Mental Health Chat: Can Mental Health Affect Your Physical Health?

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Welcome back to My Jamaica Vignettes, today on this week’s mental health chat we tackle mental health and physical health. The question we are answering is can your mental health affect your physical wellbeing? The sure answer is yes it can. Let’s explore how it does.

How Does Mental Health Affect Physical Health

An article from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare offers some sobering key facts about mental health and physical health:

People living with mental illness are more likely to experience poorer physical health than the general population.

People living with mental illness, and especially severe mental illness, tend to die earlier than the general population.

Almost 80% of premature deaths of people with mental illness are due to preventable physical health conditions.

Scary stats, right?

Mental Health and Physical Health

But how does mental health challenges really show up in your physical health?

There are several things to consider:

• Low motivation to care for your physical health can be tied to adverse effects of medication or the absence of medication.
• Lack of core support can also make it difficult to prioritize balancing your mental health recovery and physical health.
• The impact that medications like antipsychotics have on your physical wellbeing including weight gain, insulin resistance etc.

Things You Can Do To Health Balance Your Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing

So is this an all doom post? No. Never that.

What can you do?

Incorporate daily movement into your day, yes exercise. Start with low impact movement like a daily walk. Focus on nutrient dense whole foods to nourish your body. If you have been doing these two things – daily exercise and nourishing and balanced diet and you still feel unwell, see a doctor. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss what might be causing your ailments and discuss a holistic approach that focuses on your physical health and mental health balance.

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I hope this chat helped a bit and answered any questions you might have an had on the topic. Next week we discuss mental health issues and disabilities.

Also, I want to find out if these weekly mental health chats are helping you in anyway, are there other aspects of mental health that you wish to discuss, I could make this a bimonthly post where we dedicate a Sunday to discussing mental health.

Other topics I had in mind but didn’t develop for this October including:

• What to expect when you first start therapy.
• Tips to be consistent with medication.
• How to discuss your mental health challenges with friends and family.

If any of these topics interest you let me know.

Until next Sunday, take care.

Sources: Australian Institute for Health and Wellness and the Mental Health Foundation