Introduction
Mental health is very important in life. As physical health is needed to stay fit and strong, mental fitness helps achieve good mental health. Individuals with good mental health can enjoy life and the environment. Individuals can learn, take risks, and try new things with better mental health.
What is Mental Health?
Mental health is important in all stages of life. It includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It may affect our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Individual needs both physical and mental health for overall health. Physical and mental health are interdependent. If physical health is affected, it may lead to mental health problems; if it is affected, it may cause physical health problems.
What Is a Mental Illness?
Mental health disorders called mental illnesses affect mood, thinking, and behaviors. Most people experience mental health concerns in their lifetime. These concerns turn to mental illness when it occurs frequently. These conditions can make a person’s life a miserable one. They may be unable to work efficiently, their relationships may be affected, etc. They cannot have a good quality of life.
What Are the Signs of Improvement in Mental Health?
There are ways to measure physical health. If someone is trying to lose weight, they can measure it using a weighing scale. But if someone is working for better mental health using ways like meditation, working out, or through therapy, there are no means or ways to measure the improvement in mental health. How does one know the ways adapted to improve mental health are working?
Some ways to help to know the improvement of mental health:
Accomplishing Goals: The person affected should be able to identify the goal. Therapists have many ways that help the person to identify the goal. If the person can achieve his goal after therapy or with any other means, at least to some extent, it is a step toward improving mental health. Achievement of goal changes the brain structure and help achieve further goals.
Reduction of Symptoms: Observing for the reduction in symptoms after adopting a way to improve mental health. The following things should be observed for improvement of mental health.
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Improvement in Sleep: Researchers have found a link between sleep and mental health. Sleep is an important tool for measuring mental health. Poor quality sleep may cause mental health problems, and at the same time, mental health problems may lead to poor sleep. Hence if any improvement is present in sleep, it is considered a measure of improvement in mental health.
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Reduction of Emotional Outbursts: When an individual notices that the outbursts he used to do before are reduced at least some number of times, this is a measure of improvement in mental health.
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Stable Appetite: People with mental health problems generally have increased or decreased appetite. If they achieve a stable appetite after adapting to improve their mental health,, it is considered an improvement present. Hence appetite is measured to check if any improvement in mental health is present.
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Less Irritable: With improvement, the individual shows patience, tolerance, and understanding towards others and the self.
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Personal Hygiene: The individual keeps up his hygiene that was generally lost during mental illness. Observing a person’s hygiene may be a tool to measure improvement in mental health.
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Hobbies and Socializing: The individual starts showing interest lost during the mental illness and starts socializing with people around him.
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Reduction in Irrational Thoughts: The individual with the therapy learns to avoid negative thoughts and improves feelings and behavior.
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Improving Self-image: The individual learns to improve his image by adopting self-talk that is kind, tolerant, and compassionate.
Having Better Boundaries: Setting boundaries for self is very important. Boundaries mean telling the other person that it is the limit they can do for another person. Learning to handle such boundaries in a significant way may be a measure to check if there is an improvement in mental health.
Having More Trust in Self: Trusting oneself is a measure for improving mental health. If a person depends on others for opinions and decision-making, and that person starts making his own decisions, then it is considered an improvement in the mental health of that person either through therapy or other means.
Increase in Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the one in which emotions are used to talk with others constructively and effectively. When an individual improves their interactions with others, it means there is an increase in emotional intelligence. This can be used as a tool to measure improvement in mental health.
Progress in Chronic Mental Health Conditions: If an individual has chronic conditions, there are ways to measure the progress in the condition.
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Assessing Episodes: If an individual is suffering from a chronic condition, after therapy, it can be measured by observing the reduction in the number of episodes or in time length of the episode.
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Assessing Healthy Behaviors: If an individual suffers from chronic conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, regular therapy and willingness to take medications every day are considered positive signs of improvement in mental health.
The individual needs to work along with therapy to improve their mental health. Mental illness is a condition like any other disease and must be treated properly.
Conclusion:
Mental health is very important in life. There is a social stigma present in society about mental illness. People need to be educated about this stigma present in society. Hence it is important to know about mental health, its disorders, and how to measure the improvement in mental health. Knowing helps an individual to seek help from a healthcare provider early. Early diagnosis gives effective treatment. This, in turn, helps achieve a good quality of life.
