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But even though we are improving our physical health, we still not conscious of our mental health. Mental health is an important part of our healthy lifestyle. We cannot skip it because we are not completely healthy if we have mental health problems.
Your mental health can be depended upon your lifestyle, career, workplace, relationship, society, genetic factors and so on. Whatever the situation we are facing, we have to improve our mental health.
During our busy life, workplace and daily job routine make us more irritate and depressed. But we cannot stop our job, instead, we can improve our mental health. By improving mental health we will feel more peaceful, comfortable, energetic and healthy.
So, in this article, we will focus on mental health problems related questions and
How to Support Mental Health at Workplace for Nurses
What are the characteristics of mental health problems?
In our daily life, sometimes we experience stress, fear and upset. Most of the time these feelings do not exist for prolong time but sometimes it develops further and turns into mental health problems.
The common characteristics of mental health problems are -
• depression
• aggressiveness
• lack of interest
• feelings of hopelessness
• irritability
• lack of concentration
• thought of decreased self-worth
• drug abuse
• doing high-risk activities
• thought of suicide.
# Suggested for you - Clinical manifestations of major depression disorder.
How to identify an individual with mental health problems?
An individual with mental health problems has some changes which are different from a healthy individual. The changes can be because of a stressful life.
A nurse experiences a lot of stress throughout his/her prolong duty time. They provide continuous health care and support to the patients, manage patient's records and deal with administrative. These lot of stressful duties make the nurses irritate, depressed, tired and sad.
The regular stressful situations can develop into mental health problems. During this period, the individual shows some abnormal changes in his/her behaviour, speech and lifestyle. We can identify an individual with mental health problems by observing the changes very carefully.
Some common changes in mentally ill individuals are -
• Feelings of hopelessness and decreased self-worth.
• Feelings of sad, guilty and excessive fears.
• Reduced concentration ability and confused thinking.
• Avoiding communication from friends and social isolation.
• Disturbed sleeping pattern, tiredness and anxiety.
• Unable to cope with stress and daily problems.
• Major changes in diet pattern.
• Thoughts of violence, excessive anger and drug abuse.
• Thoughts of suicide.
Why mental health is important in the workplace?
Workplace stress is common for health care staffs and even for all types of employees. In such a condition, we cannot skip our workplace or job but we can improve our mental health.
Most of the workplaces or organizations have enough arrangements but they don't think about employees' health. In few organizations have physical health service facilities for the employees. But only the wellness of physical health is not enough. We must focus on mental health.
The success of an organization builds upon the quality services and hard works of the employees. So, employees' health and wellness are important factors for an organization's development.
If an employee is stressed or depressed, it affects the employee's skills and knowledge. Because of their disturbed mental status, they cannot utilize their skills and knowledge for the organization's development. So, mental health has an important role in the organization's growth and development.
Apart from the organization, workplace stress disturbs an employee's personal life and behaviour. Due to regular stress and workload, they become depressed and mentally ill. So, the organization should have a facility for mental health wellness.
How to improve your mental health?
We can protect ourselves from workplaces stress by improving our mental health. We should know some self-care habits and practices to support mental health.
Here are 5 effective ways for you to improve your mental health at the workplace.
1. Express your feelings -
Expressing your feelings can help you to deal with upset feeling and improve your mental health status. It is an effective way to support mental health.
At our workplace, we are facing a lot of stressful works and situations. Sometimes we feel upset, lack of interest, irritation, loneliness. On that situation, we should express our feelings to our colleagues, friends, family and loved one.
Take a break between your works and spend some times to relax.
Expression of your feelings to others will help to reduce stress, provide encouragement and energy.
2. Do exercise and physical activity -
Daily and regular exercise can boost your physical strength along with physiological functions. It will help you to relax your mind, concentrate on works, increase interest and adequate sleep.
You should make a habit of doing exercise regularly for at least 30 minutes. Practice yoga and meditation to relax your mind.
Along with your exercise, do some physical activity which you like. Exercise and physical activity will increase oxygen saturation level and blood circulation to your brain.
3. Sleep adequately -
Sleeping has an important role in your mental health. It helps to relax your brain and mind.
According to mayoclinic, the recommended sleeping time for an adult is 7 to 9 hours. If you want to irritate free, sleep adequately daily.
The healthy sleeping pattern helpful to improve your mental health. Lack of sleeping can make you irritated, stressed, anxious and aggressive.
4. Have healthy meals -
Most of the people don't bother about their meals. But eating habit can affect your physical and mental health.
Try to have healthy meals such as vegetables, fruits, seafood etc. Along with this, you must drink enough water to stay hydrated.
It is not easy to maintain a healthy diet pattern at work but set a time for your meal. If you are not getting healthy food at work, try to bring foods from home.
Try to avoid caffeine when you are feeling stressed. Instead of caffeine drink water, fruit juice or fresh fruits.
5. Take a break -
Continuous works can make you tired, irritated and stressed. So take a break of 5 or 10 minutes between works.
During your break time listen to music, communicate with friends or family, do whatever you like or take a snack break.
Taking a short break can relax your mind and boost your interest.
