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Introduction
Mental health is defined as human psychological, emotional, and social prosperity. It influences how people think, feel, and act as they contend with life. It helps identify how to relate with others, handle stress, and make decisions. Unfortunately, the United States has the highest rate of mental illness in the world. One in four Americans is diagnosed with mental illness every year (Al-Rousan et al., 2017). Emotional sickness cases are high in this nation compared to other countries globally.
Emotional illness, in most cases, starts at a very tender age in humans. The average age of start of mental illness is the age of fourteen years. The effects of this issue can be very frustrating, it accounts for 55.7 million outpatient care visits annually (González et al., 2018). Serious mental complications, including bipolar disorder, severe depression, and schizophrenia, can reduce life expectancy by twenty-five years or more. In the jails, 64 % of the inmates and 25% of the homeless population has complex mental issues (Greene et al.,2018). With this information, a quick intervention has to happen to reduce these cases, and the following is advice on how to do it.
Importance of Mental Health
Mental health is vital because it helps adapt to the stresses that come along in life. It aids in being physically healthy and having good relationships with others. It also helps in making meaningful contributions to the community, working efficiently, and realizing full potential. All this consideration leads to healthy mental living conditions for an individual (Kilbourne et al., 2018). The chances of emotional health complications reduce in the society hence a healthy living emotionally.
The Methods of Improving Mental Health
It is important to consider improving mental health, and this process is mostly an individual effort. If people focus on better emotional health, it will be easier to handle this situation nationally and globally. The individual effort will result in mental health improvement personally. In addition, it will lead to growth from a single person to a community level, then a national level, which will result in global change (Baba et al., 2017). Humans can do various things to better their mental health condition, and this includes the following.
Maintaining Positivity in Life
It is good to try as much as possible to have a positive attitude in life always. This effort includes setting up the balance between positive and negative emotions. Maintaining positivity does not mean that people never feel negative emotions, such as anger or sadness. However, it is okay to feel them so that a person can get over difficult situations. For instance, it is not useful to keep thinking of bad events in the past or worry a lot over the tomorrow. Another way of staying positive is to focus on the positive emotions when having those (Baba et al., 2017). Also, having a break from the negative information, knowing when to stop giving attention helps maintain positivity.
Taking Care of Physical Health
Human being’s physical and mental health are connected, therefore taking care of the body also helps in reducing emotional illness. Maintaining body health includes ensuring the body is active by exercising, which reduces stress and depression feelings. Also, serving healthy meals improves physical well-being, as the right nutrition will assist the body to feel better physically, resulting in mood change and decreased stress and anxiety (Baba et al., 2017). Lack of certain nutrients in the body may lead to some mental illness. For instance, there may be a link between depression and a low amount of vitamin B12 (Esnafoglu & Ozturan, 2020). Taking a well-balanced diet will reduce the chances of getting depression.
Relating with People Correctly
Humans are meant to socialize, and therefore, it is vital to have a healthy and bold relationship with others. Having quality social support may protect a person against the effects of stress. It is also useful to have various connections, besides relating with family and friends. It is good to find ways of interacting with the community and the neighbours (Baba et al., 2017). For example, it can be done by volunteering for a local organization or involving a team concentrating on a relevant hobby.
Relaxation Techniques
Relaxation techniques are activities that result in the body’s natural relaxation reaction. This method includes progressive relation, which involves firm relaxation of various muscle groups while using breathing exercises. Another method is guided imagery, where people learn to concentrate on positive images in their mind to help them feel more focused and relaxed (Gangadharan & Madani, 2018). In addition, biofeedback, which involves applying electronic tools to learn to control certain body activities like muscle tension and heart rate, is a technique for relaxation. The other one is self-hypnosis, where the main aim is to get into a relaxed, meditating-like state as a person hears a certain suggestion (Gangadharan & Madani, 2018). All these techniques are very important, and if applied, they help a lot in minimizing emotional illness.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
This foundation is a non-profit organization that offers victims of suicide a nationwide society enriched with education, research, and support to act positively against this trending source of death. It was founded in 1987 by Herbert Hendin M.D to curb cases of suicide due to mental illnesses (Davidson et al., 2020). American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is devoted to saving lives and restoring hope to the victims of suicide. It introduces behaviour that is informed about emotional wellness by engaging in main strategies, including financing scientific research. It also involves educating the community about emotional wellness and ways to prevent suicide (Davidson et al., 2020). All these efforts are vital in reducing cases of suicide and taking care of its victim.
Impacts of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Changing World
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has led to positive change, which is seen realized globally. The organization has attracted a staff of the scientific and clinical societies who conduct an intensive investigation on suicide and its prevention by supporting them (da Rosa et al., 2019). In addition, it has created a general policy and influencing arm by joining successfully with the state policy that exists. This move has enabled AFSP to push for rules and policies at the government, national and local levels that improve the objective for suicide prevention (da Rosa et al., 2019). This organization has also raised its funding from personal donors, including many highly motivated people involved in its Out Darkness Walks. It has also introduced local administrative divisions in all fifty nations and educated many local people about suicide and prevention methods (da Rosa et al., 2019). This achievement confirms how this organization has impacted positively to reduce mental illness globally.
Conclusion
Mental health is a serious problem globally, but reducing mental illness is possible if the mentioned above procedures are followed. If applied at the individual level, all these mention techniques may positively improve emotional wellness by reducing mental illness cases. Any initiative that starts individually leads to easy, effective results as everyone can manage themselves. Organizations like American Foundation for Suicide Prevention work effectively to curb suicide cases in society, hence reducing mental illness. Indeed, it’s possible to improve mental health if the personal responsibilities discussed above are followed keenly.
References
Al-Rousan, T., Rubenstein, L., Sieleni, B., Deol, H., & Wallace, R. B. (2017). Inside the nation’s largest mental health institution: A prevalence study in a state prison system. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 1-9.
Baba, C., Kearns, A., McIntosh, E., Tannahill, C., & Lewsey, J. (2017). Is empowerment a route to improving mental health and wellbeing in the urban regeneration (UR) context? Urban Studies, 54(7), 1619-1637.
da Rosa, G. S., Andrades, G. S., Caye, A., Hidalgo, M. P., de Oliveira, M. A. B., & Pilz, L. K. (2019). Thirteen Reasons Why: The impact of suicide portrayal on adolescents’ mental health. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 108, 2-6.
Davidson, J. E., Accardi, R., Sanchez, C., Zisook, S., & Hoffman, L. A. (2020). Sustainability and outcomes of a suicide prevention program for nurses. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 17(1), 24-31.
Esnafoglu, E., & Ozturan, D. D. (2020). The relationship of severity of depression with homocysteine, folate, vitamin B12, and vitamin D levels in children and adolescents. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 25(4), 249-255.
Gangadharan, M. P., & Madani, M. A. H. (2018). Effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation techniques on depression, anxiety, and stress among undergraduate nursing students. Int J Health Sci Res, 8(2), 155-63.
González-Domínguez, S., Muñoz, M., Ausín, B., Castellanos, M. A., & Pérez-Santos, E. (2018). Age-related self-stigma of people over 65 years old: Adaptation of the internalized stigma of mental illness Scale (ISMI) for use in age-related self-stigma (IS65+) in a Spanish sample. Ageing & Mental Health, 22(2), 250-256.
Greene, M., Ahalt, C., Stijacic-Cenzer, I., Metzger, L., & Williams, B. (2018). Older adults in jail: High rates and early onset of geriatric conditions. Health & Justice, 6(1), 1-9.
Kilbourne, A. M., Beck, K., Spaeth‐Rublee, B., Ramanuj, P., O’Brien, R. W., Tomoyasu, N., & Pincus, H. A. (2018). Measuring and improving the quality of mental health care: A global perspective. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 30-38.
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