You are not alone with your mental health problems

Are you sleeping restless, feeling irritable or moody, forgetting little things and feeling overwhelmed and isolated, anxious, depressed, and powerless?

You are not alone. A growing number of people over the world are dealing with mental health problems. Mental health can no longer be treated as an individual problem but as a widespread public health issue.

The question arises why there is a rise in mental health issues in the last few decades.

Chronic stress is devastating for your brain. Your brain gets marinated in a toxic cocktail of stress hormones. It affects two brain areas. The first area is the frontal lobe which we use to strategise, set a goal, plan, decide, keep focus, remember, our working memory, keep our cool and self-regulation. The second part stress affects is the hippocampus, the core of our memory.

Why are these two brain areas so sensitive to chronic stress?

It’s because high-stress hormone levels literally make cells in these areas shrink.

The connections between neurons or brain cells called neural pathways that enable communication between neurons, are destroyed by chronic stress and the network between brain cells doesn’t work as well.

It is not all lost. Neuroscience has revealed several things you do can counteract this.

One of these is exercise. Physical exercise is important for the body as well as the brain. The brain releases chemicals that neutralise stress hormones which damage brain cells.

The second proven to make a huge impact is meditation, which helps bring your brain into the here-and-now state. This state is called mindfulness or consciousness and helps you to focus on the moment and calms you down.

Adding a good diet to these will get you off to a good start.