Mental Health

• Mental health affects your thoughts, emotions, relationships, and your ability to handle different situations.
• Emotions are feelings that we have inside of us.
• Depression can affect:

  Changes in appetite

  Sleep patterns

  Changes in personality
• Depression could lead to insomnia or excessive sleeping.
• Coping strategies include:

  Breathing exercises

  Mindfulness

  Expressive arts

  Establishing routines

  Self-care

  Seek support
• The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
• Stress is simply the body’s response to events that make one feel threatened or upset.
• Cortisol is the hormone that stirs up the body for emergency action. Both Adrenaline and Cortisol is released during stressful situations.
• Freeze is used to describe self-paralyzing in traumatic situations.
• Negative stress or distress is the condition of the body where its well-being is threatened and attacked.
• Negative stress may result to increased heart rate, short and shallow breathing, constriction of the blood vessel, and insomnia.
• Causes of stress include:

  hectic and loaded schedule

  poor time management

  reactive than proactive

  lack or poor planning
• Internal factors that cause stress include:

  repetitive negative thought patterns

  unrealistic and high expectations

  unreasonable fears

  too much worrying about future events