How To Move On From Mental Health Challenges – Steps in the Right Direction! - The DV Walking Wounded
Life is all about emotions, and as much as we might like them to hold steady, it’s just not going to happen. If it did, it would mean we’d miss out on the truly happy and momentous times in our lives, and that’s not something you want to happen. Of course, it also means that we have to suffer through mental health challenges when emotions (and circumstances) aren’t so good, and that can be truly debilitating. That’s why it’s so important to understand how to move on from mental health challenges in a healthy way – read on to find out more.
First and foremost, before you do anything else or even think about doing anything else, you’ll need to get help. Mental health challenges are not something you just can brush off, and they’ll often leave behind plenty of upset and problems, and perhaps even trauma of their own.
That’s why the very first thing you need to do once you know that your mental health is suffering is to get help and know for sure that you absolutely do not have to go through this alone, whatever ‘this’ is. Reach out to friends and family or speak to a therapist who can give you support and guidance and make sure you talk about how you’re feeling and what happened because it’s only when you do that that healing can really begin. If finances are an issue, the first place that can be reached out to is a mental health hotline (988) or a trusted church pastor — only as a first line of defense. They are a starting point and would refer you further. Support groups are ALWAYS another good first step!
Trying to recover from an emotionally problematic experience that’s affected your mental health is not something that can (or should) be done quickly or without a lot of thought. If you try to rush the process, you’ll probably find that you suffer relapses and even if you think you’ve got past the trauma, it will still cause issues, often in unexpected and unwelcome ways.
The best thing to do is to break your recovery down into smaller steps and make short-term goals that lead to long-term ones. It could be that you’ve lost a loved one and the grief is causing you to feel the symptoms of depression, for example. In that case, dealing with the situation by making small goals is ideal; you could let other people know what happened, you could look at cremation urns from Memorials.com, you could organize their belongings… but you should do these things one at a time and without rushing, and that will help you deal with things more easily and positively.
Setting goals down in a journal, that is writing out your steps/plan, will help you to keep to those goals and more likely accomplish them. Revise these goals whenever you feel the need.
Mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing, yoga, meditation with positive affirmations, and so on, can help calm your mind and reduce symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression, and although it can be a difficult thing to get started on, it’s well worth persevering in the end.
Take a few minutes each day to just sit quietly and focus on your breath and nothing else – don’t let upsetting or intrusive thoughts come into your mind and instead try to stay as calm and peaceful as possible. If you can do that, you can learn to live in the present moment, which means you’ll know how to let go of worries and move on from mental health challenges successfully.
