Top Tips for Positive Mental Health
Staying mentally healthy isn't just about treating illness – far from it! There are lots of things we can do to help prevent ourselves getting ill in the first place, and plenty more we can try if we (or those around us) do encounter problems.
So, to get you started, we've put together these Top Tips for Positive Mental Health. Don't keep them under your hat either – tell your family, friends and colleagues. Everyone should know this stuff!
Talk about your feelings
Write it down
Keep active
Eat well
Sleep well
Drink sensibly
Keep in touch with friends and loved ones
Get the knowledge, take control
Get professional help
Look beyond drug therapies
Change the scene
Time for another cuppa?
Hold that thought
Go for green
Let there be light
Listen up!
Improve your coping skills
Set realistic goals
Keep an eye on personal stress
Three good things...
Get involved
The long way
Find a hobby
Do good
Ask for help
Talk about your feelings
Sharing your feelings with others and being listened to can help enormously.
The very act of trying to put how we feel into words makes us think more clearly about a situation and can help cut the problem down to size.
If there's nobody you feel you can turn to, call or email a helpline. By talking to others, we can get fresh perspectives on what's happening to us – something that's usually in short supply if we're feeling the effects of mental health problems.
If we talk to someone about what's happening, they might have useful suggestions about where to go for help or support.
If not, even just the knowledge that someone else has tried to understand can go a long way towards helping us feel better.
Write it down
Putting whatever is troubling us into words can help us to think more clearly and cut problems down to size.
Some organisations (e.g. Samaritans and Childline) run email helplines – great for those of us who find talking difficult.
Lots of people find that keeping a record of thoughts and feelings is useful in helping to understand how their mental wellbeing changes over time.
It's also useful, given the short time doctors usually have to see us, to write down what's wrong beforehand, as it can help make sure we give them the right information.
Keep active
Physical activity is a proven way to keep mentally well. Exercise makes us feel better immediately through the release of uplifting chemicals into our bodies.
Even just half an hour's brisk walk every other day can make all the difference. Joining a gym or taking up a sport are also great ways to meet new people and to see new places and things. For more information on exercise and mental health, visit the website of the Mental Health Foundation.
Eat well
A balanced diet is essential to maintaining good mental health. A growing body of research shows direct links between what we eat and how we feel.
Mind, the mental health charity, has produced a useful guide to mood and food. For more information, visit Mind's website.
Sleep well
Apart from making you feel tired, overwrought and run down, not getting enough sleep makes us more prone to
Mental Health Problems:
Mental Health Problems arise when a problem, life event or situation, disrupts the way we think and feel. This can either be temporary – for example, following a bereavement – or be more enduring. Mental health problems can include suffering stress, constant worrying…
Aim for eight hours shut-eye every night. Not only will you feel the benefits, but your skin will see them too.
Drink sensibly
Even though it might make us feel good in the short term, alcohol is a depressant drug.
Even a small amount of alcohol before bed stops us getting enough deep sleep to feel properly refreshed – and the world never looks good through a hangover.
Avoiding too much alcohol is crucial for both our mental and physical health, but particularly when we're feeling low or anxious.
Keep in touch with friends and loved ones
Close relationships have a huge impact on how we feel on a daily basis. A phone call, a couple of emails or a few texts, can help us feel connected to those we love. Or why not meet up for a quick tea or coffee?
For people who are depressed or feeling low, regular social contact can make all the difference – but don't wait for them to get in touch with you.
Even just lifting the phone can be incredibly hard for someone in a low mood. However, the support that person will feel following that phone call, email or text, are well worth the effort.
Get the knowledge, take control
If you or someone you know has just been given a diagnosis of a
Mental Illness:
Mental Illness refers to a diagnosable illness that significantly interferes with a person's ability to conduct the tasks needed for day-to-day living. This includes mental tasks, their emotional abilities, and those needed to interact with others. The more common mental illnesses are…
Finding out about the illness from books, the Internet, and support groups increases our knowledge, puts us more in control and helps reduce our Anxiety:
Anxiety is a common problem experienced by around one in ten of the population. It has many symptoms and different people experience…
Knowing that others have faced the same problems and recovered can be a great relief. Learning how others have coped can help us to do the same.
Gathering information also allows us to explore the different treatments and therapies that are available and decide how we want to move forward.
Get Professional Help
Everyone can feel low, anxious or unable to cope from time to time. They're all normal responses to life's challenges.
However, if these feelings go on for more than a couple of weeks, we should seek professional support.
See your GP and be clear about how you feel. It can be hard to express ourselves properly in the short time doctors have to see us. Write down what you want to say before you go. Remember to ask what's available in addition to, or instead of
Drug Treatments:
Many different effective treatments are now available. Newer drugs often have fewer side effects. Drug treatments can take several weeks to take effect. People often have to try different drugs before finding the one that works best for them.
Asking for help is a sign of strength and can be the first step to solving a problem.
Look beyond drug therapies
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT):
CBT is concerned with how people think and react in certain situations and is seen as the most effective 'psychological intervention'. It is not a 'talking therapy' like counselling. CBT uses a series of…
Not just a "bad mood", depression is all-pervasive, goes on for more than a few days and affects the day-to-day life of a person. Depression is the most common mental illness and is experienced by around one in six of the population at some time. Symptoms can include…
Panic Disorder:
A person with a panic disorder has panic attacks and is afraid that a panic attack might occur. A panic attack is a sudden onset of intense apprehension, fear or terror. These attacks can begin suddenly and develop rapidly. Symptoms…
Anxiety is a common problem experienced by around one in ten of the population. It has many symptoms and different people experience…
See Anorexia, Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia.
Talking therapies (councelling) can be useful in helping people to work through their problems.
Light therapy is proven to be effective against 'winter blues' and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of mood disorder caused by changing hours of daylight across the year. Exposure to strong daylight helps regulate our mood and sleep patterns. Lack of daylight during the winter months can cause the low mood often referred to as 'winter blues'…
Lifestyle changes, such as taking more exercise, increasing social contact, improving diet, and spending more time outdoors can also do a lot to improve our mental wellbeing.
To find a counsellor or therapist, contact the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, or Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland.
Change the scene
When we're anxious or depressed, it's easy to end up in 'stewing' in the same place for long periods. Try moving to a different room for a while or, even better, go out for a walk or meet a friend.
A change of scene can help improve our mood, clear our heads and make it easier to see negative or troublesome thoughts for what they are.
Time for another cuppa?
Maybe not! Tea, coffee, cola, other soft drinks and some 'tonic' wines contain caffeine – a powerful stimulant drug related to amphetamine and cocaine. Even 'decaffeinated' teas and coffees are not caffeine-free.
Too much caffeine can cause agitation, make it difficult to get enough sleep and can contribute to Panic Disorder:
A person with a panic disorder has panic attacks and is afraid that a panic attack might occur. A panic attack is a sudden onset of intense apprehension, fear or terror. These attacks can begin suddenly and develop rapidly. Symptoms…
If you're feeling anxious, 'keyed-up', or can't sleep properly, try reducing your caffeine intake or cutting it out altogether for a while.
Hold that thought
Certain patterns of thinking are linked to mental health problems. Whether unhelpful thoughts are the cause of feeling bad, or vice versa, doesn't really matter.
What's important is the fact that if we change our thinking, our mood changes with it. This effect can help protect us from mental illness and, when used in the right way, can be used to treat some illnesses such as mild to moderate Depression:
Not just a "bad mood", depression is all-pervasive, goes on for more than a few days and affects the day-to-day life of a person. Depression is the most common mental illness and is experienced by around one in six of the population at some time. Symptoms can include…
Anxiety is a common problem experienced by around one in ten of the population. It has many symptoms and different people experience…
A person with a panic disorder has panic attacks and is afraid that a panic attack might occur. A panic attack is a sudden onset of intense apprehension, fear or terror. These attacks can begin suddenly and develop rapidly. Symptoms…
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT):
CBT is concerned with how people think and react in certain situations and is seen as the most effective 'psychological intervention'. It is not a 'talking therapy' like counselling. CBT uses a series of…
Alternatively, ask your GP about CBT or contact the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, or Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland to find a practitioner near you.
Go for green
Spending time outdoors in green spaces is calming and helps lift mood. Research has also suggested that people in hospital wards with country views get better more quickly and need less pain-killing drugs.
Get out for a walk or a cycle, or do a spot of gardening. No garden of your own? Local conservation projects and community gardens are always looking for new volunteers. Or, you could join a cycling or running club (look in Yellow Pages or ask at your local volunteer centre).
You could get more green-time if you change your daily routine – take a detour through the park on the way to work, for example. The point about the benefits of the great outdoors, is that to get the full effect you actually have to be out in it, not just looking out at it.
Go on – get out and feel the wind on your face for a while!
Let there be light
Exposure to the full, broad-spectrum light found outdoors during the daytime helps us sleep better and wards off 'winter blues' and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of mood disorder caused by changing hours of daylight across the year. Exposure to strong daylight helps regulate our mood and sleep patterns. Lack of daylight during the winter months can cause the low mood often referred to as 'winter blues'…
Even just getting short periods of strong daylight every day can make all the difference, but this is a tall order for anyone working indoors during our dark Scottish winters.
Luckily, sitting in front of the right kind of electric light is just as effective. Ask at large pharmacies or medical suppliers about light therapy boxes. A proper light therapy box is needed, because the brightness required is far greater than that of normal indoor lighting and is a slightly different colour.
Listen up!
Nobody enjoys watching someone they're close to going through a difficult time. But what can you do about it?
Often, the very best help a friend can give is simply to encourage them to talk and then listen in a supportive way. Try not to interrupt too much and don't feel that you have to give advice or try to solve their problems for them.
Do give gentle encouragement for them to seek appropriate help. Listening to other people's problems can make us feel better about our own lives too.
Improve your coping skills
If we rely too heavily on one or two methods of coping in difficult times, we can find ourselves in trouble if we suddenly can't use them (e.g. an injury might stop us from taking exercise).
Some common coping strategies – like drinking, abusing drugs or harming ourselves – may bring moments of relief, but are not consistent or healthy ways to cope in the longterm.
Learn to relax, control breathing, combat negative thoughts, change your diet, meditate, exercise, do yoga, think through problems, talk and share worries – the list is endless. The more different ways of coping we're able to turn to, the better.
Set realistic goals
Rome wasn't built in a day. Even the most ambitious and complex tasks can be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Setting realistic, achievable goals is a good way of keeping spirits up and keeping moving forward. Write down what they are and when you hope to have them completed.
Don't feel bad if you have to change your plans along the way as long as you're clear on the reasons why. Remember to congratulate yourself every time a goal is reached!
Keep an eye on personal stress
Some pressure is unavoidable – and some can be motivating – but Stress:
To have some pressure in our lives is normal and, indeed, unavoidable! Stress is the name given to what happens when pressure becomes excessive and exceeds the individual's ability to cope. Stress damages physical and mental health and can be a trigger for…
If you find you're not sleeping, becoming ill-tempered, having difficulty concentrating, worrying a lot, eating a lot more or a lot less, or feeling 'on edge' all the time then you should take a step back and consider how much pressure you are under.
See what you can do to remove or reduce sources of pressure in your life. Meanwhile, deal with the effects of stress by relaxing more and using other, positive coping methods.
Three good things...
Keep some paper and a pen by your bedside and every night for a week write down three good things that happened to you that day.
By the end of the week you may be surprised at how much more positive you feel. Some psychologists say that it's human nature to focus on the negative aspects of our lives.
What this technique helps to do is re-educate us to pay attention to the good and positive things in our lives.
Get involved
Don't stand on the sidelines! Find a way to get involved and make a contribution, however little, at home, at work or in the community. People are often happiest when helping others.
The long way
Modern life gives us many short cuts to pleasure (convenience food, microwaves, computer games etc) that save us time and give us short-term gratification.
But what are we saving all this time for? Try doing things the long way round. Cooking a meal from scratch can be creative and therapeutic with a rewarding end result.
The sense of achievement and satisfaction gained from this task will make you feel good about yourself.
Find a hobby
Learning a new skill, or doing something active or creative, will boost your self-confidence and could take your mind off your worries. Hobbies can also be a great way of meeting new people.
Do good
Do something to help someone else. Random acts of kindness help others but also make us feel good and the effects stay with us. We are often happiest when doing something for others.
Ask for help
Anyone can feel low or get depressed so, if you need help, don't be afraid to ask. Seeking help early is the best course of action to help prevent a problem getting worse. Asking for help is a sign of strength and responsibility, not weakness.
Open your ears to music
Music has the power to relax, stimulate and elevate mood. By relaxing us, it can promote deeper, more restful sleep. Hearing uplifting music when we wake up in the morning can keep us in good spirits throughout the day.
Hearing certain songs can also have a profound effect on our emotions by reminding us of special events or people.
Music can also be very sociable. Going out with dancing with friends or relaxing with a favourite CD can improve our mood and help us feel connected.
These effects of music and aren't just interesting quirks. Every day, Music Therapists working in the NHS use music to help improve people's quality of life and wellbeing.
For more information on music therapy, visit the website of the British Society for Music Therapy. But you don't need to see a Music Therapist to get the benefits.
So, go and dig out that favourite old tape, relax to some classics on the radio or get out your air guitar and practice those scissor kicks!
Click here to find out how to get help now.
View or download the current copy of Well? magazine, join the mailing list, browse our archive.
Living with Bipolar Disorder (manic depression) Jemma tells it how it is. Updated weekly.
Let us know what you think of Jemma's Diary, email us at wellscotland@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Real life stories of living with, recovering from and caring for people with mental illness.
