10 Facts About Mental Health
The mental health week is usually one where people are reminded about their mental health and well-being but this should not be as maintaining your mental health is crucial to your personal growth in life. Here are some 10 facts about mental health you should know.
Your mental health is a sum total of your psychological and emotional well being.
The status of your mental health/well being is not something to be ashamed of but rather should be talked about and shared as talking and sharing will go a long way to helping you cope.
10 Facts About Mental Health: What Is Mental Health?
Mental health is a sum total of your psychological and behavioral well being. It is a person’s condition as regards their psychological and emotional well being. Simply put, mental health is an absence of mental illnesses.
Hiding Mental Health Status
I think striking a balance between your psychological and emotional well being could be difficult if one is being faced with a lot of personal issues but it is ideal you do. Your mental health and well being will ultimately determine the quality of life you live.
Years ago, while at the university, I used the services of a male stylist who was so gifted and talented, the way he ended shook the town where I lived.
There was no hairstyle this guy couldn’t handle. The babes that were the creme de la creme of the town, lined up to have their hair done by him. He was always fully booked and you are lucky if you go without an appointment and you get attended to. He was that good.
Monday (that was his name), was a jovial, fast-talking smallish guy. Aside from being a great hairstylist, he was also a good joker. He would make clients laugh nonstop (well unless you are the type that is difficult to please lol). The time just goes and then voila, you are all done and looking all glam!
I felt the guy had everything going well for him, his life mapped out with him going high and mighty places with his talent and good relation skills or so I thought not until I went home from a school holiday and was told he died by suicide! He hung himself! On a ceiling fan!
It was inexplicable and so sad. His death was discussed along the breadth and length of the town, and of course, even those that didn’t know him nor have any personal contacts with him whatsoever, had one or two, two cents juicy stories to tell!
The long and short of the whole sad incident was that Monday had some psychological and emotional problems that led to him taking his own life. Rather than seek help, he took an alternative route!
Don’t go there. Please! Your life is worth more than any issues you are going through right now. It is a phase and it will pass. Trust me!
Early Signs of Mental Disorders
Sadly though, suicidal thoughts and suicide are one of the common problems of people suffering from one form or the other.
Early warning signs of mental disorders include the following: eating or sleeping too much or too little, thoughts of harming oneself and others, abuse of drugs and alcohol, hearing voices in your head, feeling numb and like as if nothing matters, severe mood swings, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness to mention but a few.
Importance Of Mental Health
The importance of mental health cannot be overemphasized. Seeing as it involves our emotional, psychological, and social well being, it affects how we think, feel, and act.
The level of our mental health determines how we react to situations and the choices we make in life.
This is why it is important to strike a balance so as to maintain mental health at all times.
10 Facts About Mental Health
The World Health Organization (WHO) has extensively researched the issue of mental health and have come up with facts associated with it. These facts are built around the leading causes of mental illness as well as its effects.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 1: 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have mental disorders or problems. Now that is a huge percent of the population to be worried about! Half of the mental disorders begin before the age of 14 according to WHO stats.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 2: Mental and substance use disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide.Your mental health is crucial to achieving your goals and living the life you deserve! Click To Tweet
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 3: About 800,000 people die by suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among persons between the ages of 15 and 29. Mental disorders play a huge role in these statistics.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 4: War and disaster have a large impact on mental health and psychosocial well being. This, therefore, mean that war-torn countries have a higher rate of mental illnesses in relation to where there is peace.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 5: Mental disorders are important risk factors for other diseases as well as unintentional and intentional injury. What this means that mental disorders increase the risk of getting ill from other diseases such as HIV, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and vice versa.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 6: Stigma and discrimination against patients and families prevent people from seeking mental health care. Despite the existence of treatment for mental disorders, there’s a general misunderstanding that they are untreatable. This has led to a general stigma on people with mental disorders. Stigmatization can lead to abuse, rejection, and isolation thereby complicating issues, further.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 7: Human rights violations of people with mental and psychosocial disabilities are routinely reported in most countries. Very few countries have a legal framework that adequately protects the rights of people with mental disorders.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 8: Globally, there is a huge inequality in the distribution of skilled human resources for mental health. Shortages of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and social workers are amongst the barriers to providing treatment in low and middle-income countries
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 9: There are 5 key barriers to increasing mental health services. These barriers include the absence of mental health from the public health agenda & implication for funding, the current organization of mental health services, lack of integration within primary care, inadequate human resources for mental health, and lack of public mental health leadership.
- Mental Health Facts: Fact 10: Financial resources to increase services are relatively modest.
What To Do About Your Mental Health
Dealing and ensuring that you continually ensure a positive mental health status involves a combination of lifestyle changes. These could include but not limited to the following:
- Getting professional help if you need it. Often times, we want to bottle up a lot of things inside of us instead of speaking out and this ultimately leads to stress and affects our mental well being. When you think you are experiencing any form of mental health challenges, seek help! Doctors can point you towards the right medication that can help reduce certain symptoms of anxiety which can give you the clarity to focus on fixing the deep-rooted issues underneath. Especially as it’s now easy to have medication delivered to your door with online pharmacies it doesn’t have to feel like a major derailment of your life (although when it comes to online pharmacies, you should check the legitimacy by following this guide). People feel they shouldn’t go to the doctor because they may be put on all sorts of medication, but the fact is that it can help you to gain some clarity.
- Connecting with others. For a while now, I prefer my own company but that in itself can be injurious to health. No one is an island, it is not the way of things. Constantly connect with people. Of course, on a positive level.
- Keeping it positive at all times. Look up, look ahead. Try as much as possible to take the positives out of every situation. This helps you to be balanced. I did a whole blog post on positive daily affirmations that you can read HERE to help you with this. Here are some powerful self-love affirmations to help you practice self love and love yourself more.
- Getting enough sleep. For someone like me that has insomnia, this is not a small feat but I do and practice a number of things to make me get enough sleep. Sleep is good for the mind and is essential to have positive mental health.
- Getting physically active. I have recently started exercising again and it is a good feeling. You always feel good after a very good workout session and its relevance to your mental health cannot be overemphasized.
- Helping others. I cannot advocate for this enough. What the world need is love and one way you can show love is by helping others. This is one of those things you do that gives you a perpetual feeling of goodness deep inside of you. You know what translates to. Positive mental health.
- Development of coping skills. One of the big culprits of mental disorder is stress and stress usually happens when we do not have coping skills to deal with things happening around us. Look for things that you can do, that will relieve you of stress. My blog post on Stress Management will give you great insight on how to manage stress and ultimately help you maintain positive mental health status.
To further protect your mental health and well-being, check out these self-care blog posts to help you on the journey
30 Powerful Ways To Improve Your Mental Health And Well-being
101 Powerful Affirmations: Your Ultimate Guide To A Superb Life!
10 Good Habits That Will Completely Transform Your Life!
Amazing Ways to Simplify Your Life
5 Positive Affirmations That Will Change Your Life
Conclusion: 10 Facts About Mental Health You Should Know
There you have it. 10 facts about mental health and what to do about mental health. Your mental health and well-being plays a crucial role in your personal growth and development and it is thus imperative that you try and maintain it as you age.
How do you strike a balance that works for your mental health? Please share your tips on maintaining positive mental health. I look forward to hearing from you! Don’t forget to share! Thank you!
Kinging Queen
Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional. Information contained herein and indeed on my website are all written from a purely personal angle. Read my privacy and disclaimer policies!Â
Hi, my name is Jennifer. I am an Engineer by day and a blogger 24/7. I am passionate about Self Improvement & Productivity and this blog is dedicated to that passion! I hope you find it worthwhile each time you visit! If you do find anything helpful on here, kindly share because sharing is caring!
Howdy! I realize this is kind of off-topic but I had to ask. Does operating a well-established website such as yours require a lot of work? I’m brand new to operating a blog but I do write in my diary on a daily basis. I’d like to start a blog so I will be able to share my own experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any ideas or tips for new aspiring blog owners. Appreciate it!|
You made some really good points there. I looked on the net to find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this site.
I think this topic needs to be more out in the open. Too many people are suffering without hope or an outlet.
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Absolutely right! We need to talk about this more!
Mental health is an important topic to look at and this is really helpful thank you for sharing
Author
You are welcome and thanks for taking the time to read!
Author
The stats speak and I hope more gets done about mental health (actually there is lots of work ongoing). The world needs a lot of healing!
very interesting article thanks for sharing
Author
Thanks and you are welcome
Thank you for this post! Number 6 is so spot on. I personally wish our health care system allowed for a mental health check-up the way it allows for other routine doctor checkups. It is okay to talk to somebody, but the stigma in our society does quite often prevent it. Back in the day the pastor/priest/father of the church in small-town communities often acted as a counselor, and it was okay to speak with him! Just the simple act of getting supportive listening is very helpful.
Author
Ashley, I feel you because, from your comments alone, I can see this is a topic close to your heart! Yes, having a supportive friend and listener helps a great deal and a pastor would fit into that description. Health care systems need more trained persons on mental health/issues and that is where mental health check-ups will now factor in. There is a lot going on about mental health and I believe things will get progressively better!
Great tips on how to find help if you need it and the impact it can have on you if you don’t get the help you need.
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Thanks, Samantha!
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Thanks, Tiffany! Yes I do agree it is an important topic and thanks for finding time to read!
HI Jennifer,
Mental health is such a taboo subject for so many people yet it affects our lives in every way. I am a firm believer in body, mind, & spirit all work together and one is not well – nothing in our body can function to our fullest. We seem to shy away from talking about it and seemed to be ashamed of any trpe of mental issues or problem but yet when someone is sick otherwise its accepted without any shame. When we are sick whether mental, emotionally or physically we need help. Your article shows great insight into mental illness and is very well written. I love your tips on how manage our mental state – very insiteful and I believe they work very well for most people. Thanks for sharing. Have a healthy, happy & blessed day.
Author
Thanks, Marla for your comments. Your blog does show that you are a firm believer in the workings of the body, mind, and spirit and yes, I do agree that when one isn’t functioning well, it spells trouble. I hope we get to the point where we can openly talk about mental illnesses and problems without the fear that we will be ostracized, literally! Thanks for reading and do enjoy the rest of the week!
Such a well researched post Jennifer! What a tragic story. I sadly have lost loved ones to the same fate. The statistics are shocking aren’t they? I think your points are right on target with the sleep, exercise and especially helping others. Not only does it make you feel good , but it takes the focus off of yourself. I think that is a big issue with anxiety. It’s so easy to keep thinking about the problem or concern , but when we look outward it can take the anxiety away and shift our focus:)
Author
Thanks, Nicole. Yes, it is tragic and the statistics are shocking, to say the least! I wrote this last year and decided to repurpose it and republish it! I am sorry you have lost loved ones to mental illness! It can be daunting and yes anxiety is a big part of it. I believe there needs to be more awareness on the issue of mental health and wellbeing. It will help a lot.
Such a wonderful and well-researched post. I wasn’t aware of the fact that 20% of children and teenagers have mental health disorders! That seems like a lot more than I would have guessed after you take out generic teenage angst and feeling misunderstood. For 20% to actually medically have mental health conditions is shocking!
Thank you for sharing this and raising awareness around mental health. As an avid member of the mental health community, I thank you so, so much.
Author
Thank you Nyxie! When I was doing the research, I was also shocked by the stats. I initially set out to do something different on mental health but then when I saw the stats, I thought I should just do the facts thing you know. We all need to get the message out there as we can and thanks for reading Nyxie. I know mental health is an issue close to your heart and it shows on your blog!
It’s nice to read good comments. It makes it much more enjoyable.
Great piece, highly informative. About 800,000 people commit suicide every year? That gives me a deep thought.
Love is the key…it is integral , loving yourself and loving others in words and deeds.
As mentioned, Exercise is great; it is an antidote to some sort of depression, weight gain, sadness , mental imbalance. It should not be underestimated. At times it cures what medicine can not.
Seeing movie also helps , most especially movies that are focused on what one is going through at the moment.
Well done!
Author
Thank you! Your name didn’t show but I do appreciate your comment! Have a pleasant week!
Great piece, highly informative. About 800,000 people commit suicide every year? That gives me a deep thought.
Love is the key…it is integral , loving yourself and loving others in words and deeds.
As mentioned, Exercise is great; it is an antidote to some sort of depression, weight gain, sadness , mental imbalance. It should not be underestimated. At times it cures what medicine can not.
Seeing movie also helps , most especially movies that are focused on what one is going through at the moment.
Well done!
Author
I see it is you City. Your name didn’t appear in the initial comment. Thanks for your contribution. You are appreciated! Do have a pleasant week.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thanks a lot!
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I am glad i could take the boredom away and i hope you visit frequently! Have a fantastic weekend!
I’m really loving the theme/design of your website. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility issues? A handful of my blog visitors have complained about my site not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any recommendations to help fix this issue?
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Author
No. i did everything by myself and i am not a techie. You will do fine don’t worry. You just need to be willing to learn, makes mistakes and learn all over till you get it right
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Mental health issues are one of the every day challenges we face as humans.
Striking a balance between mental and emotional well being will help every individual in leading a fulfilled life.
Thanks for the update
This is really helpful. So many of us have friends or family members who suffer. This is a good introduction to help build understanding.
Author
Thank you James
Author
Thanks Andrea! Love is the ultimate!
Thanks for sharing this article! I personally started giving a lot more attention to my mental and physical health a few years ago, when I finally realized that I struggle with anxiety. And it wasn’t until I started reading more about it and listening to other people’s experiences online. I was tired of feeling like that and decided to implement some life changes (less drinking, exercising regularly, eating healthily, etc.). It has really helped, but I have to keep consciously making time for balance.
It was very helpful to read all of these statistics and to know that I’m not alone!
Author
You are not alone Erica. I do suffer bouts of anxiety too. You are already on the journey for balance so keep it up! Thanks for joining the conversation!
That’s a really well written and complete article. Thanks a lot for taking the time to write on such an important topic!
Author
Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments!