psychology
5 signs you are losing your mental health
© Galina Zhigalova / Shutterstock
You are actually fine – but are you still only running on the back burner? Time to dedicate a self-care check to your mental health. Because we like to let them slide in stressful times.
The stress at work does not subside. At home the mountains of laundry are piled up. The answering machine flashes reproachfully. And the scheduler had less to do. To be honest: we live in demanding times. The fast pace of society has gradually increased – and even the pandemic was only able to pull the plug for a short time. As soon as the everyday gyro continues to turn, it picks up more momentum with each appointment weight. And in the end we feel dizzy with stress.
Often we are responsible for a part of this unword, which has really dominated our conversations and lives long enough, for some even seems to have become a status symbol. Because what we don’t like to ignore with all the to-dos is our physical condition. After all, fitness studios advertise 24-hour opening times, steal excuses from “too early” to “too late”, and sport and healthy eating are totally in at the moment – and if others even post them in their social feed, we’ll be there yes, it can also be used in our everyday life. So we work, kick, run, shop and cook in rainbow colors, only to eat a colorful bowl with half-open eyes, which should at least provide us with fiber. But we actually have enough ballast.
Taking care of your own health has become one of the many everyday to-dos these days. It’s trendy. It’s good. Or? So why do we still feel so completely unhealthy? Because we tend to forget the psyche with all this tiring of the physique.
Our mental health also needs care. In stressful times, we often let it slide first – because it takes part for a long time before it starts to complain. But then it becomes resentful and lets us feel the disregard for a long time. That’s why we’re resolving now to take better care of ourselves – our body and mind.
5 signs your psyche deserves some care
You get out of bed badly.
Whether lark or owl: sleep is a wonderful window into our head. Changes – like having trouble falling asleep, waking up frequently, not getting out of bed, or having confusing dreams – can tell us something about our state of mind in general. We just have to listen.
You’re neglecting habits.
It’s a mean vicious circle, yeah. But when things get stressful, we often first delete the things that we really need urgently. For example yoga in the morning. The meditation. The balanced breakfast. All that we paint because we sleep badly and prefer to lie down. Only doing the things that are necessary, and no longer doing the things that are good, is a clear red flag. Because it is the latter that form our safety net in everyday life, that protect us from too much stress, teach us resilience and, above all, to take care of ourselves.
You fight physical symptoms with no physical cause by simple means.
You have a headache, but the doctor can’t find a cause. Your back hurts, but you don’t have time for exercise – so you use medication and small remedies that can be quickly incorporated into everyday life without knocking you out. Physical complaints for which there is no physical cause are often a clear shaking of our psyche, which wants to draw attention to itself.
You find yourself suppressing emotions in order to function.
Incidentally, this does not only apply to pain. Feelings can also come out inappropriately – that sounds unhealthy when you write. Nevertheless, nowadays we often learn to swallow our emotions and control them instead of acting them out, simply because they don’t suit us at the moment. The problem with this is that they are not gone, they are simply displaced from the surface. And that creates much bigger problems for us in the long run. So we shouldn’t get used to suppressing feelings in the first place.
You cancel your hobbies and spend your free time on the sofa.
And at the end of the day, when we actually had time for the beautiful things, for all that we have pushed aside, we just feel empty – and fall on the sofa. A therapist once explained to me that an early symptom of burnout is not making compromises at work, but in your free time. Caught? Leisure stress is of course not a solution, but every now and then we should fill an experience far away from our home and with hobbies or people who are good for us – and recharge our mental batteries.