May is Mental Health Month

Until now, many of us believed that only a small portion of the population grappled with mental health issues -- one in five in any given year, as reported by the National Alliance on Mental Health.

That isn’t the case today.

Just weeks ago, we had no idea that our world was going to be turned upside down by COVID-19 or that the associated worry, isolation, loneliness, and anxiety would be a widespread and a shared experience. It is more important now than ever to take care of our mental health and to focus on protective factors to thrive in uncertain times.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, nearly half of Americans report the coronavirus crisis is harming their mental health. A federal emergency hotline for people in emotional distress registered a more than 1,000 percent increase in April compared with the same time last year. Last month, roughly 20,000 people texted that hotline, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

According to a report by The Washington Post, " Online therapy company Talkspace reported a 65 percent jump in clients since mid-February. Text messages and transcribed therapy sessions collected anonymously by the company show coronavirus-related anxiety dominating patients’ concerns."

It is easy for our mental state to become hijacked by emotions. Sometimes it can be difficult to think about the underlying root causes of these feelings and process them rationally. But taking the time to identify what you are feeling can help you to better cope with challenging situations. It’s important to give yourself permission to feel what you feel and to practice self-forgiveness and self-compassion. We also know that life can throw us curveballs - and at some point we will all experience loss and stress. These feelings may be brought on by the end of a relationship, being let go from a job, losing a home, or the death of a loved one. It is natural to go through a grieving process. However, we can widen our resiliency in times of despair by practicing regular mental health hygiene and working to enhance our protective factors: family and community support, self-care, spiritual practices, and clinical care. For each of us, the tools we use to keep us mentally healthy will be unique.

Mental Health America has put together a toolkit that offers tools to thrive at any time and that we all may have to adapt for the short term because of social distancing. The Tools 2 Thrive Outreach Toolkit offers bonus material specifically focused on the coronavirus, and how we can all work together to support our mental health in the face of uncertainty.

Healthy Mendocino wants everyone to know that mental illnesses are more common than we think and recovery is possible. Finding what works for you may not be easy but can be achieved by gradually making small changes and building on those successes. By developing your own #Tools2Thrive, it is possible to find balance between work and play, the ups and downs of life, and physical health and mental health – and set yourself on the path to managing mental health.

Key Messages from Mental Health America:

• Mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and well-being, and mental illnesses are common and
  treatable.
  • While 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health.
  • There are practical tools that everyone can use to improve their mental health and increase resiliency regardless of the situations they are dealing with.
  • It’s important to recognize your emotions and own your feelings, work to find the positive even when facing adversity or loss, reach out and try to connect with others, remove those people in your life who are bringing you down, and create healthy routines to take care of yourself.
  • There are ways that everyone can be supportive of friends, family, and co-workers who are struggling with life’s challenges or their mental health.
  • Living a healthy lifestyle and incorporating mental health tools to thrive may not be easy but can be achieved by gradually making small changes and building on those successes.
  • Recognizing your feelings, finding the routines that lift you up, removing toxic influences and connecting with others can all help you on your path to recovery as you develop your own mental health #tools2thrive.