People Share 30 Changes They Made And Things They Did That Greatly Improved Their Mental Health

Dr. Jodie Skillicorn, who is a holistic psychiatrist and strongly believes in the body's innate healing power, agrees that collective challenges affect everyone's state of mind. "Your mental health and well-being influence me and mine influence you," she told Bored Panda.

"We are social beings and connected in ways understood by many indigenous cultures but largely forgotten by most of us, except in the language of spirituality, but now more and more research is affirming this profound truth. In one interesting study, strangers were asked to meditate together for twenty minutes. They were then each hooked up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor their brain waves and placed in separate Faraday chambers, which is basically a small cage blocking any electromagnetic or sensory communication between the partners. Their only instruction was to 'maintain a sense of their partner.'"

"Amazingly, the researchers found that while one partner was exposed to random flashes of light the other person's brain responded in a similar pattern despite being separated and not exposed to the light. With just twenty minutes of mutual meditation, their brains had become connected and entangled. Think of the implications of that on a collective scale."

Skillicorn said the Framington Heart Study provides further evidence of our connections.

"As part of this study, a group of participants were followed for over 20 years to explore how their moods influenced those around them. The researchers found that if one person's happiness increased, the odds of those around them also being happy increased by 34%."

"One's odds of being happier increased by 25% if living within one mile of a happier friend. Better yet, even if a friend’s friend’s friend becomes happier, your chance of happiness increases by 15%. Clearly, we are inextricably linked together for better or worse. This evidence suggests that the power of thoughts, beliefs, and emotions has a ripple effect that we are only beginning to understand."

"If this is true, then it becomes our individual responsibility to center, balance, and heal ourselves so that we are less reactive, more focused, and present, so we can make wise, clear-headed decisions for ourselves and others," the psychiatrist explained.

"Social media provides another window into this phenomenon," Dr. Skillicorn added. "Facebook conducted an experiment in which an automated system shifted the emotional content of different user’s newsfeeds. They discovered that those who received more negative news posted more negative feeds, while those reading more positive posts tended to post more positive feeds."

"This shows the power (and danger) of how what we read and focus on during the day can shift our perceptions and mood, and how these choices have a significant impact not only on ourselves but those around us. It benefits all of us to become more aware of what we are sending out into the world."

In the United States, 45% of individuals with a clinical-level mental problem do not seek professional help.

Overall, the primary reason for not seeking professional help for a clinical disorder is a preference for self-help (36%), when people try to manage their challenges on their own or don't think they needed any mental health treatment. This explanation is followed by:

• a lack of knowledge of what kind of help to seek or where to get it (34%);
• a lack of confidence in mental health treatment (28%);
• about one in five (22)% did not seek help because of stigma or fear of not wanting people to know;
• and 17% were deterred by a lack of affordability.

"The earlier you can seek help, the better," Skillicorn said. "It is far easier to prevent a downward spiral if caught early than to wait until there are few options beyond hospitalization and medication. If you are struggling to function, to get out of bed in the morning, if you find yourself ruminating over dark, despairing thoughts, then the best first step is to find a therapist who can offer support and guidance."

Although debatable as to what extent, Skillicorn said that, "medications have a place, but other options may be worth trying first, including therapy, mindfulness techniques, exercise, establishing better sleep hygiene, getting outside in nature, and connecting with others."

"All of these have been found in research studies to be effective tools for preventing and treating depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues," the psychiatrist added. "The problem, of course, is that the depressive mind often rejects that these things can be effective and avoids doing the very things that might be most helpful. That is why having support from a therapist, close friend, or support group is important."