Today, I want to talk well-nigh symptoms. When it comes to mental health terms, I’d guess that the word “symptoms” is very well-known. Everyone has experienced an illness, or feeling unwell, at some point in their lives. We are told to squint out for symptoms and when we see them, to stop what we’re doing and get help. Most often, what we’re told to do is rest. But when our symptoms aren’t unchangingly physical, or if those virtually us can’t see our symptoms, what do we do?

What Are Symptoms of Mental Health Issues?

As is often the specimen on this recurring full-length of My Brain’s Not Broken, we start with a definition. Per the Cambridge Dictionary, a symptom is specified as: “any feeling of illness or physical or mental transpiration that is caused by a particular disease.” Nothing new to see here, right? But I’d moreover like to uncontrived you to an volitional definition of symptom, moreover from Cambridge: “any single problem that is caused by and shows a increasingly serious and unstipulated problem.”

There are many health issues in life that involve firsthand fixes. Do you have a cavity? Get it filled. Scrape your elbow? You put a stopgap on and wait for it to heal. You get sick? Don’t leave your bed. But when a symptom of mental illness is part of a larger mental health issue, the solution feels less direct. The symptoms of depression, uneasiness and so many other mental illnesses have been discussed for years. Still, people squint past that and connect symptoms with physical illnesses.

What Do Mental Health Symptoms Squint Like?

Whether you’ve read it on My Brain’s Not Broken or flipside mental health blog, symptoms of mental health issues aren’t anything new. I don’t need to sit here listing the litany of symptoms of mental health diagnoses. But what is still misunderstood well-nigh mental illness is how those symptoms exist. It took a long time to understand that my peepers and uneasiness not only impact my mental health, but my physical health as well.

We tend to think of symptoms as things that exist for a short time but once they’re recognized and treated, go away. But when it comes to mental health, that isn’t unchangingly the case. I’ve learned well-nigh so many symptoms of my mental health challenges over the years. I’ve come to understand how they manifest themselves, when they most often towards and what triggers these moments. Despite that, these symptoms have unfurled to ebb and spritz in the way they impact my life. It’s not as simple as bandaging it up, getting some rest or rubbing some dirt on it. Mental health symptoms are complicated, and underestimating that power is a big mistake.

What Can We Do Well-nigh Them?

Here it is, the million dollar question: what can we do when it comes to dealing with symptoms of mental illness? The first thing I hope people do is deal with these symptoms in the same way they’d deal with a physical illness. If you think you have symptoms of a increasingly serious issue, seek help. If your symptoms are getting in the way of you living your life, seek help.

People will go to the doctor for all sorts of reasons, but won’t see a mental health professional until they’ve struggled for years. This trundling has to stop. When we wits symptoms of a health issue over and over again, it’s okay to shoehorn that something isn’t as it should be. Admitting it, understanding it and seeking help are the first things we should do. The increasingly we understand how symptoms work and develop a healthy vein toward them, the largest we’re set up for success. Symptoms are one increasingly piece of the puzzle to our mental wellness and the increasingly we see it that way, the largest off we are.

It’s taken me years to learn well-nigh my own symptoms and how they show up in my life – what well-nigh you? What is one of the most challenging things well-nigh dealing with your symptoms? Let me know in the comments!