Mental Health: 7 - The Missing Step

This week’s response focuses on what the respondent claims is a step missing in the path to better mental health.

“Everyone talks about mental health and ways to improve. We are told to exercise, eat well, sleep and an array of other things but there is one thing missing. Before we can adopt new, more positive habits, we have to acknowledge and identify our bad habits – the ones that actually lead to the stress and anxiety.

We create these habits because, at the time, they give some sense of relief but in the long-run they just make anxiety and stress worse. Often times they exist as a trigger, a reaction and a result. Like for me, I might feel unmotivated doing college work so I decide to watch Netflix as a break. I then watch it for far too long and don’t get enough work done and stress out because, well, I haven’t gotten enough work done! It doesn’t even need to be Netflix, it could be anything. Feel anxious? Maybe I’ll eat something sweet to distract myself from those feelings, only to feel guilty later on.

Not everyone will experience these specific examples and everyone is different. Some people won’t care about a few sweets and other people will care way too much. The trigger could be something as simple as a feeling of anxiety and the reaction to worry, which then leads to more anxiety! The point is that we all have these little triggers that lead us to fall into unhealthy routines that don’t help with feelings of anxiety or stress. It’s important we actually identify these before we try to create new ones.

Once we become aware of our bad habits we can actually analyse them. I noticed how feeling unmotivated caused me to want to lie down and laze. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes this still happen but it happens less since I noticed my tendency to do it and how much worse I felt going to bed that night when I’d realise how little I’d done. I notice the annoyance I felt at night and blame I’d put on myself. But once I started taking note of all of this, I stopped going to watch Netflix or going downstairs for a few sweets only to be distracted because I had identified the mechanism. I knew the trigger and my usual reaction and I knew how I’d feel if I procrastinated all day.

This leads me to the final step. Now that I had identified a trigger, reaction and result, I could stop it and adopt new habits. Now when I feel unmotivated I set a timer for ten minutes and go outside for some fresh air and then come back in and try to get into my study again. Instead of simply worrying when I feel particularly stressed or anxious, I try not to let myself slip into a flurry of worry. I do something to clear my head instead, like going for a run or a walk or listening to music or a podcast.

So, if anyone is like me and knows all of these tips and routines that can improve mental health, but can’t seem to implement them, then I think you should try to take note of when you have negative feelings, identify what could have triggered those feelings, your usual reaction to those feelings, and how you feel after this reaction. Once you’ve actually taken note of what you’re doing wrong, it becomes easier to do the things that are right.”

Tá laethanta níos ghile romhainn.