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The gut-brain connection exists because your gastrointestinal tract is sensitive to emotion and triggers symptoms like nausea and abdominal pain when your brain experiences stress or anxiety. It also specifies that these symptoms are often accompanied by a severe increase or decrease in appetite. The “gut-brain connection” highlights how poor mental health can lead to digestive problems like indigestion and/or constipation. But, to tackle the stress at the root, try incorporating movement into your daily routine, meditating and getting at least seven hours of sleep at night. This damages your immune system and, makes you more vulnerable to illness.Ī diet containing protein, fruits and vegetables can help strengthen your immune system. Stress often triggers a “fight-or-flight” response from the human body, leading to an increase in adrenaline. Weakened immune systemĭo you find yourself more susceptible than usual to catching a cold or the flu? It could be the result of a weakened immune system-which, itself, could be the result of stress. Practicing relaxation exercises and following a stringent sleep schedule can help bolster your memory but addressing your underlying mental health issues is the only certain way to fix the problem. If you find yourself struggling more than usual to remember what happened yesterday, it could be a sign to introspect. Sometimes memory loss is caused by mental illness itself and sometimes it’s a result of other side-effects and coping mechanisms like fatigue, lack of sleep and excessive alcohol intake. Also, meditation and yoga are useful ways to calm your mind Memory lossĮxperiencing blanks in your memory and extreme forgetfulness are effects of poor mental health. Voicing your worries to your loved ones and engaging in social activities help tackle irritability. If you experience constant irritability, hindering you from performing basic day-to-day activities, you might want to invest more heavily in self-care and finding ways to de-stress. When your mental health is shaky, you might find yourself getting unusually bothered by things that wouldn’t normally affect you-like the sound of a pen clicking in class or lagging wifi. You could also make use of skincare products to decrease these conditions.
#Ignite mental health skin
Plus, cortisol-a hormone your body releases to deal with stress-damages the skin when you experience stress for long stretches of time.Ĭognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and meditation can help treat mental health-related skin issues. That’s because things like anxiety, stress, and depression trigger your nervous and immune system-which leaves you prone to developing skin issues. Poor mental health can cause skin conditions like acne, rosacea, and psoriasis. However, if your struggles with sleep stem from struggles with mental health, the best way to tackle it is to treat it at the root. Setting a steady sleep schedule, avoiding caffeine and alcoholic beverages in the evening and exercising during the day can help you sleep better. Sleep disorders like insomnia-struggling to sleep-and hypersomnia-sleeping too much-are a common side-effect of poor mental health. But regularly having trouble falling asleep could be a sign your mental health isn’t at its best. So, here are some often-overlooked symptoms of poor mental health to watch out for: Disrupted sleepĪs students, it might seem normal to stay awake until the wee hours of the night. Instead, it’ll likely harm your health further. In fact, these symptoms are often sidelined as “bad habits” or brushed off as “common” issues.īut overlooking the side-effects of mental illness won’t make them go away. If your mental health has taken a setback, your body will reflect it-often in ways that might be difficult to connect. Mental health and physical health always go hand in hand. So, how does one gain awareness? Well, look closer. What’s even more concerning is a lot of people still go undiagnosed-so much so that Fardous Hosseiny, former national director of research and policy at the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), said he believes the number of Canadians living with mental illness is actually closer to one in four than one in five.īeing aware there’s a problem is the first step to solving it. Almost half of Canadians have reported deterioration in mental health during the pandemic.About one in five Canadians live with mental illness.26-have increased discussions regarding mental health and mental illnesses, we still have a long way to go. Most of us don’t miss a beat and respond to this common question with an automatic “I’m fine, thank you.”įor decades, we’ve been conditioned to believe physical health is the only health that matters.Īnd, while initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk Day-which, this year, is Wednesday, Jan. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going. Mental health…is not a destination, but a process.
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