
How To Protect Your Mental Health
When it comes to mental health, prevention is better than cure. Sometimes the last thing we feel like doing is taking any time out of our hectic days to practice self-care, but it is easier to protect your mental health than to rebuild it after hitting breaking point. Among mental health experts, it is broadly recognised that:
- Early intervention is key in preventing mental health problems from getting worse
- If we want to protect our mental health we need a holistic and 360 degree approach that not only encompasses mind and body but individual and community (no man is an island!)
- We need to be proactive in looking after our mental health instead of waiting for a crisis to take stock
So how do we look after our mental health? Read on for 7 ways to protect your mental health.
7 ways to protect your mental health
1. Build a sense of purpose in your life
Life is made up of many ‘whats’, but the ‘whys’ are just as important, if not more. Having a sense of purpose in life can help protect your mental health. Indeed, research has shown a sense of purpose is associated with emotional resilience, better cognitive function, broad mental health, and even lower mortality.
But what if I don’t know my purpose, you might say. Well, purpose isn’t simply bestowed, it is created. And a person’s sense of purpose can change over a lifetime.
So how can you build it? Having a strong sense of purpose means finding meaning beyond yourself and the day-to-day surface concerns we all have (I wonder if my boss approves of me, I hope I don’t get a parking ticket, etc). The question that purpose asks us to address is: What is it all for? What might we be most deeply motivated by? If you don’t currently feel a strong sense of purpose, you might explore this by:
- Volunteering – perhaps trying a number of avenues to see what most interests you
- Speak to close friends and ask for insights on how they see you or their own sense of purpose
- Ask yourself what problems or injustices in the world you find most bothersome
- Journal to some purpose-related prompts such as: What do you care most deeply about? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
- Talk to a therapist or life coach
The book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Victor Frankl, a Psychiatrist who survived the holocaust, is a fascinating read on these lines.
2. Exercise
If you want to protect your mental health, one of the most effective things you can do is exercise regularly. Regular aerobic workouts (running, high-intensity gym workouts, swimming, etc) simultaneously lift mood and lower anxiety, helping you to feel calmer and more capable. One of the greatest anti-depressants known to man (without the side-effects), aerobic exercise releases feel-good endorphins while dialling down stress hormones like adrenalin and cortisol. If you think you don’t have the time, consider all the hours and inner resources that stress burns away. Any half hour you spend exercising won’t be missed because it makes all the other hours that much better.
3. Be mindful of midlife shifts
While the majority of mental health problems emerge in childhood and young adulthood, midlife presents its own vulnerabilities. Frequently, midlife is a time of shifts, upheaval, and cumbersome caring responsibilities (often for both children and ageing parents). In addition, there are significant hormonal shifts – for men but most especially for women.
Perimenopause tends to be a prolonged period of physical and emotional changes, not to mention shifts in identity. While admittedly there are some women who ‘sail through’ the menopause without severe symptoms, many women are beset with a host of debilitating and overwhelming symptoms – from migraines to fatigue, from sleeplessness to intense shifts in mood. Midlife is also the time in which women are most likely to experience autoimmune problems, which mostly beset women and frequently go undiagnosed for many years. Add to that the ageism and sexism that often still lurks beneath the surface of society, and it is little wonder so many women in midlife feel burnt out and are leaving the workplace.
If you are struggling with midlife changes either physical or emotional, seek support. Your GP can be a good place to start. For example, it might emerge that you want to start taking hormone replacement therapy for perimenopause symptoms, or seek counselling or support groups to help get you through the changes you’re experiencing. When in doubt, seek help out.
4. Get out in nature
Yes it sounds too simple to be true, but regular time out in nature is one of the best ways to protect your mental health. Many studies have shown associations between time spent in nature and greater mental wellbeing. Seeing greenery can help boost a sense of wellness and fresh air helps to raise oxygen levels in the brain. Sunlight serves to regulate our circadian rhythms and promote healthy sleep, in addition to boosting serotonin levels. In fact, studies have even shown an association between sun-filled days and better mental health. So take every opportunity to get outside in green spaces – even if it’s just a lunchtime lap around your city park.
5. Set your priorities and stick to them
There are always a million things to do and you cannot get to all of them. Our smartphone-centred, notification-driven lives frequently create a false sense of urgency and obligation to be ‘always on’. But this is often a cause of burn out.
One of the best ways to protect your mental health is to guard against burn out, and to do that we must protect our priorities. What can get done now and what will have to wait? Who do you need to start saying no to? Try ordering your to-dos, from the most important to the least. Identify your best ‘deep work’ time (for many people it’s the morning) and try to ringfence it. If you can get your line-manager on board with this, so much the better. Many people have email answering hours and display them under their email signature, to manage others’ expectations and protect their productivity.
6. Practice self-affirmation
Oh no, we can hear you groan. Not that bastion of motivational speakers and Instagram memes – affirmations! But hear us out. There is significant research to show that self-affirmation can help protect your mental health in key ways, for example by:
- Increasing activity in the brain’s reward-related regions
- Promoting a broader, more solid sense of self that is less defensive and threatened and has a greater sense of perspective
- Decreasing stress levels (as measured by stress hormone levels!)
- Encouraging healthy behaviours such as higher consumption of fruits and vegetables
There are many different ways to practice self-affirmation: from creating a series of ‘I am’ statements, to identifying your ‘core values’ and writing or reflecting on them. You’ll find the way that feels right for you, but consistency is key. Practice self-affirmation regularly (daily if possible). You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
7. Ask for help if you need it
If a tyre on our car needs changing, perhaps we can do it ourselves. But if the engine is complaining, we need a mechanic. Ask the experts is such a simple principle in practical areas of life, yet when it comes to the foundation our lives are actually built upon – mental wellbeing – we often try to ‘go it alone’.
Dr Manan Thakrar, Consultant Psychiatrist at The London Psychiatry Centre says: “Every mental health professional knows that early intervention can be crucial. The sooner a problem is addressed, the better. So if you’re struggling and self-help strategies aren’t working, reach out for help.”
If you’re worried therapy ‘isn’t for you’, be reassured that there are varying kinds of evidence-based therapies and different professionals providing them. You’re sure to find someone you’re comfortable with. Or it might be that medication or a leading-edge intervention like rTMS can help.
To start getting better, you can contact your GP or a specialist clinic like The London Psychiatry Centre.
The London Psychiatry Centre is one of the UK’s foremost clinics for mental wellbeing. With a team of top therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists, we provide evidence-based interventions to protect your mental health and get you back to your best. We take GP referrals or self-referrals, and can offer video or telephone consultations from anywhere in the UK.
To find out how we can help, get in touch today: