Ways to Protect Your Well Being
Spend Quality Time With Others
It is important to stay in touch , things like text messages from mobile phones can help throughout the day.
Eat healthily & drink plenty of water
Eat at least 5 portions of fresh fruit or vegetables a day. At least 8 glasses of water a day aids concentration and mental wellbeing.
Avoid Overwork
Research shows that working too long hours takes away time and energy from doing all the other things that can protect our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Look For Warning Signs
Admit to yourself when you are getting into difficulties.
Keep Physically Active
Find something you enjoy, you could go walking with a friend or take in a team sport.
Get enough regular sleep
Sleep is really important for our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Take time to do things you enjoy
This could include a hobby or volunteering in a local charity or community group.
Learn to relax
Ways to relax include relaxation tapes, massage, complementary therapies, meditation and physical exercise.
Get Support From Others
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you are having difficulties it can be hard to admit to it, so try telling someone you trust first. Support could be from friends or from professionals; there are some helpful contacts in the organisation section.
Holidays
When we are stressed out by the routine of every day life. Sometimes we need to have a break a good holiday can do us the world of good.
Recovery
Top Tips When Recovering From Mental Ill Health
Below are listed some things that help and encourage people who experience mental ill health. These activities are done in day centres at home or in the community.
Family Support
An encouraging and supportive family is important when someone is going through a difficult time.
Volunteering
This is often rewarding for a person and helps build confidence and can lead on to other things.
Cooking
Some people enjoy preparing a nice meal cooking can be relaxing.
Gardening
Is therapeutic and some people enjoy pottering about and looking at the beautiful flowers they have grown.
The Gym
Going to the gym is a great way to work of stress but make sure a qualified fitness trainer is showing you have to use the training machines correctly.
Going For A walk
This is a good way of reducing built up stress and clearing your mind after a brisk walk.
Reading
Enjoying a good book is a great way to relax and pass some time.
Photography
Whether joining a camera club or just taking family snaps can be an enjoyable hobby.
Using the Internet
Often handy to chat with friends or to get information about different medicines.
Art/Craft
A great way to be creative and express your self.
Relaxation
CDS are a great way to unwind just sit back close your eyes and relax.
Exercise
There are so many ways to get more exercise and increase physical activity!
- Walking is a good way to begin.
- Get off the bus a stop earlier and walk.
- Park farther away from the supermarket.
- Try to walk rather than drive.
- Try out pretty walks; go and explore the parks, mountains, and coast where you live.
- Try to take regular exercise, such as swimming.
- Use the stairs rather than a lift or escalator.
- Walk a dog.
- Get out and cycle.
- Dance to the radio.
- Get an activity buddy.
- Get the garden into shape.
- Join a local social or leisure class, such as line dancing, yoga or salsa.
Most of us are put off by the word ‘exercise’. Remember: keeping our bodies active can have a positive impact on our physical and mental health.
The benefits of keeping active
- Increased energy levels
- Better body tone, posture, and confidence.
- More stamina.
- Stronger bones.
- Reduced risk of heart disease and stroke.
Regular exercise will improve your figure and posture, and enhance your overall sense of well being.
Keep Safe
- Make sure you can be seen; wear necessary safety equipment, such as cycling helmets.
- Let people know where you are going and what time you will be back home, especially if you are going alone.
- Warm up before you exercise.
- Build up your stamina gradually.
If you feel unwell, do not continue exercising.
Keeping fit is one of the best preventative medicines available.
Just building in a little more exercise each day can have positive effects on your health.
Sport not only provides an excellent way of being physically active, but can have an important social dimension as well. This contributes to the mental health and well-being that is just one of the benefits of greater physical activity. You’ll find details of activities in your area in the local newspaper or library, or on the local authority website; or, you can contact your local leisure centre to see what activities are on offer.
How to Deal with Stress
Stress is the emotional and physical strain that affects mental and physical well being. It is the living response to the pressures of everyday life.
The stresses people feel can be:
- Physical – fear and anxiety are physically exhausting, and if prolonged or chronic, can be harmful to physical health
- Emotional – chronic and unresolved fear, anxiety, grief, anger, resentment, sadness, low self-esteem, or other emotion that becomes persistent and taxing, both mentally and physically, adversely affecting the normal enjoyment of life
All the emotions mentioned above are normal, and have their proper place in everyday living. It is when these emotions become chronic and prolonged that problems with stress can arise. Often, people who are struggle with physical and/or emotional stress over prolonged periods are not fully aware of the underlying causes. Identifying the cause of stress in a person’s life is the first step to relieving the symptoms of stress.
There are many recognised types of stress. These include:
Survival stress
Too much stress from worrying or from circumstances beyond our control causes the body to react with the well-known fight-or-flight response. The brain, kidneys, and other organs release hormones, such as adrenaline, that prepare the body and mind for running or fighting. This is a normal and natural occurrence, and sometimes necessary for survival. But prolonged bouts of fight-or-flight stress are harmful to both body and mind.
Internal stress
Habitual worrying about things which cannot be changed or controlled, or just worrying for no reason at all, can cause symptoms of both mental and physical illness. This internal type of stress is typical of the modern Western lifestyle, and it is very important to understand and manage it in order to avoid illness.
Environmental Stress
Our responses to the things and events in our immediate environment often cause stress, such as too much noise; over-crowding; the many pressures of family, work, and social life.
Fatigue
The effects of exhaustion and overwork may not be immediately obvious; however, without sufficient opportunity for rest and recreation, these stresses build up over time, and can take a devastating toll on mind and body.
Coping with the stresses of daily life
Bodies under stress become tense. This can lead to physical pain and shortness of temper. Some good tips for dealing on-the-spot with daily stress include:
- Deep breathing exercises, which can be done almost anytime, almost anywhere
- Relaxation techniques, such as those used in Yoga
- Recreational exercise, such as brisk walking
- Listening to music or audio books
- Watching television or listening to radio programmes (NB: it might be a good idea to delay listening to the News if you’ve had a stressful day!)
Repressing the emotions provoked by daily stress is never a good idea. Although we must always strive to control ourselves, and put on a brave face at work and at school, it helps to confide one’s troubles to a trusted friend or relative; a problem shared is a problem halved, and appropriate sharing is certainly one of the most time-tested methods of dealing with stress. Sometimes, counselling may be necessary in order to deal effectively with stress. If so, don’t be ashamed; it is better to admit to the need for help, and seek it, than to suffer in silence and become ill.
Sometimes, being too close to the problems that cause stress, such as problems with marriage, parenting, caring for elders, etc., can make it difficult or nearly impossible to see what the solutions might be; in such cases, talking our problems through with a counsellor or therapist can be of great value.
Positive Stress?
There are many positive aspects of stress, including the ability to realise when something may be going wrong. Positive stress, such as pain in the head after a hard bump, can tell us when we need to see a doctor to be treated for an injury. The burden of remorse after saying harsh words to a spouse or friend signal that an apology and reconciliation are in order. The awful fear we feel when we see a building burning to the ground is our primitive survival instinct telling us to ‘get out–now!’
A Sensible Lifestyle
We’ve all heard this advice thousands of times, but it cannot be repeated often enough: adequate sleep, a healthful diet and proper exercise are indispensable to overall good health and to maintaining normal levels of stress. When we feel well, we are better equipped to deal with the slings and arrows of life. Absorbing hobbies, constructive interests help to create a well-rounded, healthful lifestyle. Try some relaxing activity. Join an art group or photography class or learn to play a musical instrument.
Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety and promote adequate sleep. Take care when starting any new sport or exercise; seek medical advice if you have any concerns about your level of ability or fitness.
What else can I do to reduce stress?
- Avoid drinking excessive amounts of alcohol or indulging in any other form of recreational drug abuse
- Avoid impulse eating (i.e., eating when bored, sad, lonely, depressed)
- If you feel the need for extra rest during a stressful time of life, make arrangements to get the rest you need
- Don’t push yourself too much and don’t take on too much.
- Learn to say NO; make sure you have spare time to do the things you enjoy.
Smoking
Smoking prevalence is significantly higher among people with mental health problems than it is among the general population.
Cigarette smoking is linked with a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses, including anxiety, agoraphobia, and panic disorder, but especially with depression.
25% of the population smoke.
75% of people with a severe mental health problem smoke.
People with mental health problems are ten times more likely to die from respiratory failure.
Benefits of Stopping Smoking
After...
- 20 minutes, blood pressure and pulse return to normal.
- 1 hour, the body starts to get rid of tobacco toxins.
- 8 hours, the level of carbon monoxide and nicotine in the blood will halve.
- 24 hours, carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body; the lungs start to clear; the chance of a heart attack starts to decrease.
- 48 hours, there is no nicotine left in the body; taste and smell start to improve; nerve endings start to re-grow; walking becomes easier.
- 72 hours, breathing becomes easier; energy levels increase.
- 2-12 weeks, circulation improves; lung function increases; running becomes easier.
- 3-9 months, significant decreases in the following: coughing; sinus congestion; tiredness; shortness of breath; chest infections. Lung function increases by up to 10%.
- 1 year, the risk of heart attack falls to half that of a smoker.
- 10 years, the risk of lung cancer is halved; the longer you go without smoking, the lower the risk.
- 15 years, risk of a heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked.
Reasons to Stop Smoking
- Better all-round health: smoking cessation reduces the risk of fifty illnesses and conditions.
- Heart attack risk drops to the same as a non-smoker, three years after quitting! Cancer risk drops with every year of not smoking.
- Living longer and staying well: one in two long term smokers will lose about 16 years of life.
- Be a positive role model! Set a good example to children and young people.
- Improve fitness and breathing; be better at sport; find it easier to go up the stairs.
- Food and drink taste better to people who don’t smoke.
- Better chance of having a healthy baby.
Better skin and complexion; no early wrinkles! - Fresher-smelling breath, hair and clothes; no more cigarette smell around the house.
- Work will be easier; far less time spent outside, or in the smoking room, when you could be getting on with work.
- Travelling on trains, aircraft and buses will be easier: no more desperate searches for safe smoking areas.
- Stop making the tobacco companies rich.
- Having money to spend on other things. Smoking 20 cigarettes a day can cost £1,400 per year.
Diet
Healthy eating is just as important for good mental health as it is for our physical health, after all ‘you are what you eat’. By paying attention to what we eat and changing to more healthy ways, both the body and mind are given the right fuel for good health.
Choosing healthy foods and being more active will help you to:
- Cope better with stress and improve mood
- Be protected from illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and brittle bones.
- Look and feel better
- have more energy.
- Increase your fitness
- Control your weight.
Drink
The average person needs to drink 8-10 glasses (1.5 litres or 2 pints) of fluid each day to keep bowels and the rest of the body in good health.
You may need more to drink if exercising or during hot weather.
Fluids can help you to control your weight by filling you up. Try having a drink with a meal of having a low calorie soup as a starter.
However, alcohol is high in calories and unhelpful if you are trying to manage your weight, it can also make you feel hungry. So if you drink alcohol, add a low calorie mixer to drinker and make sure you have plenty to eat before you drink alcohol. The limits or men are 4 units a day and 3 units a day for women, but it is beneficial for you health to have some alcohol free days. A unit + 1 glass wine, pint beer/larger, 1 shot of spirit.
What are the keys to success?
- Eat a variety of foods
- Eat regularly
- Keep salt to a minimum in cooking and at the table.
- Choose plenty of high fibre starchy foods- about 1/3 of your food
- Have at least 5 daily portions of vegetables and fruit.
- Choose moderate amounts of lean meats and alternatives
- Keep fatty foods to a minimum and choose lower fat alternatives
- Avoid sugary food and drinks
- drink 8-10 glasses of water a day
- handle and store food hygienically
- Eat the right amount to be a healthy weight
- Pay attention to dental hygiene
- Be active
What are healthy choices?
- Water
- Low Calorie flavoured waters
- Sugar free drinks
- Tea
- Coffee
- Fruit juice (1-2 glasses a day)
- Low fat Milk (up to a pint a day)
- Reduced fat and sugar drinks such as Horlicks, Options and Highlights.
Obesity
Nine out of 10 British adults and two-thirds of children will be overweight or obese by the middle of this century.
Worldwide, 40% of men and 30% of women are now overweight. 24% of men and 27% of women are obese.
Obesity is a condition where a person has gained over a period of time a lot of excessive weight. This condition can reduce a person quality of life and in extreme cases a person can be bed ridden unable to walk or look after them selves. A person’s health can also suffer.
The risks of obesity are as follows:
- Being Obese and overweight can increase the risk of developing
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Coronary Heart Disease
- Hypertension
- Liver Disease
How Does Obesity Develop?
Genetics- It is thought genes play a part but how much or how little we don’t know the exact genes have not been isolated yet.
Eating Habits- When we feel stressed we tend to eat more we also eat more when we are bored or tired this is called comfort eating which we all do to a certain extent.
Emotional Health – There are many personal reasons why people over eat it could be depression, low self esteem, end of relation ship, grief, unemployment, their are many reasons and in society today we are often judged by how we look. When in reality we are all valid individuals.
Activity’s- It is important to have some exercise or even going for a brisk walk and to eat a healthy diet.
Treatment for Obesity
The main treatment for obesity is dieting and physical exercise to supplement this incase of failure anti obesity drugs to reduce appetite or inhibit fat absorption. In severe cases, surgery is performed or an intra gastric balloon is placed to reduce stomach volume and/or bowel length, leading to earlier satiation and reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food.