At times there is an overwhelming amount of information out there about our mental health, how to recognize if it’s in a good place, how to maintain it when it is and strategies for helping when it’s not so good.

Social media is filled with reels detailing peoples’ 4am starts to the day with meditation, journaling and workouts all done before the day begins for most, highlighting this as a strategy to maintain or achieve good mental health. This is fantastic if it works for you, but it is important to remember that good mental health in one person is perhaps not the same picture as someone else.

Likewise, there are many influencers detailing their mental health struggles and what that feels like for them but that might not ring true for you, and you might not recognise yourself in their picture.

We are unique individuals made up of distinctive experiences and ways of being in the world that shape our thoughts and feelings. What means good mental health for one of us, might not mean the same for others. Likewise the strategies you use to maintain it or cope with poor mental health is also as unique as you are.

For this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week let’s build awareness of our own mental health, and what that looks like for us.

There can be common indicators of when someone’s mental health is not in a good place. This list can be useful way to start checking in with yourself.
• Sleep: are you struggling to get to and stay asleep. Are you waking up in the night? Are you waking early or struggling to get up? Are sleeping more than usual?
• Energy Levels: Are you tired even if you are sleeping?
• Self-care: Are you looking after yourself? Are your household tasks being done?
• Emotions: Are you more irritable? Are you more tearful? Or do you feel quite numb and unemotional?
• Relationships: Is there a change in your relationships? Do you want to see people less? Is there friction in the people you live with and/or close to?
• Physical: Are you feeling achy? Is your stomach upset without a cause?
• Appetite: Are you not very hungry and eating less or maybe eating more than usual?
• Quiet Time: Do you struggle with silence and quiet times? Is your day filled with noise, music and podcasts? Do you need almost constant distraction?
• Time: Are you managing your time? Are you doing everything you want to do?

Sometimes it can be difficult to relate to a list like this and we dismiss a tricky period as being fleeting. In reality, how you are presenting to the world might be different to how you feel on the inside. This feeling of incongruence is a marker of some kind of emotional and psychological distress without you really knowing why.

Ask yourself, what is good mental health for me and what signs should I watch out for that can show me it’s not going so well?

If you do find things aren’t going well, you can support yourself in several ways but if you feel you need some extra support from the community around you counselling can be a helpful way to explore this feeling and help you find out what’s going on for you.

You don’t have to start counselling with any clear idea of the cause of things or even knowing what you will talk about. Your counsellor will go at your pace and help explore your difficulties and help you get to know yourself on a deeper level. This will allow you to know what your mental health looks like for you, good and bad.

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