Mental health is a huge concern for people of all ages around the globe. A positive mindset is crucial as it profoundly affects each aspect of our lives — thoughts, interactions, feelings, actions — everything directly related to mental health.
Considering mental health’s pivotal role in every aspect of your life, improving your psychological wellness is important. There’s no universally constant standard for evaluating mental health and gauging what is considered “normal.”
Why? Because everyone has a different experience with mental health. However, whatever the reason may be, declining mental health will always have a negative impact on how you carry on with your life.
So, it’s crucial to figure out the underlying causes of a mental health decline, look out for signs that can indicate a decline in mental health, and take measures to improve psychological wellness.
In this post, we’ll be going through the major signs that indicate mental health decline and see how each sign impacts your life. Let’s get into it!
1. Feeling Anxious or Worried
Feeling anxious now and then is normal. But if this feeling persists and becomes a frequent partner, it could mean your mental health is declining.
Why does that happen? Why do we get anxious? Anxiety provokes a “caution” response inside you and produces anticipatory worry. It is the feeling of expecting something unfortunate before the event has even occurred.
For instance, if you constantly fear being judged by others negatively, rejected by them, or have a problem when trying to talk to someone, it means you have social anxiety. Anxiety symptoms include shortness of breath, heart palpitations, sweating, headache, dizziness, restlessness, trembling, or a racing mind.
All of these translate to a decline in mental health. If that happens, it’s important to start taking care of yourself. Stay active, consider cutting down or eliminating any bad eating or drinking habits, and take the time to prioritize self-care.
2. Emotional Outbursts
An emotional outburst is a sudden display of passionate emotions that results from intense feelings. It can be a result of anything.
And we understand. Controlling your emotions can be hard sometimes, which is why you may experience emotional outbursts, especially when you’ve kept your emotions under tabs for a while now and haven’t processed them.
And while emotional outbursts are common, a dramatic change in mood, even on the slightest problem, can directly indicate mental health decline. But what can cause emotional outbursts?
Emotional outbursts can result from chronic stress, poor sleep, low blood sugar, medication side effects, underdeveloped coping mechanisms, or substance use. This shows how a poor lifestyle can directly impact your mental health, making it important to take the right steps to help process your emotions.
3. Disrupted Sleep Patterns
We all know how important “a good night’s sleep” is to feel active. In fact, research now shows that sufficient sleep is not only important for your physical health but also for your mental health.
Insufficient, poor, or disrupted sleep patterns have been found to trigger negative emotional responses due to stressors, which decreases the ability to possess positive emotions. That’s where regular sleep comes in.
A regular sleep pattern helps regulate emotions and behaviors. It also helps maintain cognitive skills such as memory, learning, and attention. Plus, not getting enough or poor sleep quality can increase the risk of mental health disorders.
4. Depression and Feeling Unhappy
Feeling unhappy at times is a natural human reaction to situations that cause emotional upset or pain. However, if these feelings of sadness stay with you over time, it can lead to depression — a long-term mental illness.
So, if you’re constantly overwhelmed by feelings of sadness, fatigue, and irritability and have changes in sleeping or eating patterns, it’s very likely that you are mentally exhausted and depressed.
Other symptoms also include loss of interest and enthusiasm for things you once liked, feeling of worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, and even suicidal thoughts.
These feelings can stem from anywhere — childhood trauma, low self-esteem, and trouble adjusting to body changes. So, if you’ve been feeling off for a few weeks now, it’s a sign that your mental state is declining.
5. Substance Abuse
Substance abuse isn’t something to take lightly. It happens when you dramatically increase the consumption of prescribed medicine, alcohol, and other legal or illegal substances.
But substance abuse is a bit different from addiction. While addiction is a disease, substance abuse can also lead to the onset of a decline in mental health.
Plus, when you first start consuming a substance, you may think you can control your intake. However, with time, your body adapts to the dosage you’ve been taking constantly, making you feel that you need more of the drug to get the same effect or feeling.
Signals that may indicate you have a problem with substance include a lack of interest in things you once liked, lack of self-care, and disrupted eating and sleep patterns. All these lead to a decline in mental health over time, making it important to know how you consume substances.
6. Staying Quiet and Keeping to Yourself
Feeling isolated and disconnected, even when surrounded by your friends and family, is a huge indicator of declining mental health. This feeling of “withdrawal” may have a variety of causes and often leads to a huge decline in your mental health while fostering feelings of sadness, loneliness, and even depression.
Signs of withdrawal behavior may include a lack of motivation or enthusiasm, not wanting to interact with everybody, and keeping to yourself.
The Takeaway
If you or someone close to you is showing signs of declining mental health, you must prioritize self-care. That’s because these signs can increase in intensity over time and give away to mental disorders if not taken care of in time.
So, identify the root cause, set small yet achievable goals, and talk to a mental health professional. These actions can help you improve your mental health and start toward a healthy you.
