Things That Have Helped My Own Mental Health

Note that the image adove was generated by ChatGPT GPT-4 DALL-E

Note: This article is roughly 3700 words and is by no means exhaustive. Also I may amend this article at a future date.

Disclaimer:

I am not a medical professional and this article or any other articles in this blog can not and should not be used as advice on your own mental health. Mental health is a very complex subject and everyone’s treatment for mental health will be unique to them. I am in no way in this article advising anyone at all that they should stop whatever treatment they are taking and am not in this article advising anyone to stop whatever medications they are taking. This article and others on this blog are simply by own ideas and opinions on the subject. Please consult your own doctor for advice on the correct treatment options for you. I intend no harm in this article to anyone and are just sharing my own ideas on the topic of mental health.

I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF THIS ARTICLE OR OTHERS ON THIS BLOG HARM OTHERS IN SOME WAY AND THIS ISN’T MY INTENTION.

This article is going to be a number of techniques and just things in general that have helped and aided in my own mental health. I want to preface this by saying that I have been involved in the whole mental health world since 2018 now and have been given two diagnoses since then [although the official diagnosis is just one, not two] and have been admitted to hospital on 5 separate occasions – 3 of them being in 2022 alone. I want to also preface this by saying that this is coming from my own limited experience with mental health and there are probably many others who perhaps know more on this topic that I do, I am simply going to share own what has helped me since I have become involved in the world of mental health.

The first thing that I want to say is that becoming “mentally unwell” does not at all mean you are going “crazy” or are “losing it”. Something which I myself experienced and I have seen others in the various hospitals I have been to, is that when you start becoming “mentally unwell” you start to think and believe that you are “crazy” and that everyone around you - your friends/family/work colleagues all think you are completely “crazy”. There is this very sudden change in world view often experienced by people who start becoming “mentally unwell” – thinking that the whole world thinks they are “deranged”, “crazy”, some sort of “lunatic” etc. I want to say emphatically right here in this article that nobody is “crazy” – everyone has their own reason and rationale for doing what they do (even if that reason/rationale is skewed), even people with so called “mental illnesses”. What others may perceive as “deranged” or “crazy” may be perfectly reasonable and justifiable by the person doing those things.

Another thing that I want to talk about here is this important notion that an important sign of good mental health is being able to openly express and experience so called “bad mental health” [without fear or worry of retribution]. This may sound contradictory, but in my experience in the past I have put great efforts into concealing my bad mental health from others and this has come at such a great personal cost to myself because I have suffered greatly both mentally and emotionally and taken great efforts to hide it from my family and friends. In doing this those around me are completely oblivious to my very bad mental health and everything continues as though everything is fine and normal, when deep down my mental health is extremely poor and declining.

The point I wish to make here is that you shouldn’t try to hide or conceal your mental health state – whether that be bad or good because a sign of good mental health is being able to openly express and experience bad mental health to your family/friends. It is much better to make others aware of your bad mental health than to sell those around you with a false reality that you are completely fine and ok, when this is in fact not the case. In my case I feel I’ve really let those around me down in not expressing and telling them of my very bad and declining mental health and somehow, I felt that I was sparing them the pain of knowing that I really wasn’t doing well internally and I guess this is because I love my family very much and don’t want them to see me in any kind of pain or suffering. I feel there was another reason as well that caused me to conceal my own bad mental health and that was, I felt it was imperative at all costs to not show bad mental health because I felt that at all costs, I couldn’t go back into hospital again because of what happened [or perhaps what didn’t happen] while I was in hospital.

Another technique I want to share is this article that may help in improving your mental health is this important wisdom that your disposition, your emotions, your thoughts, your mind’s activity, all things related to yourself, none of these things impact or change the outside world or others. No amount of getting really upset at something is going to change the thing you get upset at. No amount of worrying, panicking, being paranoid is going to change the outside world or others. No amount of getting angry, annoyed, giving way to hatred or evil is going to change the outside world or others. No amount of complaining to your family/friends is going to change the situation in your workplace. No amount of getting angry at God or the world is going to bring the changes that you hope. I will say as well that this was a hard pill to swallow (no pun intended) when I saw truth in this wisdom because for so long I would oft times change my disposition in such awful ways in some vein hope that it will bring some kind of change to the outside world. No amount of making yourself really unhappy and sulking will ever cause the changes that you hope for.

I also just want to point out something that really has contributed negatively to my bad mental health in the past and that is I would oft times want to screw over God for some strange reason and I myself knew it wrong to harm others, so wouldn’t harm others and yet I didn’t see the wrongness in harming myself, so then I would harm myself in various ways mentally, emotionally and spiritually in my vein attempt to screw over God. During a period of time in my life I was in complete spiritual darkness because I wanted to screw over God and to do this, I would cause myself to go dark spiritually. However, during this period I would often times do spiritual things such as meditation and prayer and it was such a constant battle whereby on one hand I wanted to grow spiritually and engaged in meditation and prayer and reading various spiritual texts, but then on the other hand I did so many things that were detrimental to my spiritual efforts. However, I’m glad to say here that more recently I have perhaps become a little holier in a sense as I have started to realize that screwing over myself to screw over God is just foolish and I ask the question; why does God matter so much that I screw over myself? I have realized since that it is me that is being screwed over and experiencing this very negative thing and I don’t really want to experience these negative things.

Furthermore, I also wanted to discuss a little about the treatment options offered in the mental health world. The number one treatment that the mental health world has at their disposal to treat mental illnesses is the use of medications that have been researched to be better than placebo when used on mental health patients. I first want to say here that generally if you refuse the medications that they offer you in hospital they will most likely put you on the depot injection and they can give this to you without your consent and I have seen first hand 4-6 nurses in hospital go into a patient’s room and give them this depot injection medication to them with or without their consent. I will say that from what I have observed in hospital from the patients that have been given the depot injection medication (usually paliperidone) that within a few days the patient generally presents as normal and well. I will also say that in one admission I refused the oral medications they offered to me and was put on the depot injection and was smart enough to know that if I didn’t comply with this, they would simply force it on me and so complied with taking this medication. I will also add here that the depot injection is very sedating and comes with certain side effects such as weight gain and sexual dysfunction [for men, not so sure about women (I think they get late periods)]. I received paliperidone and they gave me the maximum dosage of that stuff and I will also add that I had some very interesting dreams when taking this depot injection medication.

Be that as it may, I just want to add that if you refuse medication while out of hospital and in the community, generally the doctor/consultant will likely decide for you to go back into hospital (where they can give this medication to you without your consent) and if you refuse the oral tablets there then they will likely give you the depot injection. My general advice to people in the mental health world is to take the medication and comply with it and if you experience unwanted side effects try to negotiate this with the Doctor/consultant to maybe change medications. If you are seen as complying with the medication, they will see this as a good sign and will be more likely to listen to what you have to say regarding the medication you are taking. If you decide to not take the medication then they may see this as a sign that you are becoming mentally unwell and while this can be a sign of someone becoming unwell – deciding not to take their medication, it isn’t always the case, but the Doctor may not see it that way and so may decide to put you into hospital. I also want to add that generally the Doctors/Psychiatrists/Consultants main goal is to keep you out of hospital – not keeping you mentally well – notice the distinction.

I also want to say here in this article that mental health hospitals may or may not be effective in helping you get better. Just because the nurses/doctors/consultants etc all work in the mental health world doesn’t mean that they are the be all and end all for all metal health related illnesses. Or put another way just because they say they treat these mental health illnesses doesn’t mean that they are actually effective in treating these mental health illnesses. Just because they work in mental health and have various qualifications in this subject doesn’t necessarily immediately mean that they will be able to effectively treat your own mental illness. Or I put it another way; just because you are mentally unwell or are experiencing some sort of mental illness doesn’t necessarily mean that you must go into hospital and receive the treatment offered in those places (granted the only treatment they really give is medication – this is the one thing that you can rely on mental hospitals to be good at – giving medication). It may be that you can operate in your community and get treatment offered in your community. But I will also add that the relapse rate is quite high.

Moreover, I wanted to also share this analogy that I feel may or may not be useful to you if you are suddenly involved in the mental health world, is it this: If I was married and had some sort of issues with my marriage, would I go to the Buddhist monk who has never been married, maybe never been in any kind of relationship, but had read all about marriage from books, for advice on my marriage? Or would I go to the couple who have been married for 48 years and have seen ups and downs in their marriage? I feel the answer is of course I would go to the couple who have been married for 48 years. Now applying this analogy to the world of mental health. Would I go to the consultant that has studied mental illnesses at university and has maybe done 10 years of helping people with their mental illness for advice and treatment on my mental illness? Or would I go to the person who has the same mental illness as me [or some sort of mental illness] and has had the mental illness for 10 years for advice and treatment on my mental illness? I would argue that you would preferably go to the person who themselves have actually experienced the same mental illness as you for advice and treatment. Now I am not saying that you should just dismiss all advice from a doctor or consultant on what treatment you should take and of course we don’t live in an ideal world where all people that treat mental illness have themselves experienced some form of mental illness. But what I am saying is that you should perhaps listen to some advice that people with the same mental illness or have at least gone through some form of mental illness have to say.

Another point I wish to say in this article is that all mental illnesses are unique. You and another person may have the same diagnosis, but how you both react and respond to the mental illness are both very unique. Therefore, you should take the path that is right for you, the same medication may not work for both of you even though you both have the same diagnosis. You should do what is right for you and your own predicament and follow your own path. What helps your own mental health isn’t the same as what helps another person. Do what is right for you and don’t feel that you need to follow the same path as someone else – everyone is unique and different. Also, the impact of a mental illness on one person isn’t the same as another, you may have the same diagnosis, but it may be that one person is able to work, but the other person isn’t because the symptoms are too severe for them.

Additionally, I want to say that simplifying mental health in terms of either being “mentally well” or “mentally unwell” is perhaps not the correct thing to do. Mental health is so much more complex and complicated than simply labelling someone either “mentally well” or “mentally unwell”. You can have symptoms of a mental illness, but still be “mentally well”. I feel that there is such a range of levels of mental health, for example someone can have a mental breakdown of some sort perhaps because of stress from exams – but yet they do not have a mental illness of any kind. In my experience, going into a mental health hospital doesn’t necessarily mean that I am genuinely unwell – it simply means that the Doctor/Consultant thinks that I am unwell enough (from there perhaps 20-minute interaction with me and the notes) to warrant me going in for a hospital admission. Let it also be said here that going into a mental health hospital shouldn’t be regarded as a personal failure on your part. Of all the times I have been admitted to hospital I feel that perhaps only one time could have been avoided, in retrospect I felt there was genuinely very little I could have done to prevent me from going into the mental health hospitals I went in to.

On top of this point, I want to add here that it is my view that having a mental illness does not at all excuse you from hurting others or harming them. Even with mental illness people should still be held accountable for their actions, just because you have the legendary diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia still makes you accountable for the harm that you cause others. I just also want to add the mental illness paranoid schizophrenia is promoted in media such as films in such an inaccurate way and portrays these kinds of people as being evil and harming others in some way. From reading the book I mention later in this article, it is in fact more common that people with paranoid schizophrenia human rights are actually violated more often than normal people, generally most people with this diagnosis are not violent in any way shape of form.

On top of that, another important thing that I feel you should appreciate with mental health is that the diagnosis or label that they give you, whether that be “paranoid schizophrenic”, “bi-polar”, “depression” etc shouldn’t be taken as a personal attack on yourself and you shouldn’t take it too personally whatever diagnosis that you receive from the people that work in mental health. Another important point that should be made is that whatever diagnosis that you are given, it makes 0 difference to the actual symptoms you experience and that being given a diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean that you have that mental illness – it simply means that the people assessing you think that this mental illness is the one you most likely have. My general approach to my diagnosis is realizing that this is simply what the Doctor who assessed me thinks – for me I am impartial to my diagnosis – I neither believe I do or don’t have that mental health illness – I realize that this is simply what the Doctor believes I have from the interactions I have had with them.

What’s more, I wanted to share this interesting notion which is that whatever the mental illness you may have and whatever beliefs you have stemming from your mental illness you should ask the simply question of “Does changing my behaviour affect/impact this belief”. For example, let’s say that you believe that the FBI are after you or some irrational belief such as this – simply ask the question “Does changing my behaviour affect/impact this belief”. I feel the correct answer to this question is that changing your behaviour doesn’t change the fact that the FBI are after you or not. I guess this is perhaps similar to the idea that your disposition doesn’t affect the outside world. Becoming panicked and restless from this belief doesn’t change the outside world at all, being paranoid doesn’t change the outside world. However, I will say from what I have read on schizophrenia that most people have irrational beliefs and anything that you say to a person with this disease, no matter how reasonable will not result in changing someone that has schizophrenia beliefs. A really good book on schizophrenia I read while in hospital is “Surviving Schizophrenia, 7th Edition” by E. Fuller Torrey linked on Amazon here

Additionally, I also want to share some things that have genuinely helped me with my mental health – Meditation and prayer have both helped me massively with my mental health, especially meditation. The technique that I use when meditating is said in my article on mediation linked here and the technique I use to pray is linked here. In short, the technique I use to meditate is to try to stop my thoughts and clear my mind. The technique I use to pray or have used in the past is to simply visualise the issue whatever it may be and then pray that this issue be amended and helped in some way – this may be some internal issue I face, some issue at my employment or any kind of issue really. Generally, I aim to meditate for 15 minutes and pray for maybe 15-30 minutes. I can not emphasis enough how much these two tools – meditation and prayer have helped me in my life, I hope that you can also get some value out of these tools.

Lastly, this article wouldn’t be complete without bringing up my experience with Buddhism. It is said that the person who is at so called Nirvana has “perfect mental health”. I may or may not be at Nirvana and have “perfect mental health”, but I wanted to share here that following the eightfold path has really helped to reduce my own suffering – and yeah you may not believe in this whole idea that Buddhism is the solution to suffering – but my own experience is such that I genuinely do believe that Buddhism is the path out of suffering, more specifically following the four noble truths, especially the eightfold path is the way out of suffering. I will just mention some sources that have helped me learn about Buddhism; The book “Buddhism Plain and Simple” by Steve Hagen has really helped me understand Buddhism a lot more, as well as the website accesstoinsight linked here. Also, the book “Unhindered: A Mindful Path Through the Five Hindrances” by Gil Fronsdal really helped me to overcome the five hindrances in my life. Also, no there are no affiliate links in this article – I don’t gain anything if you buy any books mentioned in this article – it is just that these books and resources so happened to help me.

Conclusively, all this advice and wisdom contained in this article can only be useful if you yourself apply it to your life. I am by no means saying that this article and its contents is the be all and end all to aiding all forms of mental health – I am simply saying that all the things in this article have helped me out – someone who has been involved in the mental health world since 2018 and had 5 hospital admissions since then. I will also add that the idea that your disposition, emotions, thoughts, mental activity, none of these things affect the outside world or others I feel if applied to your own life will save you from a lot of turmoil as it has myself. But I feel that ultimately everyone’s formula for what helps you with your own mental health is unique and special to you. Try to find the things that help you with your own mental health and follow those things. Of course, an article on how to help mental health would not be complete without mentioning that sleep is a very important thing for helping maintain good mental health. The two main symptoms for when I start to become unwell are lack of sleep/inability to get to sleep and lack of appetite – so be sure to get enough sleep each day and place priority on this.