INTRODUCTION TO MENTAL HEALTH

Mental health is about how we feel, think, and act. It affects how we handle stress, connect with others, and make choices. Just like taking care of our bodies, it's important to look after our mental well-being too. At every stage of life, from when we're babies to when we're grown up, our mental health matters a lot. It doesn't just affect us, but also the people close to us. It's crucial because it touches every part of our lives, like our relationships, social life and how well we do our jobs.
Taking care of our mental health helps us to be flexible, and strong, and understand ourselves better. Feeling calm and peaceful is something we all need for a good life. We have to watch out for negative thoughts and make sure they don't take over, so we can avoid mental health problems. Stress can really mess with our mental health. It can make us feel really bad and stop us from thinking positively.







DISORDERS ASSOCIATED WITH MENTAL HEALTH 

Mental health disorders are defined as any clinical significant disturbance in and individual's emotional regulation or behaviour. This may generally include mental disorders, psycho-social disabilities, and other mental states which are associated with no proper functioning of the brain and may increase the risk of self harm.
According to WHO 1 in every 8 people have mental health problems. 



Disorders associated with mental health majorly include:

ANXIETY DISORDERS 

Anxiety is a mental health problem in which an individual obsesses about a future event that hasn't even happened yet but that particular individual is feeling anxious about it. Anxiety disorder itself is a group of multiple disorders including Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and compulsive Disorder (OCD) it may include social phobias as well as panic disorders.
But it is also necessary to understand that sometimes feeling anxious is fine as humans we all experience nervousness at some point of time in our lives while going through difficult situations and it is totally normal that doesn't mean that we have a mental disorder.

BIPOLAR DISORDER 

Bipolar disorder is considered a mood disorder in which patients are experiencing 2 extremes either they are experiencing extreme levels of excitement and happiness (mania) or they are in a depressive mood not being able to feel any kind of joy. These kinds of unusual shifts in mood may lead uncomfortable environment for other people as well resulting in the feeling of being left out by that particular patient and worsening their condition.
DEPRESSION 

Depression is one of the most common issues that people in our society face having any kind of trauma in the past leads to depression whether it is childhood trauma or any unfortunate incident. Individuals who are facing this problem are unable to celebrate or have joyful experiences the feeling of being excited is somewhat lost and patients of depression isolate themselves as they are stuck in the past and they don't want to move on from that.

EATING DISORDER 

An eating disorder refers to a mental health condition in which an individual has irregular eating patterns that are harmful to both physical and mental well-being. They are often associated with intense emotions, attitudes and even harmful addiction to lose weight which may lead to severe consequences.
Anorexia  (fear of eating) and binge eating (obsessively eating) are the more prevalent eating disorders. People struggling with eating disorders are mostly insecure about their bodies, irrespective of all the good compliments they get from other people they don't consider it and are still insecure about how they look.

 POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER 

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental condition in which an individual experiences fear due to some kind of past trauma or an event. Typically these traumas involve life-threatening situations or some kind of serious harm. This affects mental health really bad and it can be shown in various symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, ignoring and isolating resulting in adverse impacts on daily life a well-being.

PARANOIA 

Paranoia is a mental health condition in which the feeling of fear and danger dominates over every other feeling of well-being, it is a psychological effect that someone is watching over or keeping an eye which is not even true. It is not just about feelings of fear or danger it is also about unrealistic problems and worries that don't even exist and keep bothering and affecting the life of a well-being.

PSYCHOSIS 

Psychosis is a mental health issue where an individual becomes disconnected from reality. They may have hallucinations, seeing or hearing things that aren't real and delusions, which are false beliefs that don't change even when shown evidence against them. Psychosis can be caused by other mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, substance abuse or certain medical conditions.

SCHIZOPHRENIA 

Schizophrenia is a serious, long-term mental health condition marked by disturbance in normal functioning of mental processes. Individuals with schizophrenia often encounter hallucinations, which involve seeing or hearing things that aren't real, and delusions, which are false beliefs despite there is no evidence. These people struggle in talking to other people. 


ALLEVIATING MENTAL HEALTH  ISSUES 



It is very important to overcome any kind of mental health issue faced by an individual in order to bring peace to life. For this purpose not only medication is required but lifestyle modification. It is challenging for individuals to change their thinking and alter negative thoughts following any unfortunate incident. Therefore, it may be difficult for those around them to support these individuals in overcoming such situations. Other than medication there are multiple treatment targets which include;
Psychotherapy is one of the ways by seeking professional help mental health can be improved.
Adjusting of the environment by surrounding yourself with people who are supportive like friends and family or joining a support group.
Engaging yourself in physical activities like different sports or walks will lead to increased and more comfortable socializing. 
Self care rituals should be considered like engaging yourself in things you like or what you are comfortable with. 
These are some lifestyle modifications that can improve the condition of an individual suffering from any mental health issue.