How Your Lifestyle Affects Your Mental Health

July 2019 - Although you may believe that your mental health is purely impacted by your environment and surroundings, many mental health problems can be worsened by poor lifestyles. In fact, many doctors often prescribe lifestyle factors such as exercise and a good diet as part of treatments for illnesses such as depression and anxiety.

Lack of exercise

Only 22.9% of adults in the US get enough exercise according to the CDC, and this can have a large impact on both their physical and mental health. Although exercise is related to lifestyle improvements, such as weight loss and the reduction of physical illnesses such as heart conditions, there is also a lot of evidence to show that exercise can have as much of an effect of prescription drugs on illnesses such as depression. Exercise can help to improve the amount of vitamins that you will receive, increase the amount of serotonin in the body, the lack of which causes some cases of depression and gives you the opportunity to explore nature.

Low-quality diets

Over 1 in 4 people experience a mental health problem at any one time across the world, and 1 in 6 have experienced symptoms of a mental health problem in the past week. However, there is now also evidence to suggest that mental health can be impacted by poor diet, with sources suggesting that cases of depression can rise up to 80% in teens with the lowest quality diets. Eating regularly and well can help boost your nutritional and energy levels, which can increase your mood, along with superfoods such as omega oils which have been proven to increase mood. Not only this, but food with a high sugar level can give you mood swings from the amount of adrenalin and fast burning carbohydrates flooding your bloodstream.

What can you do to change this?

Fortunately, there are ways to change your lifestyle to make sure that it is beneficial to your mental health and to lessen the symptoms of depression and anxiety in people already suffering from mental health conditions.

Look at what you eat

You can improve your lifestyle by choosing to eat healthier diets and losing weight if you are overweight, which in turn can cause low mood. However, it is vital that you diet or eat well in a healthy manner, and Result Plan can help you to do this. Result Plan run a service for diet delivery that allows you to receive meals catered to your nutritional needs to your front door. This is also a good option for those suffering from mental health conditions who may struggle to visit the supermarket or cook nutritional meals for themselves.

Exercise Regularly

You can also improve your lifestyle by taking up regular exercise. A good option for this is walking as this gives you moderate if not strenuous exercise and allows you to experience nature and peaceful surroundings, which can help to clear your mind. If you have a mental health condition and struggle to leave the house or do exercise, you could consider investing in gym equipment for your home, playing console fitness games, or performing easy fitness routines indoors, such as push-ups and yoga, which is also perfect for mindfulness.