2024 Mental Wellness Check: 7 Early Warning Signs You Shouldn't Ignore
How Good are you at recognizing signs that your mental health is slipping? It's very hard to pull yourself out of a hole when you bottom out from depression. It's much easier to change your course if you haven't gotten too low.
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The significance is that whatever way you clean yourself, you stop doing it or struggle to do it consistently. This low attention to hygiene is more common than one might think.
I see it a lot and I always ask about it when someone isn't doing well. Because when you get depressed, everything becomes hard. You can lie in bed and feel overwhelmed with the thought of needing to undress, much less cover your body with soap and rinse. What's more, because hygiene is one of those basic things that we all attend to, you know it's not good that you don't feel like doing it. And some people can really beat themselves up or really feel bad for not keeping themselves clean. The guilt doesn't make you do it though. It just adds to the misery you feel.
that just becomes too hard.
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Here are some relatively common signs that your mental health is going downward.
Note: These lists are not in any particular order.You stop bathing or reduce it to maybe once a week or every other week.
I use the term bathing because I'm not talking specifically about taking a shower if you're someone who regularly sponges off in the sink. This isn't a judgment about how you clean yourself.The significance is that whatever way you clean yourself, you stop doing it or struggle to do it consistently. This low attention to hygiene is more common than one might think.
I see it a lot and I always ask about it when someone isn't doing well. Because when you get depressed, everything becomes hard. You can lie in bed and feel overwhelmed with the thought of needing to undress, much less cover your body with soap and rinse. What's more, because hygiene is one of those basic things that we all attend to, you know it's not good that you don't feel like doing it. And some people can really beat themselves up or really feel bad for not keeping themselves clean. The guilt doesn't make you do it though. It just adds to the misery you feel.
The second sign is not brushing your teeth
for days, weeks, or even months for some people. And this is similar to not bathing, but a little different as people prioritize personal hygiene differently. If you live in a warm climate or do active work, you may not be able to go without bathing. But brushing your teeth becomes the extra thingthat just becomes too hard.
A third sign that your mental health is slipping is your surroundings become super cluttered.
You may have days of dishes piled in the sink with dried food stuck to them, clothes all over the floor, or mail stacked up that you haven't read. You may have a full voicemail and hundreds of unanswered emails and text messages. The unanswered emails and texts maybe because it's too hard to check, but it can also be because of the fourth sign,The fourth Sign is you frequently lose track of time and can spend lots of time sitting around doing nothing.
One of the features of depression is what's called psychomotor slowing. Your mind moves slowly and even your body movements are slowed. It's like you're living with your speed turned down to one-half. At this pace, things take longer to do, but also you can sit around staring into space doing nothing. You think you're only sitting there for five minutes,
but someone around you notices that you're not doing much and you're like, "It was just a couple of minutes." And the other person's like, "No, you've been sitting there half an hour." So because time moves slower for you, you don't get much done and things pile up. Before you know it, you've got 30 unchecked text messages from friends and family, a full voicemail, and dozens of emails. Now you feel behind on everything and it's overwhelming to try to catch up. Going back to staring into space, you may think, "I'd love to have the disposable time "to sit around and do nothing." But it's not easy for a non-depressed person to sit with no stimulation unless you're doing some form of meditation. We need some kind of stimulation, and it's easy to meet that need with a mobile device. So to be in a room with nothing going on and just looking around means something isn't right.
a couple of hours after you got up. And this may tie into the sign of being able to sit unstimulated and lose track of time. So you can sit for a while looking around and then doze off and not realize you were sleeping until you come to or someone interrupts you from your nap. Although oversleeping and feeling tired are symptoms of depression, there are other reasons for having this, such as having a low thyroid condition, low vitamin D levels, medication side effects, and even high sugar and high carb diets can make you go in and out of feeling tired and sleepy throughout the day.
of aerobic exercise a week. The aerobic exercise can be brisk walking in your neighborhood or a park, or you can do it in your home
Number five is feeling strong emotions
Just underneath the surface, especially when those emotions don't match your circumstances. An example of this is feeling tears just behind your eyes that can fall at any time, even when nothing is making you upset. You feel fragile and life itself feels sad. Or you may feel anger in your chest, like fire in a dragon's chest, that you're afraid will just spew out at the least provocation. Feeling unstable like this can lead to the sixth sign,The sixth Sign is isolating and avoiding people.
You may be afraid that you'll break down in front of people or blow up and lose your stuff in front of them. Or maybe even if you think you can hold it together, you don't want people asking you a lot of questions about how you're doing. If you're unhappy and just still trying to push through the days, you don't want to be reminded of how unhappy you are or hear about how perfect everyone else's life seems by comparison.The last sign is feeling exhausted and sleepy,
No matter how much rest you get. And this isn't just an energy thing you can actually fall asleepa couple of hours after you got up. And this may tie into the sign of being able to sit unstimulated and lose track of time. So you can sit for a while looking around and then doze off and not realize you were sleeping until you come to or someone interrupts you from your nap. Although oversleeping and feeling tired are symptoms of depression, there are other reasons for having this, such as having a low thyroid condition, low vitamin D levels, medication side effects, and even high sugar and high carb diets can make you go in and out of feeling tired and sleepy throughout the day.
Can you resonate with any of these signs?
If you notice that it's happening to you, it's time for a mental wellness check. And this is where you would optimize your self-care. I think the three foundational things that contribute to mental wellness are prioritizing your sleep to get seven to nine hours if you're an adult and eight to 10 if you're a teen, minimizing processed foods from your diet, and getting 150 minutes of moderate levelof aerobic exercise a week. The aerobic exercise can be brisk walking in your neighborhood or a park, or you can do it in your home
Chukwudi Solomon
I am Chukwudi Solomon. I love to share knowledge.