Tips to support mental health
May is Mental Health Awareness month. It is a topic we have been talking a lot about this month in the clinic, and one I have a personal interest in, so I'm going to give you guys my personal three top tips for dealing with mental health issues.
#1 - get the right support team around you
Number one when dealing with mental health issues is to get the right support team around you. I think that's really so important. First off, you want to make sure you've got a good GP. Then following on from there, whether you need to reach out and get a counsellor, psychiatrist, or psychologist. I also recommend having a good nutritionist or naturopath on your team as well.
It's good to get that right team supporting you, because there's a lot of different bases to cover for mental health.
#2 - make sure you are covering all the bases
Often mental health issues can be caused by trauma or something that's happened in your life and yet, at other times, it can come up for a reason you can't explain. Either way, there's such a variety of mental health issues that can be happening that my advice is to make sure you are covering all of your bases and I think looking at the gut and how biochemistry plays a part is really important. And it's not to say these things are the whole cause, it's often a collection of things going on that kind of lead to mental health issues and there's generally not just one thing happening.
So when we talk about gut health and mental health, science tells us that gut health is related to mental health issues, depression, anxiety, and things like that, as we know that there's that gut brain connection. And we know that the gut affects us, both biochemically and via neurotransmitters and there are various ways that that's happening. But it's not to say that is the whole reason, and that working here will be the only solution. That’s why my advice is to make sure you are covering all of your bases.
That means, whenever we work with someone with mental health issues in the clinic, we do make sure that they are covering all their bases - that they're working with a GP and getting all the support that they need whilst we also look at working on their gut and every system of their body. We aim to make sure everything is functioning as well as it can.
#3 - do things you love
And my third piece of advice is to make sure you're taking care of yourself by doing things that you love! And by this I mean just really simple things like making sure you're getting enough sleep, making sure you're doing things that you love, making sure you spending time in nature, finding ways to reduce stress as much as possible. You know what you love. Do it! We just want to also make sure you are taking care of yourself as well as you can.
How I took every approach and covered all my bases!
I also wanted to share that mental health issues are something that I've dealt with in my life, and most of my family members have as well. For me, anxiety and depression were the things that popped up and, since dealing with my gut, I find depression is not an issue that affects me anymore. So that really helped my journey, along with seeing counsellors and a psychologist as well.
So you can see I took every approach and covered all my bases! And I found that when I was seeing a psychologist without working on my gut, it wasn't quite getting me where I wanted to be but when I saw a psychologist whilst working on my gut, that I'd seem to get much further with what I was doing. So I found that insight really helpful.
And yes! Anxiety is something that still pops up for me at times. I find that comes when I'm not taking care of myself (step three!) - when I'm not sleeping properly, when I've got too much stress going on, when I've got too much on my plate, if I'm not taking care of myself properly - I find that anxiety is a thing that pops up for me again.
That’s when I bring in the strategies I use that work for me to deal with that. The main one that helps me deal with anxiety is to just really ground myself in the moment and just take one step at a time. I find that I can get that overwhelmed kind of anxious feeling and I just remind myself it’s OK to just take things one step at a time focus on what I need to do right now. I find that that really helps.
So! I would love to hear from you guys, if you would like to share with me if you've got strategies for dealing with mental health issues. What helps you? And if you just want to share something that's going on for you that would be great too. I think it's really good to generate conversations around mental health awareness and get this out there so that we start speaking about it more.
I encourage you to reach out and get some support if you need it! Beyond Blue is a network of support I recommend wholeheartedly if you are dealing with any mental health issues.
If you would like to connect with the clinic to see how we can support you on your life journey right now, I encourage you to book a free initial consultation with our team. We are here for you.