A healthy mental attitude can boost your emotional state and lengthen your life span. Conversely, poor mental health can affect your overall health in negative ways that can have a serious impact. It is important to learn how to handle the everyday stresses in life. How well stress is handled often dictates both physical and mental well-being.
So, how can poor mental health impact your overall health? Here are several instances of how poor mental health can affect your overall health.
Negative Physical Effects of Poor Mental Health
Poor mental health can lead to depression, stress, mental fatigue, weight loss, incompetence, headaches, and insomnia. Any of these issues can weaken the body’s immune system and ultimately lead to illness, disease or even an untimely death.
According to research, people with mental issues refrain from most physical activities such as exercising. This lack of physical activity can result in obesity, heart disease and diabetes. There is also the possibility of drug and alcohol abuse. People with mental disabilities often fall prey to crimes, bad health and even imprisonment. When this happens, they are less likely to get the type of help they need.
Poor mental health can disrupt life in the worse possible way, often producing several types of emotions at the same time, creating confusion and an inability to explain how they are feeling at any given moment. This emotional overload can be debilitating and dangerous if left untreated.
Unhealthy Eating Habits Leads to Deteriorating Health
People who experience poor mental health do not make the best “Life Choices.” They are not able to cope with disappointment, loss, grief, and anxiety. Simple choices like what to wear or which foods to eat become an overbearing task. In fact, individuals with poor mental health rarely take time to eat the foods they need to keep their body healthy and their brain functioning properly.
People who are not in control of their emotional health simply are not capable of understanding the importance of eating healthy. Their mind is not geared toward going to the store and picking up fruits, vegetables, meats, and vitamin supplements. They do not feel good about themselves and in most cases, they really do not care if they live or die.
Improving Mental Health
The body reacts to emotions of how people act, feel, and think. This is because the mind and body share a connection. When the body or mind is stressed, the body reacts by causing an increase in blood pressure or a sudden upset stomach develops or perhaps a pounding headache miraculously ruins the day.
These symptoms are ways of letting you know that something is not right. Before mental health gets too far out of control, the body almost always sends out a cry for help, but it is up to the individual to answer the call and correct the problem. Having a positive support system in place can prevent most problems from spiraling out of control and improve mental health. Building that support system is key. Friends and loved ones can help. Or simply having someone to talk with to cope with stress, loneliness and other factors that can lead to poor mental health.
You can also reach out to professionals that help start to rebuild positive structure in your life or community organizations for peer-to-peer counseling. However, recognizing the problem and seeking help is the first step to building good mental health.
This article originally appeared on LifeBalanceDaily.com, How Poor Mental Health Can Affect Your Overall Health.