Every Day Is Mental Health Awareness Day – Zarah Gaffar, GGS

Mental health; a person’s condition with regard to their psychological, emotional and social well-being.  

A person’s mental health can affect many factors, from the way they interact in day-to-day life to the way they cope with things such as stress and anxiety. Mental health can sometimes have negative impacts if someone cannot cope with theirs. 

Mental health is an integral part of our life from the moment we enter and leave this world. Mental health awareness is key as it makes people aware of the ways they can cope with their own mental health and how to adjust to it rather than it have a hold over their life. Mental health awareness also allows others to simply learn about the impact it has on a person and what they can do as individuals to help those they know that suffer with it. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that mental health cannot always be identified immediately as it is something that affects a person mentally but can lead to impacting their physical and social well – being. 

Types of mental health 

A few examples of mental health are: 

Bipolar disorder – causes extreme mood swings 

Schizophrenia – hallucinations, delusions, muddle thoughts and many more factors and side affects 

Personality disorder – affects the way feel, behave and think 

Depression – low mood that can last a long time or keep returning, affecting your everyday life and could contribute to other disorders 

Social anxiety – overwhelming fear of social interactions, such as meeting and speaking to people 

Few ways to improve your mental well – being 

1. Look after your physical health by staying active. A simple 60 minutes of actively bettering your health by either doing workouts, going on walks or jogs could make you feel better as it will release endorphins in your body keeping you energised. By doing exercise and remaining physically active helps manage stress and anxiety levels. 

2. Mindfulness. This allows you to be present in the moment allowing us to be more relaxed and aware. This also helps manage emotions and to prevent becoming too overwhelmed. Examples of creating mindful atmosphere is by doing this such as yoga, meditating or breathing exercises. 

3. Journaling. By writing down the things you appreciate or the simple act of scribbling down your emotions can help release built up stress. A journal does not have to be like everyone else’s, it is customised with each individuals own thoughts and emotions with no limits.