Doctors warn about mental health

[MozFan]

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/coronavirus-britons-health-problems-covid-19?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1588431846

Of course it speaks about the physical impact too. But I was very interested by the prediction of an increase in mental health distress after this is ’over’. I’ve said this from day one, I think there’s going to a real mental health epidemic.

Bump

This is exactly my fear.

You need a daily routine in place to stop this happening otherwisee you will end up losing motivation in your life, go get a paper write down a daily routine with timings like what time you'll wake up each day, eat breakfast, read a book, educate yourself and spend a few mins, spend time with family, personal time, connecting with God etc you will feel much better if you have a daily routine in place, otherwise everyday will be like groundhog day - no motivation

I work in mental health and I think we are going to see quite a lot of anxiety going forwards. And services are ill equipped to deal with it. As the article says it is a national trauma that affects everyone in some way. There will be health anxiety, generalised anxiety and agoraphobia, ptsd, depression, ocd, I think we will be overloaded.

What if you had no routine before lockdown? You are hardly likely to start now.

What if your home was a tip and you were sorting it out so you could have a tidy space to maintain and then have a routine.

But now being in the mess everyday is overwhelming and you feel too tired to spend 4 hours doing the housework to tidy it up plus shop plus prep the lunches for the week ahead before another 37.5 hour working week.

Here is a list of supplements that can help boost mental health.

Folic acid — improves mood and helps with depression
Ginkgo biloba — slows cognitive decline and alleviates antidepressant-induced sexual problems
Iron — improves mental clarity, lowers depression levels and reduces psychological stress
Magnesium — helps prevent anxiety
Melatonin — improves sleep quality in people with schizophrenia, depression and seasonal affective disorder
Omega-3 fatty acids — help with bipolar depression and major depression
Potassium — helps prevent depression, anxiety, mental fatigue, memory issues and schizophrenia
Valerian — reduces anxiety and helps with sleep problems
St. John’s wort — helps with mild or moderate depression symptoms
Vitamin B12 — improves mood and helps manage depression symptoms
Vitamin D — improves mood, as well as anxiety and depression symptoms
Zinc — reduces anxiety symptoms

Good nutrition contributes to good health. To stay healthy physically and mentally, make sure that you get adequate amounts of essential nutrients from your diet. Seek advice from a health care practitioner before using any supplement as treatment.

Christ on a bike.

In case this makes a difference to anyone out there: do not stop taking prescribed medication without discussion with your GP/ psychiatrist.

Resources for mental health support for anyone who needs them;

www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/?WT.tsrc=Search&WT.mc_id=Brand&gclid=Cj0KCQjw17n1BRDEARIsAFDHFeyUkXU57AzSYKW7LP6tpUUguIe0yFi3az1AT1Ukm1aBvJw4wLblEdAaAuONEALw_wcB

Well said Tableclothing!

Anxiety is caused by fear so don't fear anything

Seems a very simplistic theory. In my experience anxiety has a multitude of causes which can be vastly different for every sufferer.
I suppose you could strip everything back to find that the ultimate cause is fear of something, but I’m not sure we’d make much progress if we all close to ignore that.

In my opinion, the mental health services will be overloaded.

'Connect with God' ffs!

I also have concerns about this.

However, there are different ways out of it. One is to prescribe. And I have NO doubt that the drug companies are rubbing their hands together. If I didn't care, I'd be buying shares now.

The other is that instead of medicalising it, we push the idea that people are having HEALTHY responses to very difficult times and come up with ways to help deal with that at a national level. Obviously there will be cases where daily life is so impacted for too long that prescriptions will genuinely help. But the idea that we're allowed out like normal and everybody feels better the next day is just ridiculous. In some cultures they mourn for 40 days. But does anybody think that on Day 41 everything is a-ok? Public health campaigns that it's NORMAL not to feel good after something like this (and during it) would be good. Support groups would also be good for some people. Help in processing what's happened in their lives and the world around them.

But essentially, the message should be that "normal" is quite a large range and it's normal to feel bad during and for some time after abnormal/scary/traumatic circumstances. Diagnoses/labels are not necessarily helpful in this situation - unless, like I said, daily life is serious impacted for some time.

My mental health is actually better now. I managed to drop one of my antidepressants. Life is the same everyday no surprises or things to cause anxiety.