Health and Wellbeing

Health & Wellbeing

Welcome everyone! Today we want to highlight several things you can do to bring awareness of mental health and the importance of attending to your mental health in this article. Below are a few things you can do to boost your mental health and keep on top of things during difficult times.

We use the acronym PRAM to bring awareness to mental health in the U.K. PRAM stands for pleasurable, realistic, achievable and mastery.

PRAM refers to a technique you can remember to instantly boost your mental well-being when you are feeling low. This acronym was developed by us, as an easy way to remember this life tool you can use to uplift yourself on any given day. PRAM means using things that are pleasurable, realistic, achievable, and that give you mastery in order to boost the endorphins and dopamine neurotransmitters in your brain, that translate into that feel good feeling.

Mental Health Support For Something Like A Common Mental Disorder

Awareness

In the United Kingdom anxiety and depression are prevalent in one in four people at any given time. They often present together, in straightforward terms, somebody can feel low whilst having a sense of worry at the same time. The fact that this is so common amongst adults, it is referred to a common mental disorder. That often refers to some manageable level of psychological difficulty where someone can still function in society and the condition is straightforward to treat. Anxiety in itself, refers to fear. We however, will use traditional terms like 'fight or flight' in order to put into context what anxiety and depression can mean in the lives of the every day person. The fight or flight response, is a chemical reaction in somebody's brain/body that occurs when they are presented with a situation. Usually the situation refers to a danger or a fear related situation. One can also freeze at times too - that is a response that occurs when one is in total shock or completely overwhelmed. So, it is safe to say that the fight or flight response can also keep you safe. After all, if you are walking along the street and you suddenly hear the sound of a roaring motorcycle, you will experience anxiety and fear, and you will make a decision about whether to stand up and look (fight) or whether you decide to run and find cover / safety (flight). In crew terms, you can also use this analogy when somebody is about to get into a fight at a pub or even in the school playground. They will either stay in fight or turn around and run away. Thus, the fight or flight response, is it perfectly normal experience and phenomena for everyone to go through, and can and will be present when you are feeling low in mood too. The problem comes when there is dysregulation, and your low mood and / or anxiety are too much and too often - usually a presence of low mood for the entire course of two weeks with no given life event (bereavement, loss of job or relationship breakdown) is enough to cause concern and highlight a need for support.

Using the PRAM technique, one can empower themselves to pay attention to their well-being, keeping awareness of how they are psychologically, and implementing these quick tools if, and when needed. For example, if you were noticed that you are starting to feel low quite often, and you feel like spending a lot of time in bed, without attending to personal hygiene or speaking to family and friends - this would be the time to use PRAM techniques. Work becomes disinteresting. You can use a pram technique to quickly inject some energy and spark into your life. For example, a typical PRAM technique would be to: wake up, shower, brush your teeth, do your bed and make the bedsheets look nice and flat in your bedroom. That's it. You would then stand back and take note on any improvements in your mood. Siri behind this is that the simple manageable task will boost your endorphin levels and give you a sense of achievement and leave you feeling good. Your role in keeping awareness of your mental health would be to implement similar techniques throughout the day, or week, should you begin to feel low mood again. You could even stack PRAM techniques into your life throughout your day which could end with something rewarding in the afternoon like going to watch a movie or having a coffee in your favourite coffee shop while people watching or reading a magazine.

When should I seek help for my mental health?

Speak to a source of support

If you notice that you are becoming consumed with negative thoughts about yourself, the world, and other people, alongside a low mood with things like appetite, social interaction, sexual interest also taking a dive, it would be a good time to seek professional advice. This would mean presenting to your GP, which you can do over the phone, and having a consultation session, which usually lasts 10 minutes - if you are in the United Kingdom. Professional help can often mean being referred to an Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies service, which is a psychological therapy (talking therapy) service within the NHS, which will provide you with a space to speak through, and work on techniques similar to the ones above, to help you get better.

The strength of the increasing access to psychological therapy service is that they try to help people get better through talking therapies. Rather than medication. Although the service is not against medication and at times, given the severity of someone's depression or anxiety, it may be that the medical guidance and scientific evidence points towards adjunct therapy - i.e. receiving medication whilst having weekly sessions with a therapist. The theory being that both treatments combined are powerful enough to help you begin to see improvements in your mood and psychological well-being.

What else can I do to improve my health and well-being?

There are many things that you can do to help with improving your mood and your health. One of the key things to remember is that a lot of our mood and behaviour comes from our thinking. People have become millionaires from releasing motivational speaking events, both in person and online, such as Tony Robbins et cetera. Their work involves using positive psychology - encouraging positive thinking in the battle of the mind, to reduce, and defeat the thoughts people have about themselves and what they can do / achieve. That in mind, I want to advise my reader today to pay close attention to negative thoughts that pop into their mind, and once they appear, do not panic, but rather look for contrary evidence and think about the evidence against the negative thought. For example, if you think you are worthless and are consumed by thoughts about this, consider how worthless you must be - for someone to take time out of their schedule write an article like this for your sake disputes that narrative. Also consider how much government funding the NHS receives to treat mental health, and consider that if you are so worthless would this much effort be taken in helping to get you better?

There are many things that you can implement into your daily life in order to keep yourself feeling better and doing well. One way would be to introduce exercise, which has been shown in scientific research to improve mood. You could also incorporate some kind of cooking class, or, be more mindful in your kitchen and cook your meals yourself. This has also been shown to help people recover from psychological difficulty.

Summary

In summary, maintaining your psychological well-being is a lifelong process. It should be looked at in the same manner that drinking water daily is looked at. Your psychological well-being will be dependent on the way you think, and the things you do throughout the day. Making sure you are keeping track of any negative mood states and negative thinking patterns is imperial. Monitor whether they are becoming too prevalent, feel overwhelming and come into your mind too often. Take note when the parts of your life such as your social life and work life are beginning to suffer because of your mood and disinterest, this is usually a good indicator of when to seek help.

If this article has been of any help to you, please consider sharing it with somebody who could benefit from what has been discussed and are techniques mentioned above. If anything they can provide a stopgap whilst they are waiting on the waiting list to be seen by a therapist or medical / healthcare professional.