Mental health: what it entails and tactics to handle it.

There's a thin line between insanity and sanity...., these were the first words of my consultant when I started my psychiatry posting sometimes last year.

Mental health is really a delicate topic and everyone should be out to learn the very much he or she could learn, of course, it's not something nice to be mad.

What is Mental Health?

I know most of us will see Mental Health as anything related to madness but then, that's not all it entails.

Mental health according to WHO here is said to be;

a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.

Hence, it's safe to say that when you are not working well with your fellow human beings nor relating well with them that you are tending to mental ill-health.

Mental health is really not all about madness, there's depression, hallucination, schizophrenia and many others.

How I Survive?

It's always said that surviving is winning, hehehe.

You can't talk about survival when you don't even know what you ought to do to be on the right track, that's why I always try to attend seminars whenever I hear about the topic relating to Mental Health.

I even attended one a day before yesterday,
It was organised by the Welfare Office of my faculty, UNMSA (University of Nigeria Medical Students Association)

_{The flier used for the publicity}

These kind of seminars expose you to the necessary tips about the subject matter, Mental Health and you could also read it up from other sources on the internet atleast to know what exactly Mental Health entails.

Tactics that keeps me going

The main target of the whole tactics is never to exceed your capacity...

To always at all times do things at your own pace.

There's no do or die act on earth, so why really subject yourself to the whole lot of pressure?

_{Designed with the middle picture using Canva
The flanking Pictures are mine}

There are few strategies I put in place to always make sure my Mental health is intact, hehehe.

• Recreational activities (Music Movies Football):

I'm someone that really loves the trio I listed above.. Movies, Musics and Football.

At any point in time when it feels like I'm losing it all, I quickly jump into the train of either of them and cool myself down.
They are really good cooling acts and will always come to your aid whenever you call on them.

• Proper Planning:

This is really an underestimated act that people really needs to be placing value on.
When you organise your daily activities, it's just like you already have a mental capacity of what you can do and as such will help you avoid great deal of stress.

You are always prepared at all time for the next activity and helps you do your task in the order of their importance.

• Good Sleep:

Whenever I have a stressful day, I'll always sleep longer to help me compensate for the day's stress.

After these kind of sleeps, you always find yourself bouncing like you've been charged to 💯 and filled with energy.

Research has shown that there are many links with inadequate sleep and Mental illness also, so I really take my sleep seriously.

• Less Stress:

Stress has been depicted to be one of the major causes of mental illness so I try always to reduce the stress that comes my way to the barest minimum.

It's funny but when school stress becomes so so much for me to handle, I quickly make out time and go home thereby leaving the source of the stress😂

Just seeing my mum reduce the stress by 80% and the good food she'll cook for me take away the remaining 20%😂 (it's funny but I'm serious)

• Knowing When To Stop:

Finally, this is the last strategy of mine.
In everything I do, I always know when to stop...

Even when I'm reading a difficult topic and it seems to me like I'm just going up and down the textbook grasping nothing, I stop for a while, go out and most times gist or watch movie before coming back with a cool head.

Most people suffering from one mental illness or the other was because they really didn't know when to stop.... They kept pushing themselves until they broke their limit especially when it comes to people that developed mental illness as a result of smoking various substances.

Finally, what I will love us to take home is that just the way we meet our doctors easily when we are sick, maybe Malaria, hypertension or diabetes, we should also try and meet our psychologist and psychiatrist whenever we feel like without necessarily getting the feeling that it's an area of medicine reserved specifically for mad people.

There's no harm in calling for help at all.

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Thanks for reading through 👍