Mental health is important at every stage of our lives. It encompasses our overall wellbeing and affects our lives in many ways. Mental health matters. Taking care of our mental health aids in our resilience and recovery from anything that happens. Anyone can have a bad day, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad life. How we respond to it and take care of our mental health are what’s important. Let us understand in detail the Reasons Why Mental Health Is So Important to us.
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Mental Health plays a crucial role in relationships
One of the top reasons why mental health is important is its link with relationships. An unstable mind can impact how we conduct ourselves with closed ones. Often, mental disorders lead to passive-aggressiveness, hostility, and an inability to partake in social activities. This could translate into disturbances with our friends and family. Mental illness could also cause us to overthrow our loved ones for no fault of theirs. Selfcare tips for mental health and medication if required can help us lead a mentally stable life and maintain our relationships.
Mental Health Affects Everything
Our mental health affects how we cope with life. Lack of treatment leads to hopelessness and sadness, worthlessness, feeling guilty, anxiety and worry, fear, and loss of control.
Our relationships may suffer. Our performance in any situation such as school or work may decline. Withdrawal and isolation may happen.
We may also lose interest in things we once enjoyed. Task completion and time management may fall apart. It may also become difficult for us to concentrate, or one may have rumination and focus on cleaning or organizing.
Our relationship with food may change. We may have ups and downs, and racing thoughts can happen more often.
Life may become overwhelming. If we are having severe mental health issues, we may start to lose touch with reality and even hear voices.
Self-harm may happen. Destructive patterns such as alcohol and drug use may strike, and suicidal ideations may be the final result. Overall, things will fall apart if we don’t take mental health seriously.
Mental Health Awareness Can Help in Curbing Suicide Rates
As per a study by the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), it was found that 46 % of the people who die by suicide had a known mental health condition. Another study by the U.S Department of Health & Human Services also revealed that about 60 percent of the people who committed suicide likely had a mood disorder such as major depression, bipolar disorder, or dysthymia. This goes to prove the link between mental health and suicide and how timely medical intervention and self-care can help reduce the number of deaths by suicide. It is essential to follow tips to stay mentally healthy ourselves and look out for the mental wellbeing of those around us at all times.
Mental Health is linked with Crime and Victimization
As per some studies, poor mental health puts one at an increased risk of committing violent crimes. It also leads to self-victimization and abuse. This risk is further substantiated if the individual consumes drugs and alcohol and is averse to taking medication. In most cases, crimes by mentally unfit persons are committed against family members or those within their close circles. Seeking tips for mental health from a medical professional and understanding why is mental health important can help in avoiding such scenarios.
Reasons Why Mental Health Is So Important in Schools
Suicide & Mental Illnesses
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death ages 10-25, world-wide. In addition, most of the people who have committed suicide, have suffered from a mental illness.
To lower the increasing suicide rate and prevent young people from taking their own lives away, we need to raise awareness about mental health in our schools.
Learning about mental health illnesses will leave a positive impact on the students struggling:
- they’ll learn about therapy and how to treat their problem
- they’ll be more ready to talk about it
- they’ll acknowledge that they have a problem
All of the above will hopefully lower the suicide rate and offer young people a solution other than ending their life.
Eliminating the Cause
While it’s important to learn about the negative effects of mental health issues, and how to treat them, it’s also important to learn about the main causes.
Learning about the causes of stress, depression, or anxiety is important and the school can be a major trigger for most students experiencing mental health issues.
Students feel stressed out due to:
- school pressure
- peer pressure
- bullying at school
- overly strict teachers
- too much workload
- the pressure to have high grades
If everyone in school knew what stressed out the students the most, they would find a way to eliminate these stress factors and create a warmer and relaxing atmosphere at school.
