6 Changes I Made To Improve My Mental Health

Mental health is a subject that can often be hard to approach. But I did what I had to do to improve it for myself. Here's how.

Until a month or so ago, I was going through a rough patch. Nothing made me happy, nothing motivated me to wake up in the morning, I felt hopeless and alone. I was depressed. Then I made a few changes to my life, and things have started looking up for me. I still have days where I feel completely helpless and low, but something is different. I feel like whatever it is, I can overcome it. Here are 6 changes I made to improve my mental health.

I admitted I’m struggling and that I need help

A lot of people employ the ‘fake it till you make it’ motto when it comes to their mental health. They don’t admit there’s something wrong. They remain in denial. This may work for some, but it definitely didn’t work for me. It kept me in a permanent low mood. Therefore, admitting that I was struggling and that I was in need of help was my first step to improvement.

I sought help and went to therapy

After the initial admission comes the next step of actually finding the help you need. This isn’t always easy. You may not find the right person on the first go and but the key is to not give up. You will eventually find the therapist that’s perfect for you, and things will immediately start looking up. I didn’t give and after many trial and errors, I found the help I was seeking. I started weekly therapy sessions.

Actually listening to the advice of the therapist and your close ones

When you’re going through a hard time, friends and family have a lot of advice to offer. While it may sometimes come across overbearing or unnecessary, give their advice a chance. Whether it be the professional advice of my therapist or the well-meaning advice from my loved ones, I actually listened to it, and it turned out really helpful in getting me through whatever I was going through.

I relied on family and friends during the hard times

It is very easy to feel like you’re all alone when you’re going through a rough patch. But remember that you have people that really care about your well
being. I forgot this fact for a while and tried to work through everything all on my own. It did not work and I ended up feeling even lonelier. So I took a step back and realised that people care about me, so I learnt to rely on them during the hard times.

Doing things that make me happy and avoiding things that don’t

In life, you come across a lot of people, incidents and thoughts. You can’t do them all, neither can you avoid them all. But I decided that if something makes me happy I would do it and if something didn’t I would avoid it if possible. Writing makes me happy, so I chose to do more of it. Certain social platforms and certain people made me unhappy so I chose to ignore and avoid them as much as I could. It’s not always possible to implement this change, but even just trying it is a step forward.

I learned to enjoy life as it comes and not sweat the small stuff

Life is always going to be unpredictable. I can’t change that. But what I could change was my outlook on life. Though it took me some time, I learned to enjoy each day as it comes and to not let the small stuff bother me too much. It’s not a full-proof change, sometimes things still hurt me. But the change lies in the fact that I don’t let it bother me for long anymore, I move past it quicker than I used to.

Besides these six changes, I also brought about a few other simple changes in my lifestyle. I eat healthy, I meditate and practice mindfulness and maintain a thought diary, all of which helps me overcome obstacles and live each moment as it comes.