Mental Health

Mental Health includes an individual’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how one thinks, feels, and acts. It helps determine how an individual handles stress, relates to others, and makes choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Over the course of one’s life, one may experience mental health problems, thinking, mood, and behavior can be affected. Many factors contribute to mental health problems which include:

• Biological factors, i.e., genes or brain chemistry
• Life experiences, i.e., trauma or abuse
• Family history of mental health problems

Experiencing one or more of the following can be an early warning of a problem:

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little
• Pulling away from people and usual activities
• Having low or no energy
• Feeling numb or like nothing matters
• Having unexplained aches and pains
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Smoking, drinking or using drugs more than usual
• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
• Yelling or fighting with family and friends
• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
• Having persistent thoughts and memories that can’t get out of your head
• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
• Thinking of harming oneself or others
• Inability to perform daily tasks like getting to work or school

These problems are common, but treatment can help an individual get better and recover completely.