How To Look After Your Mental Health When Sick
Recently I was really sick and I realised it affected my mental health more than it should have. When I thought about it I noticed that my physical health plays a big role in my mental health and when I’m feeling sick physically my mental health also seems to deteriorate. It’s like your brain knows your defences are down and it attacks. Anyway, these are some of the things that help me to look after your mental health when sick and I hope they help you too!
Talk to someone
Talk to your family members, friends or even a professional if you feel as though your physical illness is seriously effecting your mental health. Just talk to someone and tell them how you feel. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to make sure as you recover physically you are feeling good with your mental health too.
Meditation and yoga
If you can’t do a lot of stretchy yoga positions there are still some really easy ones that pretty much consist of lying down or sitting. If you still feel as though you can’t do these try doing some meditation. You don’t even have to move to meditate and it’ll make you feel tons better to just clear your head for a bit and relax.
Check for side effects
A lot of medicines have horrible side effects including things like depression, anxiety and insomnia. If you already suffer from any of these they might make them a lot worse so make sure you know what you’re taking and that it doesn’t have these side effects. Or if you can’t change your meds try taking something along with them to counter the side effects.
Talk to your doctor ahead of time
Talk to your doctor and let him know if you have any mental disorders that you fear may have gotten worse or will get worse because of your physical illness. Be open about it because that’s the only way they’ll know what’s going on with you. And even though it can be terrifying to open up about your mental illness/es it’s important to remember they’re professionals and it’s their job to treat you not judge you.
Take extra care of yourself
Remember that you should be the most important person in your life. Take care of yourself- eat healthy, drink lots of fluids, get lots of rest and just do whatever it takes to make a speedy recovery. Once you feel better physically, you’ll feel better mentally too.
Stay distracted
Read, sleep, play games, start working on your doctorate… whatever, just keep yourself distracted from negative thoughts. I’m usually not one to say distract yourself or bottle up your thoughts but sometimes it’s better than dealing with them when you’re already feeling down. You can deal with them when you get better.
If you feel like your mental health is still not improving please seek medical help as soon as you can.
For more posts on mental health click here.
For more posts on anxiety click here.
If you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, follow, share and comment!
Enjoyed this post? Then follow me on social media:
Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn HubPages
Email me on(guest posts welcome!): insomniacwithanaccent@gmail.com
Leave a Reply