|
You're on thin ice when you start to notice these signs. List of Mental Health Warning Signs How do you know if you or someone you know is going to have a mental health crisis? There are recognizable signs that are often unique to each individual. As you read through this list, you can make note of those that occur leading up to a crisis. Think back to the times that you have required the highest level of support due to a crisis. Some of these events may have happened before things totally fell apart for you. Categories include emotional, mental, and behavioral signs and symptoms.
Recognizing warning signs is one of the most important steps in managing mental wellness. Mental health can affect other aspects of a person's wellness and interfere with their goals. Besides knowing what can trigger a mental crisis for you, knowing the specific signs and symptoms that lead up to your crisis gives you the best chance of stopping it before it gets unmanageable. This knowledge could be the difference between managing your illness outside the hospital and having to be stabilized in the hospital. It could mean the difference between self-injuring and keeping yourself safe. It could be the difference between having a psychotic break and staying level. It could even be the difference between life and death. The recovery process will include ups and downs, but wellness can be achieved by smoothing out the challenging times with coping strategies and supportive strengths. Most people have several warning signs that alert them to possible, upcoming danger. Early vs. Late Warning Signs Picture a car coming up to a cliff with early and later warning signs. The warning must come early enough for the driver to have options to avoid the danger or minimize the damage. Some warning signs may come way before any real dangerous situations, while others happen just before a crisis event. Think about the severity of the symptoms or behaviors. Usually, the more disruption an event causes, the later that warning sign will appear. The benefit of early warning signs is that, if caught early and acted upon, much of the distress of later warning signs can be avoided or managed more safely. Get into the habit of checking in with a trusted friend or family member to help you notice any changes as early as possible. Sometimes, it's easier for others to notice when something is wrong. Make sure you give that person permission to give you feedback. Tell them what to do even if you don't want any help at that moment. Some of the symptoms might lead to paranoia or suspicion of others. Another way to keep track of overall wellness is to keep a mood diary or rate how you feel each day. There are a number of ways to do this, but the simplest way is to use a scale of 1–10. Make a chart, and at the end of each day, rate how you felt that day. This information can be helpful when meeting with your therapist or psychiatrist and helps you see overall trends. When early warning signs happen, keep alert to any unexpected changes. Examples Early Warning Signs Late Warning Signs Negativity Problems with Police Arguing Neglecting Children or Pets Irritability Stop Taking Medicine Think about the consequences of the early warning signs in contrast to the late warning signs. You must have a plan in place to take you to a safe place when you can no longer manage yourself safely. Create a Safety Plan and Long-Term Strategy Once you know the signs that lead up to a mental health crisis, the next step is to put a safety plan in place. Although a safety plan can sometimes be quickly created in an emergency, it helps to take time to write out a detailed plan and share it with people in your support circle. Short-term Safety Plan This safety plan should take into account your specific needs. It should involve getting help from at least one other trusted person. It should be very concrete and specific. Choose from a long list of coping skills that can help with depression, anger, addiction, or other distressing and potentially crisis-producing mental health issues. Make a plan that can be executed in an emergency with only a few steps. Here's an example:
Once you have a short-term emergency plan in place. You can strategize for the long-term by building specific activities into your day that will help you maintain healthy thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This is called behavioral activation. It's a strategy to prevent negative thoughts and behaviors by introducing or increasing more positive experiences and feelings at regular intervals throughout days, weeks, and months. Plan to help you learn more through mental health group education. Many group therapy topics such as improving communication through assertiveness can help you learn to manage stress. Learning to improve problem-solving skills and taking care of relationships with yourself and others improves quality of life. Navigating the complexities of these skills takes effort, insight, and time. When not experiencing interfering symptoms, these areas of life can be focused on in-depth with professional support.
0 Comments
What Are Coping Skills and Strategies?
Coping strategies and skills are the reactions and behaviors one adopts to deal with difficult situations. Coping strategies come in many forms. Some are helpful and others are hurtful. Humans tend to learn coping strategies from those they come into contact with while growing up. When a person learns and develops habits of negative coping skills, stressors become catastrophes, and confidence in one's ability to cope is diminished. Use this list of positive coping skills to identify new strategies to become more resilient in the face of challenges. Then look at the list of negative coping strategies to look for items to replace with more positive coping skills. Exercise Is an Excellent Coping Mechanism Positive Coping Skills Here's a list of coping skills that will help you when you are feeling strong emotions such as anger, anxiety, or depression. These activities are not likely to create more stress or problems, so these help you be more resilient and stress tolerant. Diversions
As long as you're not yelling at someone else, a good yell might help release tension. How Each Category of Coping Skills Helps Diversions are those coping skills that allow you to stop thinking about the stress inducing situation. Diversions aren't meant to be the final solution, but each can be useful in the basic goal of remaining safe. As time goes on, move away from diversions and toward those skills that will build resiliency to the challenges that continue. Diversions are only useful if one can recognize warning signs when feeling overwhelming emotions. Social or interpersonal coping strategies involve interactions with others. Scientific studies have proven the benefits of social support to counteract the effects of stress on DNA. Social supports can be useful for recognizing warning signs and providing assistance in difficult times. Cognitive coping skills are those that involve using the mind and thought processes to influence the way one feels and behaves. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of treatment that helps people find ways of thinking that improve their mental responses to situations. Learning to think in more rational ways can be done by recognizing and changing irrational thoughts. Ultimately, a person can become much more stress tolerant and ultimately improve behavioral outcomes. Tension releasing or cathartic coping strategies involve acting on strong emotions in ways that are safe for oneself and others. Punching a pillow could be a way to release tensions in a safe way. Be careful with cathartic responses because these tend to become habit forming and may translate to real life scenarios, so the child who practices punching a pillow may envision a person's face and end up actually punching that person's face when angry. Physical process are directly tied to mental and emotional processes. A person's breathing rate can illicit a response from the sympathetic nervous system. Raising your voice can send signals to your brain that you are angry. In the same way, acting calmly in the face of difficulty can help send signals to your brain that everything is o.k. Exercise is another thing that can help by producing endorphins, which are naturally occurring drugs that can create a calm or euphoric feeling. Praying, meditating, enjoying nature, or taking up a worthy cause can affect a person on a spiritual level. Satisfying the need to feel worthwhile, connected, and at peace improve well-being at the core of a person. Spiritual well-being then exudes out of a person in attitudes and actions that are self-actualized. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we all need to feel a sense of purpose, but not everyone reaches that level. Limit setting is a preventative measure to protect against overwhelming stress created by doing too much of something. Limits can be set for one's self or others. An example of setting a limit with others is learning to say "no" when you know you are too busy to help someone. Setting a limit for yourself could include dropping involvement in work activities that are not a good fit for your skills and focusing on those that you are efficient doing, which may mean having to be assertive with your boss about how you can help the most. Drinking Alcohol Is Not a Good Coping Mechanism. It might feel like it helps at the moment, but it's not a healthy solution in the long run. Negative Coping Skills Here's a list of coping strategies that will cost you in the long run. These do more harm than good in most cases and can make life more stressful. Diversions
Overindulging in anything (food, substance, etc.) may be an unhealthy and temporary fix. Cognitive (of the Mind)
Gambling Is a Poor Coping Mechanism. It's a powerful distraction, but it can also be a devastating one. This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and does not substitute for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, prescription, and/or dietary advice from a licensed health professional. Drugs, supplements, and natural remedies may have dangerous side effects. If pregnant or nursing, consult with a qualified provider on an individual basis. Seek immediate help if you are experiencing a medical emergency. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
RSS Feed