Mental health: How simple steps are all it takes to stay on course

By Firmain Eric Mbadinga

Dr Anna-Corinne Bissouma, an adult and child psychiatrist based at Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, knows what struggling with mental well-being is like.

She has been treating and counselling people dealing with the familiar manifestations of emptiness, despair, and angst for years.

"Struggling with mental health is not a mental illness. Neither is it about losing touch with reality," Dr Bissouma tells TRT Afrika.

"Mental health is a transversal notion. It's about how you feel in your head so that you can face the challenges of everyday life and how, by being well in your head, you can be positive, even resilient and move forward."

October 10, commemorated each year as World Mental Health Day, is another reminder about the need to increase emphasis on improving the mechanisms for preserving mental health.

To achieve this, psychologists and neuropsychologists study and teach about psychosomatic factors and other elements of life that play a role in mental health.

These experts advocate certain actions to prevent mental health issues or disorders.

Back to basics

Dr Bissouma's primary recommendation to enhance mental health is linked to lifestyle hygiene.

"A healthy lifestyle entails consuming a balanced diet and ensuring a restful night's sleep. When you eat a balanced diet and get adequate sleep, you enhance your body's immune defences to combat diseases," she explains.

In addition to these initial elements, which depend on the individual, specialists recommend a diet that is not too high in fat, sugar, or salt. They also recommend steering clear of alcohol.

Ideally, Dr Bissouma suggests avoiding beverages like tea and coffee. Tobacco consumption is also presented as a risk factor.

"To de-stress, forget your worries, and feel good in body and mind, you need to play a sport and exercise. Walking for at least thirty minutes a day, and a minimum of three times a week, is important," she tells TRT Afrika.

"You can play a sport indoors or outdoors. Even when you do housework, you burn a lot of energy. When it comes to leisure, you need to be able to visit your friends, get some fresh air, and sometimes even just sit outside. Look up at the sky, breathe, and relax."

Common triggers

Factors like work pressure, stress from traffic congestion, dealing with a difficult employer, and even living conditions are common challenges of urban life that contribute to the deterioration of mental health.

In such situations, having companionship and a supportive family with whom one maintains positive relationships is essential for personal fulfilment.

"We have to be careful with relationships. Toxic relationships hold us back. This also means working on conflict resolution. If you are in conflict with someone, you must try to resolve that. You have to accept the other person and yourself, with your limits, strengths, and weaknesses," says Dr Bissouma.

Finance is among the more critical aspects of life that people need control over. Indeed, financial stress has been identified as one of the common causes of insomnia.

Experts suggest a rational mindset to avoid the pitfalls of financial mismanagement, which is an invitation to mental distress.

"This is where self-restraint plays a significant role," Dr Bissouma tells TRT Afrika.

"To avoid debt beyond one's ability to repay, people need to tame their whims and cravings."

Warning signs

Mental health can deteriorate without the person realising it — almost like an intruder sneaking into one's personal space.

"The initial response can be emotional. The person perceives a sadness that is persistent and brings along fear, anxiety, and irritability. There may be a feeling of low self-esteem," explains Dr Bissouma.

All of these could lead to behavioural issues. In some people, depreciating regard for oneself results in an unstable mood, aggressiveness, and difficulty finding interest in everyday activities.

Such people are also susceptible to substance abuse.

"At the intellectual and cognitive levels, we can see difficulties in concentrating, difficulties in reasoning normally, disturbances in judgment, and memory disorders," says Dr Bissouma.

Multiple stages

Medical science looks at mental health from the prism of positivity, reactive psychological response, and mental distress.

The second stage is when signs of a person struggling with mental health emerge.

The trigger could be a change of job, separation, birth, marriage, or bereavement. Basically, this demanding phase requires a person to adapt to a difficult situation.

The result is very often reactive psychological distress because it's in response to a problem to which the individual has difficulty adjusting.

The third stage is when individuals lose much of their ability to maintain a psychological balance.

As mental health struggles worsen, they manifest in symptoms of mental illness. Depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and acute stress are all flashpoints of this state.

"Some individuals may experience anorexia (eating disorder). Addictions may set in, too," says Dr Bissouma.

Seeking help

Regardless of whether the situation entails reactive psychological distress or a diagnosed mental disorder, experts recommend seeking the advice of a psychiatrist to prevent the onset of mental illness.

According to the World Health Organisation, people with mental disorders die an average of 20 years earlier than the rest of the population.

The late British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking battled debilitating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, for 55 of his 76 years.

He had every reason to find his life meaningless but chose to project optimism.

Drawing a parallel between black holes and depression, Hawking advised those struggling with their mental health: "Black holes aren't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly to another universe."

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