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Do you ever feel too overwhelmed to deal with your problems? If so, you’re not alone.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than a quarter of American adults experience depression, anxiety or another mental disorder in any given year. Others need help coping with a serious illness, losing weight or stopping smoking. Still others struggle to cope with relationship troubles, job loss, the death of a loved one, stress, substance abuse or other issues. And these problems can often become debilitating.

What is psychotherapy?  A psychologist can help you work through such problems. Through psychotherapy, psychologists help people of all ages live happier, healthier and more productive lives.In psychotherapy, psychologists apply scientifically validated procedures to help people develop healthier, more effective habits. There are several approaches to psychotherapy —  including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal and other kinds of talk therapy — that help individuals work through their problems.Psychotherapy is a collaborative treatment based on the relationship between an individual and a psychologist. Grounded in dialogue, it provides a supportive environment that allows you to talk openly with someone who’s objective, neutral and nonjudgmental. You and your psychologist will work together to identify and change the thought and behavior patterns that are keeping you from feeling your best.By the time you’re done, you will not only have solved the problem that brought you in, but you will have learned new skills so you can better cope with whatever challenges arise in the future.

Click here for more of this great article from the American Psychological Association

Well being is the product of our environment and the people around us.

Physical well-being depends on more than keeping our bodies fit. Emotions and the people who come into our lives matter just as much.

Source: Gabor Maté: How to Build a Culture of Good Health

Life can often be difficult… it can be stressful and complicated.

These accumulated stresses can make us susceptible to feeling poorly, and this can even make us susceptible to developing mental illnesses like depression.

So how can we support and build a strong foundation for our mental health?

Here are five basic ways to start:

1. Having Social Supports and Creating Connections to Others

Having social support and connections to other human beings is absolutely crucial to our mental health. Human beings are social creatures and we’re designed to be with and interact with others. It’s the way years and years of evolution have made us. If we don’t have social connections with friends, family, church, school, work or through other activity our mental and physical health suffers.

Way back in 1946, Spitz found that infants who do not have significant and frequent contact with their mothers have a compromised and underdeveloped nervous system — which affects pretty much all aspects of their social, emotional, and psychological development and functioning!

Social connections are protective and help us maintain stronger mental and even physical health by:

1. Eliminating or reducing the effects of stressful experiences by helping us gain perspective and discover less threatening explanations of negative events in our lives; this helps us to develop more effective coping strategies.

2. By promoting positive “psychological states like improved self-identity; by helping us find purpose, self-worth, and creating positive happy experiences that support health-promoting physiological responses”.     Social connections also provide us with information about how to be healthy and can also be a prime source of motivation to help us better care for ourselves.

In sum, social connections and supportive relationships are crucial to our mental and physical health — social supports can actually and effectively protect us from the effects of stress and may even protect against developing depression or other mental health problems.  (Turner and Brown, 2010).

So try to spend time with your friends and family. Go out for lunch, to a movie, to the park, for a coffee.  Join a club, play a sport, find an outlet to fill your human need for connections.  If the people you connect with aren’t near, make a phone call, Skype or even just send a text.  Find some way to connect with others.

What if you’re isolated, like being in a new city?  You can join a club like a book or hobby club, a running group, or even join a sports team.  A great place to make new connections and make new friends is through a website call www.meetup.com

Another great way to meet new people and make new connections is through volunteering.  Something we’ll talk about a little later.

Sometimes just getting out of the house and around people can even help us feel better when we’re down.  Going to a fitness centre, the library, the mall or park can help even if we don’t interact with others one on one — having other people around can feel positive or reassuring.

2. Physical Activity and Movement

Movement and physical activity are crucial to our mental well-being. Our bodies were designed to move and be active and inactivity can harm us both physically and mentally.

According to Anshel (2006) the advantages of physical activity and exercise to our mental health are:

– improves our hardiness and resilience, allowing us to better tackle life’s problems and challenges.
– reduces and mediates our levels of stress
– increases our self-esteem and improves our self-concept. Exercise actually helps us see ourselves as more competent and capable.
– Reduces our levels of anxiety and worry
– Moderates and decreases the symptoms of depression and actually can reduce the likelihood of getting depression

Start small and go for a 20-minute brisk walk.  But what if we don’t feel motivated to exercise? One trick I often use myself when I don’t feel like going for a walk or a run is to tell myself:

I’m going to go for a 10 or fifteen-minute walk or run and if I still feel unmotivated and crappy?    I will turn around and go home. This way I get some exercise and you know what?   99% of the time I feel better once I start and I just keep going!

Join a sports team, a hiking or walking group, join an exercise class or start going to yoga.    Exercise classes can also be a great way to make social connections.

3. Eat well and hydrate!

Making sure that we eat good healthy foods and drinking enough water are both crucial to how we feel.   Mood, energy, blood sugar levels and nutritional intake are all related and making sure we keep our body and brain fueled is crucial to our mood and mental health.

In 2011 study of more than 5,000 Norwegians, Australian Psychiatrist and researcher Felice Jacka and her colleagues found lower rates of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder among those who consumed a healthier more traditional diet of protein and plant matter, than amongst people who followed a “modern diet” containing more processed and fast foods.

Here’s a link to the Health Canada guide to nutrition and diet — a good place to start to eat in a healthier way and improve your mood.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

Interesting enough, just drinking enough water can also affect our mood!    Researcher Lawrence Armstrong,  a professor of physiology in University of Connecticut’s Department of Kinesiology found in a 2011 study, that even mild dehydration can affect how we are feeling.

The author’s of this study found that even mild dehydration can cause negative mood, an increased perception of task difficulty, lower concentration levels, and headache symptoms.    (Armstrong et. al., 2011)

So even simple things like drinking water can help us feel more emotionally and mentally well.  So drink up!

4. Volunteer and Contribute to your Community.

Volunteering can have great social and health benefits. In a recent study by Jenkinson et. Al. (2013) They found those that volunteered regularly had lower depression levels, increased life satisfaction, and enhanced overall well-being!

Volunteering helps us connect to the greater whole in our community.  It can give us purpose, and meaning in our lives.

Existential Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said:

The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.

So volunteer your time and effort for a cause or issue that you care about; work in a community garden, help out at your community association, volunteer at a local animal shelter or soup kitchen, or even join a non-profit board of directors. Find some activity that helps you help others and you’ll be surprised how good you feel.

Many communities have a place to search for volunteer opportunities like this one in my city, Calgary:   

https://propellus.org/get-volunteering/

5. Sleep

Sleep is a basic need. Like breathing, drinking water, and eating, we need sleep in order to survive and thrive. Get enough quality sleep and that doesn’t necessarily mean the magical number of eight hours.

Maybe it’s more maybe it’s less… everyone is different and needs what their individual body needs. For instance, infants sleep 16 hours or more per day, adolescents sleep on average 9 hours and the elderly average only 6 hours. Adults have different individual needs and 7 or 8 hours may be enough for one person , but woefully inadequate for someone else.

How much sleep do we need? Adults have one major episode of sleep at night typically lasting about 7½ to 8 hours (but ranging from 6 to 9 hours). The amount of sleep that one needs is individual with some people being short sleepers, and others long sleepers. The amount of sleep that one needs is that which is sufficient for a person to awaken feeling refreshed and to be able to function optimally during the day. (https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/Insomnia_Adult_Child.pdf)

Sleep is important to mental health and is intricately related to our emotions and how we feel.  Who doesn’t feel a little bit cranky when we don’t get enough?

Mood disorders and depression in particular, are
associated with insomnia and hypersomnia. In
vulnerable individuals problems sleeping should be
noted; enabling better sleep can bring significant
relief and help cope with the illness. (Canadian Sleep Society: Sleep and Depression)

Here is a link to some great information on “Normal Sleep and Sleep Hygiene” that can help you improve your sleep.

https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/normal_sleep.pdf

What if you have insomnia? This can really effect and wreck our moods. Here is some great information on how to deal with that:

https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/Insomnia_Adult_Child.pdf

So, these basic five things are essential ways to improve how we feel and they can even protect us against mental health problems. Of course, there are other ways too.

Really look at what’s missing in your day to day life and start out by making small changes.   Maybe it’s drinking more water, joining a club, seeing friends, going for a long walk or even just eating your veggies?  The point is, start by doing something and help yourself to deal with life’s stresses and support your mental health.

If for any reason you feel that your daily stressors are too much to handle or that you are suffering from the effects of depression, anxiety or another mental illness?  Contact a qualified mental health expert like a Psychologist, a Social Worker or your Family Doctor.

References:

Armstrong LE, Ganio MS, Casa DJ, Lee EC, McDermott BP, Klau JF, Jimenez L, Le Bellego L, Chevillotte E, Lieberman HR.  (2011) Mild dehydration affects mood in healthy young women. J Nutr. 2012 Feb;142(2):382-8.

Anshel, M. H. (2006). Applied Exercise Psychology: A Practitioner’s Guide to Improving Client Health and Fitness. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Retrieved from Questia.

Cohen, Sheldon, 2004.  Social Relationships and Health.   American Psychologist

2012 Canadian Sleep Society “Insomnia” https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/Insomnia_Adult_Child.pdf

2004 Canadian Sleep Society “Normal Sleep and Sleep Hygiene” https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/normal_sleep.pdf

2006 Canadian Sleep Society “Sleep and Depression” https://css-scs.ca/files/resources/brochures/depression.pdf

Jacka FN , Mykletun A, Berk M, Bjelland I, Tell GS. (2011)  The association between habitual diet quality and the common mental disorders in community-dwelling adults: the Hordaland Health study. Psychosomatic Medicine 2011 Jul-Aug;73 .

Caroline E Jenkinson, Andy P Dickens, Kerry Jones,Jo Thompson-Coon, Rod S Taylor, Morwenna Rogers, Clare L Bambra, Iain Lang and Suzanne H Richards , 2013 Is volunteering a public health intervention? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the health and survival of volunteers.   BioMed Central Public Health.

House JS, Landis KR, Umberson D Social relationships and health.  Science. 1988 Jul 29; 241(4865):540-5.

Spitz, R. A. (1946). Anaclitic depression: An inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood II. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 2, 313–342

R. Jay Turner and Robyn Lewis Brown (2010) Ch. 10. Social Support and Mental Health in Scheid, T. L. and Brown T. N. A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health , Cambridge University Press

Maybe new ways of thinking are the solution to addiction?

By Jeremy Galloway June 20th, 2016 They repeat the words in chorus during almost every Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting I’ve attended: “A drug is a drug is a drug.” It means that if you’ve used one drug, experienced problems with it and quit, you can’t use any other drug without problems. But i

Source: Let’s Abandon the Assumption That If You’ve Been Addicted to a Drug, Total Abstinence Is Essential

From a poignant blog entitled “Breathing” from My Everyday Terrors

I’m free, but I can’t enjoy it. Like a scared dog released from a small cage into a new environment, I huddle, immobile, terrified in my spare time, certain the appearance of freedom hides some trap.   Click for more of this blog entry. 

Source: Breathing | My Everyday Terrors

Opinion News -Intellectually, we know that life is short and fragile. Yet, many of us live our lives and get through each day in a way that is quite inconsistent with this knowledge. Many things we do or think about – and how we feel about them – would be very different if we really appreciate that our time on earth is finite and could expire much sooner than expected without any warning..

Read more at straitstimes.com.

Source: Find your own meaning in life, Opinion News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

From the introduction to The Novel Cure:

Whatever your ailment, our prescriptions are simple: a
novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals. Some treatments
will lead to a complete cure. Others will simply offer
solace, showing you that you are not alone. All will offer
the temporary relief of your symptoms due to the power of
literature to distract and transport. Sometimes the remedy
is best taken as an audio book, or read aloud with a friend.
As with all medicines, the full course of treatment should
always be taken for best results.

What is bibliotherapy?

Bibliotherapy is something I have practiced for many years with clients in my private practice of psychology. I love providing my clients with a book recommendation and have them come back in a week or two, pleased that they’ve found some parallel to their lives, found some important insight, or even realize they aren’t alone and that their suffering is really just part of the human experience.

Notably, it doesn’t always have to be a “self-help” kind of book either. It can be a work of fiction, a moving, and poignant memoir or even a historical work.   In today’s blog, we’ll concentrate on fiction.

“Creative bibliotherapy” utilizes imaginative literature—novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and biographies—to improve psychological well-being. Through the incorporation of carefully selected literary works, therapists can often guide people in treatment on a journey of self-discovery. This method is most beneficial when people are able to identify with a character, experience an emotional catharsis as a result of this identification, and then gain insight about their own life experiences.   From http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/bibliotherapy  

Throughout human history, (well since the invention of the written word) it seems that story telling and reading fiction has always been a fundamental way for people to escape workaday life and immerse themselves into a fantasy world. Reading is a like short vacation getaway from our own troubles, and it’s often described in exactly this way. It’s romanticized as a way to temporarily retreat from our day-to-day, humdrum life and immerse ourselves in a fantastical, imaginational world of new or lost loves, pirates, aliens, time travelers or maybe even ripped bodices in the 16th century!  :-O

One of the reasons I really think reading fiction is timeless and valuable for those on life’s exciting and often bumpy journey — is that in many ways the human experience of life is universal.  We’re all subject to the same bittersweet reality of life, to all of its sufferings and joys. Maybe reading fiction taps into something deeper inside us?    What if it taps into our very humanity; what Jung would have called the “collective unconsious”.

All decent fiction is populated with the archetypes of humanity.   Carl Jung wrote:

The archetype concept derives from the often repeated observation that myths and universal literature stories contain well defined themes which appear every time and everywhere. We often meet these themes in the fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of persons living nowadays.

Interestingly,  Jung first applied the term archetype to literature. He put forward that there were universal patterns and themes in all stories, legends, and myths — regardless of their author, culture or historical period.  Jung theorized that a part of every human mind contains a “collective unconscious” shared by all members of the human species, a sort of universal, and primitive kind of memory.  Jung believed that the collective unconscious carried our inherited traits, our intuitions and a collection of collective wisdom from humanities past.   Interestingly enough some genetics research is starting to show that we do carry some genetic memory from our ancestors.     Archetypes can be seen as the eternal, underlying fabric that contains our universal human experience, our ancestral genetic memory.   Maybe reading fiction is a way of tapping into, exploring and clarifying our archetypal beliefs and this practice allows us to further understand ourselves and our connection to the rest of humanity?

Here is an article on genetic memory for further reading:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/genetic-memory-how-we-know-things-we-never-learned/

According to Shifra Baruchson-Arbib, (2000):

The concept of using literature for therapeutic and supportive purposes has been known since ancient times. The Ancient Greeks called their libraries “The Healing Place for the Soul”; Muslim physicians encouraged patients in hospitals to read the Koran; Christians drew strength and comfort from the Holy Scriptures; and Jews never separated from their Prayer Book and the Book of Psalms. However, bibliotherapy did not become established as a concept until the 20th century.

The research on bibliotherapy dates all the way back to 1937 when scientist, civil rights pioneer and librarian Sadie Peterson Delaney used a form of bibliotherapy in her extensive work at the VA Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. Elizabeth Pomeroy, director of the Veterans Administration Library Service, published the results of Delaney’s research on the value of bibliotherapy at VA hospitals. The findings of this research showed that reading helped those in the VA Hospitals experience fuller and more meaningful lives.

In the February 1938 issue of Opportunity magazine, Delaney described the VA patients:

Here minds long imprisoned by lethargy are awakened… And once again he is alive with enthusiasm and joy derived from activity.

In 2012, researchers at Ohio State University examined what happened to people while reading a fictional story and discovered that readers found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of the fictional characters as if they were their own – a phenomenon the researchers describe as “experience-taking: 

Experience-taking can be a powerful way to change our behavior and thoughts in meaningful and beneficial ways” and “Experience-taking changes us by allowing us to merge our own lives with those of the characters we read about, which can lead to good outcomes

In 2010, Ahmadipour, Avand, & Mo’menpour implemented a small study of bibliotherapy’s use as a tool for helping those with depression and found that bibliotherapy was helpful in improving depressive symptoms to some degree.   And that,

In the face-to-face interview at the end of the period the subjects told that reading such books helped them to know themselves, their problem and their surroundings better.

Now where to start?  What to read?

The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud, & Susan Elderkin is wonderful place to find some ideas, the authors write:

It’s tempting to see books the way we see gadgets: that we need the very latest, most up-to-date version. But just because a novel is new doesn’t mean it’s any good; indeed, with a new novel being published every three minutes, the chances that it’s good are actually rather low. Far better to wait and see if a novel stands the test of time, and in the meantime read one that’s already proved itself to be worth reading. Because the art of rereading is a neglected one, and arguably even more important than the act of reading the first time around.

The Novel Cure also offers a list of hundreds of different books and how they may help you deal with a loss, a depression or with the stresses of life.

Another good way to start reading to feel better is to ask your friends, coworkers and family if any books have affected and/or helped them navigate their lives?   Another way is to find a therapist that practices bibliotherapy and get some suggestions and direction from them — most especially if you are dealing with something more serious than the “blues” — like a mental health issue like clinical depression or strong anxiety.

The important thing, maybe, is to start.  Crack a good book. Find that escape, find that route into a different fictional world that might even help you find clarity, meaning and understanding in your “real” life.

One caution though,

In “Solution Focused Therapy” one of the modes of psychotherapy I practice, there are two important guides:

If it’s working, do more of it.

If it’s not working, do something different.

The same thing applies to trying reading to improve your mood.

Reading can be emotional for some people and if it worsens your mood, or if a specific genre of reading or even a specific book makes you feel worse — stop doing it and try something else or even talk to a mental health professional if you need to.

Or, secondly, if you struggle with getting “out into the world” effectively and reading makes you even more isolated….  it may not be a good choice to hide away reading rather than interacting in the “real” world.

Happy reading.

References:

Ahmadipour, T., Avand, F., & Mo’menpour, S. (2012). Bibliotherapy on Depressed University Students: A Case Study. Studies in Literature and Language, 4(2), 49.

Anderson, H. (2015, January 6). Bibliotherapy: can you read yourself happy? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150106-can-you-read-yourself-happy

Ella Berthoud, Susan Elderkin (2013) The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You. Penguin Press

Bibliotherapy.   from   http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/bibliotherapy

Gubert, B. K. (1993). Sadie Peterson Delaney: Pioneer Bibliotherapist. American Libraries, 24(2), 124-125. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25632815?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Pomeroy, Elizabeth. “Bibliotherapy-A Study and Results of Hospital

Library Service,” Medical Bulletin of the Veterans Administration, 13:360-364,
April 1937.

Images courtesy of www.pixabay.com

Here is a great article on stress.

Like the Godfather of stress Hans Selye said decades ago:

“It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it”.

Remarkable New Research About Stress and the Brain (And All The Reason You Need For Some Sweet Self-Loving)