PATREON POSTS:
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE LANCESCURV CONFERENCE LINE WHEN LIVE.

MAINTAINING OUR MENTAL HEALTH IN A VERY CHALLENGING WORLD! – SANDRA HINTON

WHAT CAUSES MENTAL ILLNESS?

Most mental illnesses don’t have a single cause. Instead they have a variety of causes, called risk factors. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to develop a mental illness. Sometimes, the mental illness develops gradually. Other times, it doesn’t appear until a stressful event triggers it.

There are many risk factors and triggers, but here are a few examples:

Genetics. Mental illness often runs in the family.
Environment. Living in a stressful environment can make you more likely to develop a mental illness. Things like living in poverty or having an abusive family put a lot of stress on your brain and often trigger mental illness.
Childhood trauma. Even if you’re no longer in a stressful environment, things that happened to you as a child can have an impact later in life.
Stressful events: like losing a loved one, or being in a car accident.
Negative thoughts. Constantly putting yourself down or expecting the worst can get you stuck in a cycle of depression or anxiety.
Unhealthy habits: like not getting enough sleep, or not eating.
Drugs and alcohol: Abusing drugs and alcohol can trigger a mental illness. It can also make it harder to recover from mental illness.
Brain chemistry. Mental illness involves an imbalance of natural chemicals in your brain and your body.
These risk factors don’t just affect who will develop a mental illness in the first place. They also affect how severe their symptoms will be, and when they will experience those symptoms.

You can also improve your own mental health by taking action to reduce your risk factors. That might include seeking treatment, like medication or therapy.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

IS MENTAL ILLNESS GENETIC?

Genetics is one of many risk factors that can contribute to mental illness. Your genes are passed down from your parents and ancestors, and they provide the blueprint for how your body and brain develop.

Genetics is really complicated, and so is mental illness. There’s no single gene that determines for sure whether you’ll have a mental illness. (Even something as simple as the color of your eyes is determined by up to 16 different genes!) Instead there are many genes that affect the way your brain develops, and this can make you more or less likely to develop a mental illness later on.

Other factors that contribute to mental illness include your environment, your habits, and stressful or traumatic events.

Does knowing my family history help?
If members of your family have been treated for mental illness, it can be useful to know which treatments have or have not worked for them. Just remember that you are still an individual, and there’s no substitute for finding the treatment that works best for you.

Knowing your family history can also help you make better decisions about your lifestyle. For example, if addiction runs in your family, it’s probably a good idea to be careful about your own drug and alcohol use. There’s some evidence that marijuana use can trigger psychosis if you have a family history of schizophrenia.

At the end of the day, there’s nothing you can do about your genes—but you can do something about your other risk factors. You can remove yourself from toxic environments, practice healthier habits, and seek treatment and support.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

HOW CAN I FIND ACCURATE MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION ONLINE?

One of the great things about the Internet is that it provides people with access to lots of information. You can just Google a phrase like “treatment for depression” and find 350,000,000 results.

That’s a lot of information. Some of that information is top-notch and helpful. And some of it can be misleading, outdated, or even wrong on purpose.

Consider the author or publisher of the information. Who wrote or published the information? If it’s a University, a non-profit, or a government, does that organization have an “agenda”? Most websites will have an About Us section that has mission, vision, and philosophy, so that you know where they’re coming from. If it’s an individual posting on a blog or on an Internet forum, does that person also have an “about me” section, so that you can determine if they have an agenda or are otherwise qualified to speak on the topic?
Check out any sources or ask people where they got their information from. If someone makes a specific factual claim (“half of all mental illnesses will emerge by the age of 14”) check their sources or ask them for their sources. Sometimes on the Internet it’s more common to see hyperlinks to resources, as opposed to footnotes or endnotes like in a research paper, so this can be tricky. This doesn’t mean that unsourced information is bad—people sometimes drop sources for common information to make things easier to read. But you shouldn’t be afraid to ask
Look at how recently the article was updated or the website was created. We’re learning amazing things about the body and the brain every day. Are eggs good or bad for you? Does coffee dehydrate you or can it count toward your water intake? Sometimes answers change over time, as more research gets published. For example, PTSD used to be classified as an anxiety disorder but now it’s classified somewhere else. Old information isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s easy for things to get outdated on the Internet – and so, the older the source, the greater the likelihood that it may not have information that is current.
Get a second opinion. When you are honestly looking for information about mental health, you don’t want to shop around just until you find something that matches your opinion. But if you are surprised or unsure about something you see, there’s nothing wrong with checking out another source or two! Exposure to different viewpoints can be healthy. Just make sure that the sources they cite, and research they have, are real.
Know how to spot ads. Advertisements can sometimes appear just like the main content of a website or a blog. They may have just a slightly a different color or a small “ad” indicator. Ads aren’t necessarily bad content, they’re just paid to be featured or placed higher, and they usually do include just the perspective of the person or entity that placed the ad.
Trust your gut. If some information or advice seems out of place or doesn’t sit right with you, question it and verify it before you follow it.

CLICK HERE TO READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE

About The Author

LANCESCURV IS A MASTER STORYTELLER | SOCIAL MEDIA PROVOCATEUR | ILLUSTRATOR/CARTOONIST | PODCASTER | CULTURE CRITIC | DIGITAL NOMAD | BLOGGER | EXTROVERTED RECLUSE | FOCUSING ON THE INTRICACIES OF HUMAN NATURE, TRENDING NEWS & THOUGHT-PROVOKING TOPICS OF INTEREST. CONTACT: [email protected]

Related posts

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
LANCESCURV: RAW COMMENTARY | CULTURE | NEWS | OPINION!
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x