YOUR MENTAL HEALTH GAUGE

Mental health issues can be debilitating when they occur, so we need to do what we can to keep our hearts and minds healthy. This lets us face life’s challenges head-on, whilst maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships with those around us.

DO YOU KEEP TRACK?

A lot of people do not actually take time to review their mental health status, and see if there is anything they need to do to improve how they manage stress.

We may be aware that we feel sad about something or that our mood isn’t as good as it used to be, but we tend to not delve deeper into it than that. I think that the reason for this is a lot of us do not understand just how important our mental health really is.

We take our mental health for granted, focusing on any physical ailments we may have, and assume that our minds will take care of themselves and ‘reset’ back to our baseline state once we go on holiday or take some time off. We don’t bother to check in with ourselves, and keep chugging along until something drastic happens and triggers the need for a serious review and change.

Just think about it for a moment - when was the last time that you sat down to take stock of your emotional and mental health?

THE GAUGE MODEL

I like to think of mental health as being a bar gauge, with green, orange and red parts. You can think of this as your ‘Mental Health Gauge’. We all start out in the green area, where we’re very mentally healthy and have healthy mood changes. We’re resilient to the challenges that life throws our way because we find ourselves able to cope well with any changes in our lives.

However, as the stresses of our daily lives cause us stress, our ‘Mental Health Gauge’ slowly gets depleted. When we stray into the ‘Orange Zone’, we may start to notice some changes in ourselves - our mood may be low, we may become very irritable, we find ourselves always tired, or have insomnia, or we may start having non-specific minor medical complaints like frequent headaches or becoming forgetful.

These are all warning signs that there is something wrong in our bodies - and when these problems are persistent despite seeing a medical professional and trying some medications, it may actually be time for us to examine our mental health state!

The ‘Orange Zone’ serves as a buffer. When we stray into this zone, we need to make corrective adjustments to our lifestyles, before we hit the ‘Red Zone’, where our poor mental health can have dire consequences on our health and daily function.

The dreaded ‘Red Zone’ is most definitely where we do not want to find ourselves in. This part of the gauge indicates when we have used up all of our mental health ‘reserves’, and are more or less simply reacting (or trying to react) to what is going on around us, and to us. Every stressful event seems to deal a significant blow to our mood, and it is common for us to have emotional outbursts in this stage.

We may lose our temper with others over minor issues, and let our anger outbursts escalate quickly to shouting or even physical violence. On the other hand, some people may actually tend more towards physical signs of extreme sadness, with frequent crying episodes, or a persistently apathetic demeanour.

The very worst thing that can happen when we are in the ‘Red Zone’ is that we become a danger to ourselves. People sometimes turn to self-harm as a tool to vent their anger and frustration with life, and self-harm acts like cutting themselves or engaging in risky social behaviour (such as binge-drinking, or becoming sexually promiscuous) can be dangerous.

At the extreme of such behaviours lies the risk of suicide - some people may sometimes see no way to improve their lives, and feel hopeless and lost in their lives.

At this point, such people need time off from their stressors, professional medical help, and the love and support of their friends and families to get them back up on their feet.

EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT

Everyone is different. Everyone has their own unique set of limits. Everyone’s ‘mental health gauge’ is different.

What may not bother someone may actually cause you a lot of distress. There isn’t anything to be ashamed of - you are simply different from the people around you, and that’s alright. Oftentimes, people use themselves as a gauge - if they can do something, everyone else should be able to as well.

This is plain WRONG. You cope differently from others, and that’s just the simple truth of it.

So don’t feel pressured to keep up with the people around you. Society tries to make life a race to the finish line, but forgets that everyone goes at a slightly different pace. Just do the best you can, and recognise that your breaking point may be different from that of others.

RECOGNISE THE

WARNING SIGNS

The whole point of having your own ‘mental health gauge’ is to realise when you are approaching a breaking point in your stress and mood levels, so that you can take corrective action, and avoid a mental breakdown.

If you are feeling more stressed than normal, or are more prone to episodes of low and depressed mood swings, take time regularly to assess yourself.

You can try and take 5 minutes every 1 to 2 days, to just sit and review your mental well-being. How are you coping with life, and the stressors around you? Are you doing well? Is your mental health in the Green, Orange, or Red zone?

When you see that you are not coping well, take corrective action. Take some time off from work. Try and carve out some time for you to catch up on your sleep. Set aside some protected time that weekend to do something you enjoy - like exercising, or just relaxing and watching a movie or reading a book. Take time for you when you need it.

A lot of us know what we would rather be doing, but let ourselves run on empty for some time because we feel we cannot take some time off from life. Well, you absolutely CAN, and you SHOULD. Turn your mobile phone off, and get some ‘you’ time in when you need it.

WRAP IT UP!

You need to be very proactive in taking care of your mental health. Take the time to check on your mental state regularly, and recognise when you need to take some steps to alleviate some of your stress so that you don’t approach the stage when you may have a mental breakdown.