Positive and Negative Mental Health

[PNH]

This thread is an offshoot from Annoying comments you hear all the time. 

 

 

These forums do an excellent job at allowing people to talk about their physical health issues/goals/strategies and provide motivation for hundreds or thousands as they strive to become better(or at least happier) versions of themselves. This is noble and a wonderful cause, but I haven't seen many threads that address the issues of helping people become more mentally healthy, which could certainly be my lack of experience reading through the forums, although I have spent a fair amount of time here lately.

 

Having had years of health issues(Crohn's Disease) which have lead me to many of the same unhealthy habits that most of us have dealt with, I have found that mental health is at least as important to my successes as physical health is. Years of working both with and against my disease have lead me to where I am today and so I have a few questions that at the very least I think each person should ask themselves and be honest about, even if only with themselves.

 

 

 

1) A number of posts have referenced their parents/partners/close friends not understanding their journey. Have you tried sitting down(or preferably while hiking a long trail carrying a heavy pack) and telling these people about what you are facing? Do they understand where you are coming from and where you are trying to go? Do the people whose opinions you truly care about know what you are going through? If not, why not? If so, do you have advice for people who haven't taken this step so they can be successful?

 

Having people who understand you and support you, even if only emotionally, will do wonders for your motivation and self value. Strength may lie within, but none of us was ever hurt by having a friendly face in our corner of the ring.

 

2) This stems from the post I linked at the start

Do you guys/girls think that allowing "armchair nutritionists" or gym trainers or random people(read: jerks) who you don't, or at least probably shouldn't care about, question or devalue your motives to the point of frustration and then venting is healthy? If yes, then what is healthy about it? If no, then shouldn't you take steps to not allow these things to bother you in the first place, just like you have all taken steps to improve your physical health habits? If you have successfully learned to shrug off or escape annoyance from these situations, do you have suggestions beyond "just don't listen" that might be helpful to people who do find themselves annoyed?

 

I decided on the 2nd day of college that I didn't like who I was, and because no one there knew me, I was going to be someone else. I decided on who I wanted to be, and just faked it until I became that person. It worked great for me in many aspects of my life, and did nothing at all for me in many others. I still often want to punch people who tell me I am doing things wrong, even when I am.

 

3) How have you learned to evaluate your mental health? What metrics do you use? We have height, weight, BF %, etc. as metrics for physical health. By what standards should any of us be measuring our mental health? 

Happiness chart?

 

 

When people find out that I have Crohn's Disease I inevitably get asked some version of "Well how do you deal with it?" Dealing with Crohn's is just like dealing with any disease and this leads to the only piece of advice I feel like I can give on mental or physical health:

 

Whatever your disease, be it Crohn's or World of Warcraft(I've had this disease) or obesity or low self worth, if you do not control your disease, it will control you. Your mental game will be just as important to your success as your physical game and while sometimes you will lose the battle, having good mental and physical health, especially when combined with loving people in your corner, will make the loss just a temporary setback in your quest for greatness.