HEALTH

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

Mental health is a very underrated part of the general human health which isn’t really a good thing these days. People tend to focus more on physical health leaving out the mental health which is a very crucial part that shouldn’t be left out. Mental health includes our emotional and psychological well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act. As students, a lot of things affect our emotional and psychological well-being which comes from various activities that go on in our lives and we must take note and be in charge of the activities that affects our well-being.
There are a lot of early warnings of mental health problems which include: eating or sleeping too much or too little, pulling away from people and usual activities, having low or no energy, feeling numb or like nothing matters, severe mood swings, inability to perform daily tasks like going to classes, tutorials e.t.c.
There are so many factors that can affect the mental health of students.

These factors include:

(i) Life Experiences: Due to past experiences that aren’t pleasurable, people tend to dwell on memories and have sleepless nights causing them to be mentally unhealthy.

(ii) Social Media: The social media is so full of so many negative things these days and we really need to guide what we see on the media because the negative things can cause inferiority complex which affects health.

(iii) Financial Issues: Some students don’t get enough from parents and still can’t run around for themselves because of school activities they therefore lack some needs and these may cause them to think negatively.

(iv) Parental issues: Some students come from homes with different marital and family issues and these factors are really devastating to students because without unity in the family, things won’t work out smoothly and this can affect the mental health of the students.
Sometimes, mental health issues are due to inability to cope with peer pressure and school stress and extra curricular activities. These mental health issues, however can be prevented by proper care of the mental health as students.

How to take care of your mental health as a student;

(i) Gaining the balance as students: As students, we need to learn how to balance our school activities and other activities that we are involved in because without balance, we would go through series of unavoidable stress which might be mentally draining.

(ii) Avoid friends that put pressure on you: No one can work or be fine under pressure without being mentally stressed so we shouldn’t allow friends pressurize us into things we can’t do or afford.

(iii) Make hay while the sun shines: As students, we should always read immediately lectures start in a new semester so as to avoid our work from piling up at the end of the semester. So many students begin to read when tests and exams approach which isn’t good for the mental health and it doesn’t allow them cover everything before time.

(iv) Be in control of what you see on the social media: The social media shouldn’t be used often and on unnecessary things. Doing this, we are able to control what we feed our minds with from social media.
Also, to have a sound mind, exercise is a very important way of taking care of your mental health because it doesn’t only make the body healthy, it also makes the mind sound too.
Students shouldn’t panic when results are released too, there is always the opportunity to do better at the beginning of every semester. These methods of mental health care are also applicable to self care too.