Mental Health Matters: Take care of your mental and physical health at the same time

By Adriana Todar on March 7, 2020.

Think about what you know regarding mental health problems. Most people think that mental health problems are just “something wrong” in the brain, but did you know there are many causes? Mental health problems can be caused by things like childhood trauma, brain injury, genetics, and maybe surprisingly, physical illness. It is quite common that people who have diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and amputees will develop some sort of mental health problem. This information is still largely unknown to people but is incredibly important. Letting a mental health problem go undiscovered can have a similar affect as not noticing a physical illness soon enough. It can progress quickly and cause severe complications with your mind and body, which can make recovery slower or tougher on people.

It has been proven that people going through things like: Cancer treatment, treatment for severe burns, and surgical procedures have had a higher success rate when they have a positive attitude, and their mental health is looked after. Taking care of mental health is as important as taking care of physical health.

Research has been somewhat slow in this area because mental health problems used to be seen as shameful, weak and lazy. However, the more we understand it, the more we find just how incredibly important it is. Wouldn’t you want to be able to recover faster, be stronger and be healthy? It can be as simple as talking with your doctor if you think you have signs of a mental health problem, or even having a conversation on how to stay mentally healthy.

There are so many ways that we can take care of our minds and bodies at the same time, things like exercising, spending time with family, sticking to a routine as best we can, self-care, and regularly visiting the doctor and having honest conversations about all-around health and wellness. Something important to note as well, is that people who are caregivers to individuals going through physical illnesses are also at risk of developing signs of mental health problems. Fatigue, anxiety, frustration, helplessness and more can come with the responsibilities of being a care taker. It is vital to also take care of your mental health while caring for others.

It is important to keep in mind, that just because you have a physical illness does not mean that you will definitely develop a mental health problem, it just means that you may be at a higher risk. There are also times in life when we might feel sad, stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, and even needed to have things in a very specific order. This also does not mean that there is an underlying mental health problem. In fact, these are all common emotions and behaviors and most people have them throughout life because of natural stress such as work, family, issues in society, and even personal struggles. There is such thing as healthy stress, like when we have a big project or presentation coming up at work, having a child, buying a home, and even daily responsibilities. Overall, five out of five people have mental health, but one out of three people have a mental health problem.

Remember, there is always support available to you, or anyone you might know that is struggling with their mental health.

– Kids Help Phone Text Line: 686868

– Kids Help Phone #: 1-800-668-6868

– Other Text Line: 45645

– Distress Centre 24-hour: 1-800-784-2433

– Mental Health Helpline: 1-877-303-2642

– Addiction and Mental Health Clinic: 403-529-3500/403-529-3582

– Canadian Mental Health Association: 403-504-1811

Adriana Todar is a practicum student in the Social Work program through the Medicine Hat College. For further questions regarding mental health concerns, contact Canadian Mental Health Association at 403-504-1811, http://www.cmha-aser.ca or aser@cmha-aser.ca

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