You May Need to be Mindful of Your Mental Health

Mental health is as important as physical health when caring for your overall well-being. Your mental health determines how you think, feel, and act and it affects your physical health, too. The following information and resources can help you understand common mental health topics and learn ways to protect your overall well-being:

• Stress: When demands on our time, energy, and resources challenge us, we experience stress. Discover effective ways to lower stress and generate positive thoughts and feelings. Long-term stress can damage your health, so watch for warning signs and manage your response to stressful situations before you feel overwhelmed.

• Managing Emotions: Expressing your emotions effectively is important to your health and well-being. Pent-up emotions can be harmful to your mind, body, and relationships with others. Learn how to talk about your feelings with a trusted confidante so you can work through them and focus on your positive emotions.

• Sleep: When you sleep, your mind and body are hard at work on your overall health. Sleep builds up your immune system and strengthens your mind. Learn about health habits to help you sleep better, and set aside enough time for quality rest. It can make a huge difference in your mental and physical health.

• Anxiety: Experiencing anxiety once in a while is normal, and different people have different ways of managing it. Uncontrolled anxiety can be a burden that affects your work and relationships. Severe and constant anxiety may cause medical problems or make them worse, but there are effective ways to control your anxiety and protect your mental health.

• Suicide: Intervention and support are key to suicide prevention. If you know someone who is thinking of harming themselves, take the threat of suicide seriously. Call a doctor or suicide line, or take the person to an ER. Contact the confidential and free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 24/7: 800-273-TALK (8255).

Everyone struggles with mental health concerns at some point in their lives. You are not alone. It is important to recognize the concern and find productive ways to overcome these challenges. From in-person and virtual therapy to mental health assessments and mindfulness exercises, there are many clinically proven ways to improve outcomes.

We hope that you find this information helpful. Stay tuned for more information next month regarding other important health tips.