6 tips to take control of your mental health today

Sunday, locked in the bathroom of my workplace with a heavy weight on my chest. I want to cry, but there is no air in my lungs. My eyes are tearing but I am just gasping and my hands are shaking. Why can’t I breathe? This is the first time I experienced an anxiety attack. It took me some time to learn that what is happening is okay and it will get easier.

At first I felt scared and alone – but I wasn’t. According to WHO, 1 in every 8 people is living with a mental disorder and the most common ones are anxiety and depression disorders. That used to be the case, but after COVID-19 the numbers increased by almost 30%. Although there are effective ways to prevent and treat mental health conditions, many people who struggle with these challenges are unable to access the care they need. 

Mental health stigma still exists but all symptoms or emotions are valid. Even anxiety disorders vary, each with unique triggers and characteristics. The most common ones include generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder and separation anxiety. But what can we do? What are some accessible ways to live healthy and prevent mental health problems or to help dealing with them once they already occurred? Let me give you the 6 tips and tools that I have collected through the years.

1. Learn how to breathe

The first “tip” you will always find online will tell you to breathe. My question was: “Okay, but how?” When your body feels trapped in a tight pulsing cage, being told to breathe is not helpful – it’s frustrating. Navigating a person through strategies on how to manage intense stress and learn how to breathe through it is more helpful. There are plenty of exercises you can start practicing in a safe environment, when you feel well. Breathing exercises always bring very slow but very effective results, so be patient. By practicing daily for even a few minutes, you will learn those breaths in specific rhythm so well, that at some point you will manage to repeat this exercise in a stressful situation – and that moment is your small but very significant victory.

Some guided breathing exercises can be found online or you can get recommendations and practice with a therapist. It is important to start from easy ones, such as easy box breathing, and then slowly progress through more challenging exercises. When trying them out, make sure you sit comfortably and stop immediately in case you start feeling dizzy or uncomfortable.

Once you perfect your breathing techniques, you can progress to meditations which are more advanced but also a very helpful tool.

But be careful to double check the sources you are learning from. Not every meditation is designed by a professional who can guide you through it and help your mental health, always check if your app, channel or website is actually run by professionals.

2. Take your body seriously

Everyone says this and I will repeat. You really need to take care of your body, because your mental health will reflect it. Our mood is, more often than we think, influenced by the most simple and often neglected things: exercise (even a walk, dance or yoga are exercises!), good sleep schedule, getting more sunlight, fresh air and spending time in nature, healthy regular meals and a lot of water. It really is cheap to experiment with these! Your mind and your body are connected, so remember it when you take care of one more than the other.

3. Write it out

In my country, Slovakia, we say “the paper can take it,” which can be said for unrealistic plans but also for journaling. I get it, you don’t always feel like you can share with others what exactly your train of thoughts was about. But the paper will deal with it, write it down as angry, sad or messy as it gets! Some people may find regular journaling very helpful, for some people it is enough to write it down, when they are going through something. 

One of the best pieces of advice I got was to regularly write down my moods, it may also help you. How are you feeling at the moment – name the emotion, do you recognise this emotion or is it new? If so, when did you feel like this? What are some triggers that brought this emotion? Write it also with time, so you can see it later as data and notice connections, such as lack of sleep brings sad thoughts etc.

4. Step by step, practice gratitude

Every day try to think of something you are grateful for and something you are proud of. It may be easy some days but there are many days when we feel like saying “nothing” and it takes us a while to think. Remember that setting small challenges for yourself and managing them is a success to be proud of, some days getting out of bed may be one of them. It is really okay and it is valid.

5. Everyone says it, hear it again – seek professional help

Your best friend can only help you this much, and my article will also not do magic. It may be a difficult step but it is an investment to yourself and your healthy future. And yes, you can totally see a professional even if you feel fine, just to work on yourself and prevent problems in the future. You may choose to talk to your general doctor first, or go straight to a therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist. Worst thing that can happen is they will connect you with another person that can provide suitable help. And the best, they help. It is also no shame to visit one and if you do not share the same energy or communication style, you can visit another one and try again. Sometimes it may be stressful but believe me, it is worth it!

Are you looking for something else but not exactly sure what? There are plenty of options which help with mental wellbeing such as online therapy. You may feel unsure at first but when you give it a try you start noticing a lot of positive aspects of it. When you have a therapist but you don’t have to go to their office, you can feel more secure and comfortable and join the call even from your own bed. It is usually considerably cheaper and gives you plenty of flexibility – you can join even from another country! One of the platforms I can recommend is hedepy.com but you can search for similar ones that are more present in your country.

And how about alternatives such as art therapy? Process all your emotions through painting or many other activities!

6. Use AI as our strength

Not everyone has a close person they could talk to and not everyone can easily access professional help. Or someone may need immediate response for certain worries. Let artificial intelligence be our support tool. But don’t forget to be a little extra alert and careful. 

There are apps which offer AI therapy, which is way cheaper than a therapist or sometimes even for free. This can be a short term solution which can help many people to access help. But with the same breath I have to add that it brings certain risks. So, first of all check properly the reviews before downloading an app. Are there some professionals recommending this app? Check carefully which data the app creators collect and how. And most importantly – whatever it says, it is never going to be a person, so find someone to talk to aside from AI, because AI may sound realistic but is not a human. Some apps I can recommend are ChatMind where you can schedule AI therapies, VOS with an AI chat, or Waking Up.

VOS is an app I would like to specifically highlight, it is recommended by therapists and it has many functions, such as mood tracker, guided journal, breathing exercises, guided meditations, affirmations, daily challenges and offers also reports based on your activity.

If you take at least one tool or tip from this article that will help you, or someone you know, it met its purpose. But if not, it is also okay because there is no simple recipe that works for everyone. Do your research and use sources and people you trust. The most important part is to ask for help. And maybe, most importantly, when there are people who offer help or try to check on you, let them. Remember that asking for help or accepting help from others is a sign of strength!

Lucia Marciová

Sources:

who.int: Mental Health and COVID-19: Early evidence of the pandemic’s impact: Scientific brief, 2 March 2022

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Sci_Brief-Mental_health-2022.1

who.int: Mental disorders  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders

vos.health: Explore Science Behind VOS https://vos.health/en/science
hedepy.com: How it Works https://hedepy.com/how-it-works