3 Things You Shouldn’t Do When Suffering From Mental Health Problems

Whether it’s anxiety, depression, eating disorders, stress—or anything else—there are certain things you shouldn’t do when suffering from mental health problems.

It is definitely beneficial to know what these things are, so you can make a conscious effort to avoid them. Plus, you might discover that you are already doing a few of these things, which could shine a light on why things aren’t getting better for you. 

There are right and wrong ways of taking control of your mental health and dealing with your issues.

Here are the wrong ways of dealing with things:

Keep it to yourself

There are millions of people out there suffering from various mental health problems. Thankfully, there are also millions of people that have managed to overcome their biggest issues.

When you look at any individual that has overcome depression or anxiety, there’s one thing they have in common with all the other success stories. 

They spoke out. 

They didn’t keep their feelings to themselves and hide away from the world; they spoke to people about their mental health. Whether this means going to a therapist or just opening up to your friends/family, it will help you on your journey to recovery.

The worst thing you can do is keep everything to yourself as you have so many feelings and emotions bottled up. It sounds so simple, but sometimes the mere act of talking is all that’s needed to make you feel better.

It can help you rationalize your feelings, but you also might get some advice from the other side that puts things into perspective. Regardless, you shouldn’t keep things to yourself when you’re suffering. 

Rely on medication

When you reach out to people about your mental health, one of the next things you tend to do is see a doctor. The doctor will listen to your problems and point you in the right direction for more tailored help.

At the same time, they are likely to prescribe some sort of medication to help you combat some of the symptoms of your mental health problems. After all, most mental health issues are caused by chemical imbalances in your body that mess up your hormones. So, medication seeks to counter this problem. 

By all means, there’s nothing wrong with taking medication for mental health – and it’s not something to be ashamed of. However, it’s also not something you should rely on. A big problem is that lots of young people get prescribed pills that they see as the magic solution to everything.

Consequently, you have rehab centers like Sunshine Behavioral Health being filled with people that got addicted to their medication. The moment you rely on your pills to make you feel better is the moment you’ve lost the battle. Take some if things are really bad for you, but don’t rely on your medication as the only thing that can help you deal with your mental health struggles. 

Seek other crutches

Another common thing that a lot of people do is seek different crutches or vices to help them with mental health problems. The most obvious example of this is turning to the bottle.

Some people will start drinking alcohol as a way of escaping from reality and masking how they feel. For those moments when they are drunk, they don’t have a care in the world and can forget about all their problems. 

There are lots of clear problems with doing something like this. Mainly, it doesn’t actually address your issue at all. So, you get zero benefits other than a night or a few hours of relief.

Secondly, you suffer from the same problems when you’re not drunk, making you feel like you need to constantly drink and leading you down a very dark rabbit hole. Alcohol isn’t the only crutch—you should avoid doing things that provide temporary relief if they are damaging for your body and mind. 

What should you do when you suffer from bad mental health?

You’ve seen what you shouldn’t do, so what exactly is the right approach? Different tactics work for different people, but opening up and talking about your problems is always the first step.

The relief you feel when telling people how you feel is extraordinary. From here, your path may differ from someone else’s. As mentioned earlier, the simple act of talking could be all you need to feel better.

Or, you might need professional help, in which case therapy could be a good option for you.

The bottom line is that you need to talk to people about your problems and avoid relying on things that cause temporary relief without addressing the main causes of your bad mental health.