One’s mental state allows him or her to manage emotions, nurture relationships, and handle the stressors of life efficiently and effectively. It also enables them to work productively and fruitfully. Having poor mental health puts an individual at greater risk for having chronic health conditions, and affects their ability to eat well and exercise regularly.
Social Factors
Social factors (including people not being able to work, overwhelmed people, and disabled people) affecting the economy manifest itself in one of the many ways. It constitutes unhealthy food habits, sedentary lifestyle habits that wildly increase heart disease and diabetes along with as chronic painful stress to just get through life which darkens depression and anxiety.
Mental health is greatly impacted by friendships and the social environment. For example, a person who lives in a bad neighborhood may be subjected to more stress and worsening feelings of loneliness. Furthermore, the symptoms of a mental illness can reduce one’s ability to carry out important healthy lifestyle changes. The feeling of helplessness may give birth to other harmful lifestyle actions such as substance abuse or smoking.
Events like wars, conflicts, worldwide economic crises, and climate change contribute to the creation of mental health disorders. While some events impact an individual’s mental health directly, like losing a job or house, others do so indirectly by influencing a person’s risk factors like hunger or financial stress.
Hormones
From pregnancy to growth to metabolism, the human body is in constant need of communication between the different organs to ensure proper functioning of the body. Out of all the processes involved, the creation of hormones stands out as the most crucial one. Hormones are produced by the glands in the endocrine system and secreted into the bloodstream for the entire body to make use of. They regulate various bodily functions like metabolism, mood, reproduction, and even homeostasis– a state in which the body maintains a steady internal balance through the regulation of blood pressure, sugar level, body temperature, and even fluids and electrolytes.
Similar to every powerful medicine, hormones too have their downside. With slight variations to their levels being enough to bring disastrous results, all powerful chemicals require only minute contact with tissues to have a profound effect. To support these statements, one can say that even the smallest alteration to the balance of hormones in a body can be extremely harmful.
I’m afraid b-endorphins are elusive, but it is widely accepted that these specific opioid polypeptides produced by the vertebrate’s hypothalamus-pituitary system during highly invigorating physical exercise or emotional arousal can definitely enable a state of euphoria, wellbeing and contentment. Subsequently, sustaining fitness and a healthy lifestyle is important in order to maximize the benefits of the kind hormones and increase their production.
Due to hormonal balance being delicate around the time of a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle and just after childbirth, there can be sufficient mood changes or novel symptoms like hot flushes, anxiety and depression. While antidepressants can solve some of these symptoms, there seem to be more practical options in the form of new hormone therapies that focus directly on the individual hormone imbalance.
In one’s lifetime, very few factors can potentially impair physical and mental health, genetics being one of those factors. Ever since Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants in his monastery garden, and later on, with the famous double helix put forth by Francis Crick and James Watson, the ever expanding understanding of the role served by genes in health and disease has grown tremendously.
From our appearance to our behavior, and even the diseases we may be predisposed to, genes certainly play an important role. Genes may also contribute to the mitigation or damage an individual sustains from suffering under a mental illness. However, the integration of genes and the environment is an intricate process that embodies science’s understanding gap.
Pharmacogenetics describes the study of these relationships where specific genes determine an individual’s response to medications of certain diseases. Genes related to certain illnesses often determine how a particular individual responds to the medication offered to treat it.
Remarkable parallels and distinctions are found across various mental health conditions, including major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Exploration of these conditions led scientists to the study of genomes and collection of data from over 33000 individuals suffering from these disorders alongside 28000 non affected individuals. The scientists then look for variations known as SNPs alleles, that are more associated with these disorders.
Modification of calcium’s transportation between cells is affected by two out of the many SNPs discovered. This process is vital within the realm of ‘brain functioning’. Anxiety and depression, along with other mental health issues may spring from the sifting genes and environmental factors from the two SNPs.
Stress
Stress can be a positive thing in response to life experiences and almost everyone goes through it. It can motivate you to do better at activities such as piano recitals or in first dates and help remedy problems like traffic jams or arguments with your partner. However, if stress is experienced for prolonged periods, both mental and physical health can suffer greatly.
The issue with stress is that it can lead to heart diseases, anxiety, depression, and even digestive problems. Not only does stress damage your mental wellbeing, it also increases your chances of catching the flu and common cold. The recovery period from any injury or illness is also prolonged with stress. The effects of stress are different on everyone because people who have power over their own lives usually show greater resilience against stress than those who feel powerless.
When treating stress, lifestyle changes such as improved diet and exercise work wonderfully. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques can also be very effective. Severe chronic stress such as heart disease may need medication. Knowing the timeline and deep root of certain stressors is critical, and as the years pass, medical science is aiming to provide deeper knowledge to stress issues.