In this article we will discuss what a mental injury is, what the most common injuries are, and when you should seek help when you’ve been involved with one. 

Read: Preventative Self-Care for Aging Feet: Maintaining Balance, Comfort, and Mobility

What Is A Mental Injury?

A mental injury is a mental health condition such as depression or anxiety that has influence over an individual’s mood and thoughts. A mental injury is one that is caused by a specific event or occurrence such as continuous stress or a traumatic incident. In order for a psychological or psychiatric injury to be classified as an official mental injury, a medical professional is required to diagnose the individual’s mental state as unwell, and it must be serious enough that it significantly impacts an individual’s ability to work, socialise or function in their daily life.

Most Common Types of Mental Injuries

PTSD

PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and is a mental health condition caused by a deeply triggering or stressful event. People that live with PTSD process dangerous or terrifying situations differently to others, and will become immediately triggered by these environments that bring back flashbacks and nightmares from the traumatic event they witnessed. 

Depression

Individuals with depression tend to have extremely low mood levels and often struggle to find enjoyment and interest in everyday activities that others would typically enjoy. As well as emotional symptoms like sadness and emptiness, those who suffer from depression can also experience cognitive, physical and behavioural symptoms such as brain fog and disrupted sleep.

Anxiety

Although it’s very normal for everyone to experience feeling anxious in stressful situations throughout life, anxiety is also a medical condition diagnosed to individuals who persistently feel anxious in situations and are unable to reduce or limit their anxiety levels. Individuals who live with anxiety will often experience physical symptoms like shortness of breath, as well as mental symptoms like difficulty concentrating.

Common Causes of Mental Injuries

It’s rare that mental injuries occur because of a single factor. Instead, they’re often a result of either inherited traits or biological factors and environmental stressors. In cases where mental injuries are caused by a single occurrence, it’s usually because of either trauma, abuse or loss of a family member or loved one. It’s common to see individuals with PTSD if they’ve been involved in an abusive or toxic relationship over a period of time. You will also see patients with PTSD if they’ve faced life-threatening incidents like a car crash or near-death experience. A number of mental injuries however are caused by prolonged incidents that can be both stressful or depressive. It’s often that you’ll see depression occur in individuals who have suffered a recent death of someone they loved or were close to. 

How To Avoid Mental Injuries

It’s hard to clearly say how you can completely avoid mental injuries – especially those that are caused by an external factor or another individual. However, there are a number of wellness techniques that healthcare professionals recommend to manage PTSD, stress and anxiety.

Mindfulness is one of the most recommended wellness techniques to manage mental illnesses. It involves a number of different methodologies, all aimed at paying attention to the present moment and becoming aware of all your thoughts and feelings, without giving energy to them. A key focus of mindfulness is training yourself to notice all the thoughts, smells, emotions and sensations that you feel, while recognising that these events don’t control you. 

A few ways to be more mindful in your daily routine is to partake in regular meditation, even if it’s just 7 minutes a day, which can help you to pay attention to your mind and body, and when your thoughts start to occupy your mind. 

When To Seek Help for Mental Injuries

Regardless of whether your mental injury was caused by the fault of yourself or someone else, it’s always a good idea to seek advice from a medical professional if it begins to interfere with your everyday life. While there are lifestyle changes that can improve the symptoms of mental injuries like deep breathing and building daily positive habits, for long-term health improvements, it’s best to reach out to a professional therapist or psychiatrist.

There are several instances involving mental injuries where seeking support from legal and medical professionals is strongly advised. In situations where a mental injury has been caused within a workplace or medical environment, you could be entitled to mental injury compensation, and should immediately reach out to a specialist law firm like Bond Turner who can advise you on how to put together a successful claim.

The post When Should You Seek Help for a Mental Injury? appeared first on Self Care Advise.

Here are some key strategies to consider when you are feeling low or overwhelmed in a new country:

Create A Routine

A lack of structure for anyone can create a sense of loss and unproductivity, as if you are wasting your days away. Structure, things to do, and building confidence doing other things can help provide structure to your days and, therefore, take you out of these slumps.

Read: How Pigmentation Removal Interrupts Excess Melanin Activity

Make a Safe Space

Relocating means you already have your first project, and that is making your new house feel like a home. While the architecture and buildings might differ from your home, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, or you can bring a piece of home with you to your decorating. Always keep your hometown in mind when decorating your new house; this can help bring some familiarity to your space, but also can be your very own sanctuary.

Physical Health

Your mental and physical health can be more linked than you realise. Even just a walk or a sit down in the park can transform a mentally cloudy day into a breath of fresh air and clear all of those clouds away. That is why movement is so important, and while anxiety or depression might sometimes hinder you from maintaining your physical health, it’s important to keep yourself accountable and to reach out to help you to remain physical to pull you out of those times.

Local Support System

If you happen to have relocated on your own, whether it be for a new job or just a change, then you are left to start from scratch with your connections. This isn’t a bad thing, but just a process that might be unfamiliar to you since you were a child or teenager, so in itself, the ideology of ‘making friends’ can be daunting and leave you wondering how, but it’s simple.

There are loads of social meet-up events for this kind of scenario, which usually involve men only or women only gathering to do an activity or similar, have a couple of drinks chatting and get to know each other.

Other, more organic ways to meet people through joining classes, volunteering and so forth, which can help form connections with people who already share similar interests with you, which is really nice.

Language Learning

While you might already be proficient in the language, for example, if you have moved from the UK to another English-speaking country, you are pretty much ready to go without any further learning. However, if you have moved to a different language country, then it’s an opportunity to get more involved culturally if you make an effort to learn the language as best as you can. This is not only another way to meet people who are also expats, but it’s a step into blending and merging into the culture, which can help you feel more comfortable and less lonely.

Connect Back Home

It’s important to maintain your connections back home; they can bring some balance into your life, but ensure not to be dependent too much on the world back home and try to come to terms with things like missing out on certain things, and being late to the party on some topics and so forth.

What has worked for myself in the past is setting a day in the week for a call time, this way you can have your catch-ups and maintain a healthy connection with your family far away.

Manage Expectations

It’s very common for people to expect a certain lifestyle when they move, whether it be to have formed a whole new friendship group within the first month of moving or to have merged right into the culture without feeling like an outcast. Regardless, it’s best to enter every situation without these crazy expectations or without any expectation if you can. This will put so much pressure off of yourself, and you will be better able to start living in the moment.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to nurturing your own mental health during a relocation, the main way to do so, if remaining active and trying to immerse yourself within the culture through joining in as and when you can. Hiding away in your home and avoiding the world outside will allow the mind to wander and fester on the negatives.

You never know, you might end up absolutely loving it and then years fly by, and you are applying for a British citizenship before you know it. There is no point in not trying before making the decision you want to move back.

The post Nurturing Your Mental Health After Relocating Abroad appeared first on Self Care Advise.