Holla readers and fellow prestigious hive bloggers, it is another edition of weekly featured content titled "Mental health" in hive learners community
A teacher of mine once said that out of every three individuals in the society, there is one mentally unstable individual among them We all laughed and assumed it to be a funny joke. This was before the whole pandemic happened and the world went into panic. Across the world most illness have different symptoms that can be easily identified without the need of medical practitioner but in the case of mental illness, most people affected barely know what is wrong with them until eventually they become uncontrollable.
In a world such as mine, we encounter different kind of stress on a daily basis which can have a negative impact on our mental stability, thinking about my life as a student, in the process of processing my admission there are a lot of documentation to be done, going up and down to submit necessary documents, it seems most schools non teaching staffs are built to naturally stress student with their inappropriate personality.
I remembered being chased out of the registrar office because I knocked and I did not wait for her to say come in before opening the door, she so much embarrassed me to the extent I wish I could just step in front of a truck. this ill treatment is a continuous practice, which a lot of student have experienced. I can remember seeing a lot of students walking around and talking to themselves, well it might seem normal to everybody these days because abnormalities has been normalised, mental illness mostly is as a result of psychological stress.
What about going to work every day, through the unwarranted traffic jam, I remembered staying in traffic for about 4 hours on my way to Ikeja in Lagos State, it was an horrible experience. escaping the traffic, you still have to face work load and some annoying boss who doesn't care about what you have been through to get to work.
In some cases and scenarios not all mental issues are caused by stress, some are as a result of consuming unhealthy substances such as drugs and alcohol. When I was working at LAGBUS in Ojota, Lagos State. Me and a friend of mine called wasiu used to have some kind of environmental analysis. There are some young men opposite our building after every day's work, they sit down there to smoke and consume some sachet alcoholic drinks.
The weird thing about this people is that, it doesn't matter if it is cold weather or Heavy sunshine, you will see them smoking to the the extent that they will have to deep their head into a drum of water🤣, I end up asking my friend, is it really necessary to smoke under this weather conditions? these are not the kind of weather cigarettes are meant for but they are already addicted to it, making matters worst we have police patrol at that junction everyday but no one is doing anything about it, some of them stop by to buy cigarettes sometimes🤣.
As a a human, there is a limit to what our brain can withstand, we must always try as much as possible to mention mental stability because for some people it might lead to depression or in worst case scenario suicide.
Over the years it has become more easier for me to withstand the mental stress caused by my society through this various tactics.
- 1) Rest: After a very stressful day take a shower and sleep for awhile, it allows the brain to reset, there are a lot of individual that work 24 hours a day without giving themselves time to rest, the body is not a machine, the brain being the control room of the body needs some rest, during those days being a student, especially during exams, it is rare for me to read when it is sunny or I just came back from writing a paper, immediately after I got home I will eat, clean up and sleep. I set my alarm to read at night for at least 3 hours then I go back to sleep and revise all I have read in the morning before the exam.
- 2) Consume healthy nutritional food: Maintaining an healthy diet is very important, which contains nutritional elements such as vitamin D, which increases cognitive abilities and reduce the rate of memory loss. As a person I'm a foodie, I don't joke with foods. Apart from that I always ensure I consume nutritional supplements or substances to boost my mental health.
- 3) Express yourself more often: Most people may not really understand the value of this but it is very important, it is a form of therapy, in most cases after we encounter a stressful event or some kind event that has stirred up our anger and emotions, having someone to talk to or something can reduce the effect. As a person, though I have a small circle of friends and you know these days it is very difficult to trust others with sensitive matters but for me it has always been easy for me to express myself because I don't need a person to do that, I'm writer and a poet, most times I express myself by writing poems. it is my way of expressing myself, in fact my best poems are written when I'm sad, confused or depressed, they are always so emotional. this differs for different individuals, you just have to identify a way to express your emotions.
- 4) Avoid stress: They are some situations when we can avoid stressful situations, engaging in unnecessary stress is not good for mental health which affects mental stability. The moment you detect that an event will require you to stress yourself unnecessary, abstain from it.