You should prioritize your mental health in order to maintain a great lifestyle and enjoy good overall health. If you want to make sure that you’re in good mental health throughout your whole life and wonder what to do to this end, read on. You’ll see five surprising things that could affect your mental health and leave you in a state that’s less than ideal so you know to avoid them.
1. Illness and Disease
When you’re feeling physically unwell, you’re most likely going to experience an effect on your mental health. This is especially true in the event of an illness that lasts for a long time. When you’re in pain and discomfort, it’s hard to get into a good mood, and this is why it’s important to seek treatment for any physical ailments that you have as soon as possible. Doing this is going to enable you to maintain good mental health so you can feel better all around. Even hormones can have an effect on your mental health, so you should ensure that they’re balanced at all times. Low levels of testosterone, for example, are common as a person ages, occurring in roughly 18% of 70-year-olds.
2. The Environment
The environment can also affect your mental health, so it’s not surprising that people in difficult environments may be in a state of poor mental health. The opportunities and challenges that we experience all shape our mental health over time. This is why many parents strive to start and keep their families in peaceful, healthy environments.
3. Abuse
When people face abuse, it becomes easy for them to fall into a state of poor mental health. This means that children who grow up in abusive environments are highly likely to end up with mental illnesses. These conditions can last from childhood all the way into adulthood. This is compounded by the fact that 46.4% of all Americans will experience a mental health disorder at one point or another in their lives. Whether the abuse is verbal, sexual, psychological, or physical, it will have an effect at some point in the victim’s life.
4. Family History
Genetics and family history can also play a role in mental health, so it’s essential to find out whether other people in your family have suffered from mental health conditions such as anxiety disorder and depression. If so, then this may predispose you to suffer from the same conditions because you have shared genes. It goes beyond genetics — we can see the way the family members we live with handle stress, and this can have an impact on our own responses to similar situations. This makes it essential to find out about family history, as it may help point potential victims of mental illness towards seeking help early on.
5. Self-Esteem
Last but not least, self-confidence has a significant effect on your mental health. This is because when you have high self-esteem, you’ll feel better about yourself and will likely not have any issues with sadness or dissatisfaction with your appearance. As such, it’s essential to maintain a lifestyle that allows you to be happy with the way you look. This includes avoiding comparing yourself with other people and taking care of your health, which may also affect your appearance. For instance, around 33% of adults in the US aren’t happy with the way their smiles look. These people could boost their self-esteem by taking better care of their teeth.
Keep these five things in mind, and do your best to ensure that they don’t negatively affect your mental health. If you spot any risk factors, work on remedying the problem before it progresses. Doing this can help you to enjoy a better life.