can change. We can have ups and downs and racing thoughts can be more common.

Life can get overwhelming. When we have serious mental health problems, we can lose touch with reality and even hear voices.

Self-harm can occur. Destructive patterns such as alcohol and drug use can emerge, and the end result can be suicidal thoughts. In general, if we don't take mental health seriously, things will fall apart.

If you're having any of these problems, it's time to get help.

Mental problems are important. It is important to learn about them and take care of them because if we don't, all of the above could happen. We can't function if we don't do it well.

But if we flip that and have good sanity, a lot of good things can happen:

• We learn to deal with it again.
• We become healthy in all aspects.
• Our relationships no longer suffer.
• We find meaning in our everyday life.
• We are more involved in our community.
• We are more productive at school or at work.
• We can be who we are meant to be.

When we feel better, we get better.

Mental health affects everything. It affects our nature and how we interact with the world and with ourselves.

Without good mental health, we are prone to not knowing our full worth and struggling with things that are beyond our control. When we ignore mental health, we ignore ourselves.

We need to value our health and well-being as much, if not more, than anything else. We must learn that we are good enough, that we are pitiable and that others are too.

This results in us having higher standards. It helps us to be sad when we want to be sad and accept our state of mind. And it also helps us to do something about it.

We don't have to wait until we feel better: we can feel better today simply by acknowledging that our struggles are real and worthy of compassionate attention.

We don't have to solve all problems, howeverwe can ask for helpwhen, and only then, it becomes too much, do we regain some sense of control over our lives.

final thoughts

We all deserve to have peace of mind. Mental health matters because we deserve it.

If we knew how valuable we are, we could conquer the world. It's our own limiting thoughts that hold us back when we think we're not normal, broken, or worthless.

The truth is that the mind can lie. You can stop us. And yet it is also the source of all the good we experience.

It doesn't make anyone any less of a person who has mental health issues. When we value mental health, we lead better lives. This doesn't mean everything will improve overnight, but we can learn to value ourselves so we can improve over time.

Mental health is just as important as physical health. We need to end the stigma because mental health is everything. If we remember this, we can turn everything around. And it's never too late to do just that.

If you or someone you know is in an emergency, callThe National Suicide Prevention Lifelineat 800-273-TALK (8255) or call 911 immediately.

Much luck.

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Featured Photo Credits:Priscilla Du Preez via unsplash.com