- 3 in 4 suicides are male
- 1 in 2 men will have a mental health disorder in their lifetime
- Men not in the workforce have 4 x the risk of depression
- Separated men have 6 x the risk of depression
- Men who lack close friends have twice the risk of suicidal thoughts
Today, we’re going to look at some of the actions we can all take to help us stay mentally strong and healthy.
Firstly, it’s a fact that maintaining a healthy body can help you stay mentally healthy.
Good health is about developing, changing, and maintaining healthy habits.
In her book Changing Habits, Changing Lives, Melbourne-based nutritionist Cyndi O’Meara, encourages people to concentrate on shifting one habit each week, in order to make it manageable and sustainable.
“An unhealthy lifestyle is merely a series of unhealthy habits,” she says. “To adopt a healthy lifestyle you need to change those habits.”
Some key habits to look at are:
Be A Better Eater
A simple way to better mental and physical health is to eat better. Move towards the foods that have not been packaged, that come out of the ground, that doesn’t have a beating heart.
Be A Healthy Weight
Being a healthy weight can help you live longer, reduce your chances of developing chronic disease and help combat anxiety, depression, and sleep issues. You can find out if you are at a healthy weight with the BMI calculator.
Be Someone Who Exercises
Exercise is equally important and can be increased as fitness levels rise, but the recommended base level of movement is 30 minutes a day, which can be split into smaller bursts of 15-minute blocks. Daily exercise has astonishing benefits for the body and mind. It stimulates chemicals that improve your mood and enhances your focus and memory. It helps reduce the likelihood of heart disease, breast and colon cancers, and diabetes.
Be Someone Who Drinks Moderately (or Not At All)
The Australian guidelines recommend you have at least two alcohol-free days a week, no more than four standard drinks a day, and no more than 10 standard drinks a week. Turning to drugs and alcohol for anxiety and depression actually worsens anxiety and depression. Alcohol compromises energy levels, sleep patterns, and memory. The physical impact includes high blood pressure, heart disease, brain damage, liver disease, various kinds of cancer, and weight gain.
Be Someone Who Doesn’t Smoke
The harm caused by smoking has been well documented and yet the latest data from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NHS) estimated that 11.6% of adults smoked daily in 2019. Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in Australia, however, once the habit of smoking is established it can be extremely hard to kick, harder than using cocaine or opiates like heroin, says the American Cancer Society.
“Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, your body is reacting to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, you are faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior.”
The good news is, smoking rates continue to drop, despite extreme efforts by the tobacco industry to market their product as exciting, glamorous, and safe.
As the initial symptoms of withdrawal subside, the non-smoker will enjoy heightened feelings of well-being, stress levels will be lower, increasing fitness will become easier, fertility levels will improve, you will save thousands of dollars and within two to five years, your risk of heart disease will have dropped significantly.
If you think you, or someone you know, has a mental health condition, see your GP for a referral to a mental health professional.