We all need good mental health and wellbeing – it’s essential to living happy and healthy lives, and can help us sleep better, feel better, do the things we want to do and have more positive relationships. It can also help us deal with difficult times in the future.
Looking after your mental health is not something we should just do if we are struggling, or feeling low, anxious or stressed. It’s actually something we should think about all the time and really invest in, just like with our physical health.
Staying on top of our mental wellbeing is good for us now but also helps us deal manage difficult times in the future. Over time, it can also reduce our risk of physical health problems.
One of the best things we can do for our mental health and wellbeing is to be active – it’s a natural mood booster. Our bodies release feel-good hormones when we’re active that can also reduce anxiety and stress, and help us sleep better.
There are lots of free and affordable ways to get moving for all ages and levels of physical ability, including our Couch to 5K and Active 10 apps, so we can all benefit.
If you’re struggling with your mental health and wellbeing, this simple mental health quiz can help. It generates a personalised plan based on the information you provide. If you want help to deal with anxiety or low mood, tips to reduce stress or advice on how to fall asleep faster and sleep better, start the quiz:
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-wellbeing-tips/your-mind-plan-quiz/
Anxiety
Anxiety is when you feel scared, worried or panicked about something. It’s a normal, human feeling and your body’s natural response to stress or danger. Anyone can experience anxiety, regardless of age, gender, race, culture or faith.
We all feel anxious from time to time. Day-to-day things like friendship, money, exams or work can cause anxiety. Or certain situations, such as travelling home at night, starting a new school or giving a presentation. But the feeling usually passes once we feel safe or solve the problem we had. Generally the worries stop and we’re able to carry on with our lives.
Anxiety becomes a problem when it is more long term and you feel stuck in your worries or fears. They may last for a long time, even after a stressful situation has passed. You might feel upset and overwhelmed, as if your worries are too big to manage. Or they may stop you from doing everyday things.
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/mental-health-conditions/anxiety/
Anxiety in autism explained
Dealing with exam stress– It is normal to feel a bit worried about exams, especially if you’re under pressure from school or family. Exam stress can cause you to feel anxious or depressed, and this might affect your sleeping or eating habits.
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/coping-with-life/exam-stress/
https://www.law.ac.uk/resources/blog/study-tips-for-neurodiverse-students/
Self-control
Self-control is the ability to regulate and alter your responses to avoid undesirable behaviours, increase desirable ones, and achieve long-term goals. Research has shown that possessing self-control can be important for health and well-being.
Types of Self-Control
There are three primary types of self-control:
1. Impulse control refers to the ability to manage urges and impulses. People who struggle with impulse control may act first without thinking about the consequences of their actions.
2. Emotional control refers to the ability to regulate emotional responses. Someone who struggles with emotional control may find it hard to manage strong emotions. They may overreact, experience lasting bad moods, and get overwhelmed by the intensity of their feelings.
3. Movement control refers to the ability to control how and when the body moves. A person who has difficulty with movement control may experience restlessness and find it difficult to remain still.
A self-controlled person exhibits a great deal of willpower and personal control. They don’t act impulsively and can regulate their emotions and actions effectively.
Examples of Self-Control
Setting goals to exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet, be more productive, give up bad habits, and save money are just a few actions requiring self-control. More examples of self-control include:
- Avoiding social media when you are at school or college so that it doesn’t hurt your concentration and learning
- Not purchasing something you want because you are trying to stick to a budget
- Skipping sweet treats because you are trying to reduce your sugar intake
- Managing your emotional response when someone does something that makes you feel angry or upset
Delaying Gratification
The ability to delay gratification, or to wait to get what you want, is an important part of self-control. People are often able to control their behaviour by delaying the gratification of their urges.
For instance, someone who wants to buy an expensive console game might avoid spending all their money on going out with their friends. They want to have fun, but they know that by waiting and saving their money, they can afford the console game.
Delaying gratification involves putting off short-term desires in favour of long-term rewards. Researchers have found that the ability to delay gratification is important not only for attaining goals but also for well-being and overall success in life.
The “Hot-and-Cool” System
The hot system refers to the part of our willpower that is emotional and impulsive and urges us to act upon our desires. When this system takes over, we may give in to our momentary desires and act rashly without considering the potential long-term effects.
The cool system is the part of our willpower that is rational and thoughtful and enables us to consider the consequences of our actions in order to resist our impulses. The cool system helps us look for ways to distract us from our urges and find more appropriate ways to deal with our desires.
Online gaming
When it comes to online gaming, it can be very easy to get hooked.
Be aware of how long you’re playing for, and make sure you take breaks.
Here are some warning signs that online gaming is starting to affect your life:
• You find yourself isolating yourself from friends and family- hardly seeing or going out with friends anymore and reducing the time spent with your family when at home
• You’re lying to friends and family about how much time you’re spending gaming online
• You choose to play games rather than do your homework, and it’s starting to get you into trouble at school
• Playing your game is the first thing you think about when you wake up, and it’s on your mind all day at school
• You’re playing late into the night, meaning you aren’t getting enough sleep so you’re very tired during the day
• You get angry, frustrated and anxious when you aren’t allowed to play or have to stay away from gaming for a longer period of time
• You are starting to spend money in the game and can’t control this as you feel a need to buy bonus packs or loot boxes within the game
Abuse is often about power and the person who abuses you uses that power to get you to do things you don’t want to do. It is hurtful either mentally or physically. Sexual abuse includes being touched, kissed or forced to have sex against your will and often by someone older than you.
Body image is how we think and feel about ourselves physically, and how we believe others see us. When we talk about body image, there are lots of ways we can think about our body and the way we look. You might find that there are times when you like your body, or parts of your body, and times when you struggle with how you look.
Bullying- If somebody physically hurts you, or verbally abuses you, that’s bullying. Bullying can be a one-off or it can go on for a long time. And bullying can happen to anyone.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been an uncertain time for all of us and we’ve all experienced the effects differently. We’ve had to face a lot of change, with isolation rules, restrictions, lockdowns, shielding and working from home or home schooling, and this is bound to affect how we think and feel.
Drugs and alcohol can affect your mental health in different ways. The effect they might have can depend on a number of things, such as:
- the drug you take
- how much you take
- how frequently you take it
- how you’re feeling at the time
- the environment you take it in
As some drugs such as alcohol make you feel more relaxed, outgoing and sociable, some people use them to help with anxiety in the short term. While this may help reduce feelings of anxiety in the moment, it can have negative long-term effects. For example, you may find that you start to feel as though you “need it” to cope in these situations in future; it may make feelings of anxiety or depression worse once the effects have worn off; or it may make you physically ill.
Using drugs and alcohol can make any mental health problems you struggle with worse in the long term, and it can even lead you to develop new mental health problems. For example, regular use of cannabis has been linked to the development of psychosis.
If you take drugs regularly, you might reach a point where you feel like the drug is in control of you, rather than the other way around. Maybe you’re using it in private, away from friends, and your life revolves around getting more of it. Or perhaps drugs and alcohol are becoming the main things you think about. If so, you could be getting addicted, and addiction is closely linked with mental health problems.
If you drink alcohol during pregnancy you risk causing harm to your baby. Sometimes this can result in mental and physical problems in the baby, called foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). FASD can happen when alcohol in the mother’s blood passes to her baby through the placenta. Your baby cannot process alcohol well, which means it can stay in their body for a long time. Alcohol can damage their brain and body and stop them from developing normally in the womb. this can result in the loss of the pregnancy. Babies who survive may be left with lifelong problems.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/foetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder/
Self-harm
About the app Calm Harm
The urge to self-harm is like a wave. It feels the most powerful when you start wanting to do it.
Learn to ride the wave with the free Calm Harm app by choosing activities from these categories:
Comfort, Distract, Express Yourself, Release, and Random.
https://calmharm.co.uk/
Bereavement
Losing someone important to you is one of the hardest things to experience in life. If you’re young, bereavement can be even more difficult. But support and advice are available to help you get through it.
Your teenage years can be a lot of fun, but they are also often an emotional time. If someone close to you dies, it can be incredibly hard. Your world may feel as though it has crashed down around you.
It can make you feel very alone, especially as a young person, because you might find that none of your friends have gone through anything similar and won’t understand or know what to say.
Your emotions after a bereavement
Grieving is a natural part of recovering from a bereavement, and everyone’s experience of grief is different. There are no rules about what we should feel, and for how long.
But many people find they feel a mixture of the following
- sadness
- shock, particularly if the death was unexpected
- relief, if the death followed a long period of illness
- guilt and regret
- anger
- anxiety
- despair and helplessness
- depression
These feelings may be very intense, particularly in the early days and weeks. Time eventually helps these intense emotions subside, and there’s no need to feel guilty about starting to feel better. It doesn’t mean you’re not respecting the person’s memory or forgetting about them.
Your family may all react differently to a bereavement. You may find it difficult to see your parents or other adults grieving and not know what to say to them. You could try just letting them know you’re there for them too while you get support yourself.
There are several things that can help you start to feel better. Looking after your health and talking to someone will help you get through this difficult time.
More Information on mental wellbeing and mental health
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/my-feelings/grief-and-loss
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/coping-with-life/
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-wellbeing-tips/