Mental Health Awareness DAY / WEEK has been circulating around the recently and below is a little post about the topic. Reach out to people and connect, it goes a long way.
I put this piece together a few months back and wanted to share it again and add to it this time round. I just wanted to write a small blog about Mental Health issues amongst our population to let everyone out there know that its ok to talk. All of us are effected by these issues at some stage during our lives friends and families can also be effected by these issues but it’s the support system and people around us that help us through these difficult times, so let’s break the cycle and talk to each other and support one another.
When light shines it removes darkness, no matter what. Light can come in all shapes and sizes in your daily life and you can shine some light on others too with simple kind gestures throughout the day. For me I like to wish people a good day when they part my company and until I see them again. I ask people how’s their day going? It might be holding the door open in a shop for a stranger, it may be a smile towards a stranger, even letting someone cross the road, there are many little acts of kindness that all add up. These random acts creates positivity both for yourself and others. You may not know what the other person lives through or how their day is going so far, they may not be having their best day when you come in contact with them but what you can do is give them something to smile at. Wish them a good day 🙂
As part of my undergraduate course especially in my 4th Year of Sport & Exercise Sciences in UL, we learned a significant amount about psychology in daily life and related to sport and exercise and how it can effect us. There are many domains within psychology such as cognitive function, stress, anxiety, mood, emotions, depression, energy & fatigue, all these areas can be related but the most prevalent of them is depression. So let’s talk depression what it is, who it effects, prevalence of it and how to help someone with depressive symptoms.
Defining depression can be difficult because it includes several types of mood disorders with opposite symptoms (e.g., increase or decrease in sleep; increase or decrease in appetite to name but a few). Depression can be caused by catastrophic events such as death of a loved one, a loss of self-esteem (e.g.,feeling unworthy because a valued goal was not met), or chronic anxiety or stress. It can also occur for no apparent (Dishman et al., 2013). The International classification of diseases (ICD-10) gives common symptoms of a depressive episode in a person’s life the symptoms include;
-Reduced self-esteem and self-confidence
-Ideas of guilt and unworthiness
-Bleak and pessimistic views of the future
-Ideas or acts of self-harm or suicide
-Disturbed sleep
When a person has a major depressive episode, these symptoms cause significant distress and impairment in social and occupational settings as well as in other areas of the person’s life. No one asks for depression, its something that can happen over time. People feel they can’t talk about their issues and feel they have to bottle it up inside so that others don’t see that they are weak. We the human race are compassionate to each other in times of need and distress, so reach out to someone if you feel they are down and not themselves. We learn and we grow from one another.
The fact below says it all really on how depression is being projected, we can change it by talking to one another:
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has projected that depression will be second only to cardiovascular disease as the world’s leading cause of death and disability by the year 2020 and first by 2030” (WHO, 2010). This is very alarming to see it projected to the leading cause of death by 2030.
Physical Activity & Depression
Physical activity (PA) has been recommended by physicians since ancient times (2,500 years ago) to combat depression. The benefits of PA for helping prevent depression occur regardless of people’s age, sex, race, or socioeconomic status. Aerobic exercise training and resistance exercise training have a positive effect on people with clinical depression and if you think about its a social scene as well where people train so many people that do show depressive symptoms feel a scene of inclusion and this in turn helps to reduce their symptoms. Making the exercise program fun and enjoyable is what makes someone have a positive experience with training.
My aim here is to give people knowledge about depression and how to help one another. If you know someone who is showing signs of depression, talk to them, organise a fun outing show them that you are there for them and that they are not alone. In our society we are taking ourselves out of social events by scrolling through the news feed on our phones, constantly! At breakfast, at lunch, at dinner, at family events, at any outing you will see someone out with their phones. I personally try not to be on my phone as much when others are around as it avoids conversation with one another. People want to check what others are doing but don’t think twice about what they are doing and the effects it has on other around them. Social Media platforms were built to connect people but in truth its just making us more distant than ever. Social media will always be around but conversation won’t.
So my take home message to everyone is to enjoy what you have, talk to each other, organise trips, social meetings, train with someone, be you, don’t be afraid, have a phone FREE time slot, connect with people physically, not through a screen.
Give a stranger a smile, hold the door for the next person you meet on your way out of the shop. Let a pedestrian pass by, wish the next person you meet a good day 🙂
Mental health is a huge issue for all of us, let’s reach out to one another and let’s talk 🙂
Mark Eaton
BSc Sport & Exercise Sciences
#meatonfitness
Mark Eaton 