How do you know if your mental health is deteriorating? While there may not be huge signs, small things can indicate a change. Pay close attention to fine details.
Your physical health is just as important as your mental health, as it plays a role in your growth, stability and resilience. It is necessary to take care of yourself in every way.
So, paying attention to the small details in your mental health can alert you to a current or upcoming decline. If you notice the signs, you can prevent severe symptoms later.
Hidden signs of deteriorating mental health
Let’s take a look at some of the subtle signs that your mental health may be deteriorating. These indicators may appear gradually over time, and may even seem like normal actions and reactions.
However, if you pay close attention, you can see when something is not quite right.
- Low labor productivity
Whether you work outside the home or have your own business, when your mental health takes a turn for the worse, you will face difficulties in this area. If you work for someone else, you may often arrive late, miss several deadlines, and become argumentative.
When conditions like depression become worse, it becomes almost impossible to complete projects properly. As for being late, it is difficult to get out of bed even to put on work clothes.
Notice these habits and contradictions? Maybe it’s your health.
- Unexplained aches and pains
Maybe you’re doing everything right regarding nutrition and fitness, but you’re still in pain. Strange aches and pains are not necessarily caused by laziness or muscle injury. Sometimes physical discomfort comes from mental discomfort.
- Increased panic attacks
If you are having more panic attacks than usual, it may be due to low stress tolerance. If you are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, your condition may worsen.
Poor mental health, especially related to anxiety or PTSD, can lead to increased panic attacks even in the absence of triggers. Have you noticed an increase in attacks recently? Are they more severe? This could be an indicator.
- Increased risky behaviour
If you notice a desire to engage in risky behavior or thrill-seeking activities, it may be due to a mental health failure. Now, not everyone who indulges in thrill-seeking opportunities suffers from a mental illness, but this desire can appear in those who do.
As depression worsens, your brain may combat this feeling by looking for ways to increase adrenaline or dopamine. This can be done with excitement and fear.
- Dizziness
As your mental health deteriorates, you may start to feel dizzy. You may even experience vertigo which is more serious.
The reason mental health deterioration causes dizziness in some people is because anxiety and stress can disrupt blood flow. This, in turn, can limit the amount of oxygen that reaches your brain.
- Increased drug use
Have you noticed an increase in alcohol consumption or desire to drink? If you notice this, you are probably experiencing a decline in your mental health.
Alcohol or drugs provide a temporary high, and if you have dabbled in either substance, your brain remembers that high. When your mental health deteriorates, there may be a sudden desire to return to these habits to prevent deterioration.
- Others notice differences in you
Do your family and friends ask you what’s going on? Well, if so, don’t get defensive just yet. They’re probably picking up on something you haven’t even noticed.
Sometimes people give off negative emotions when they are depressed or anxious. These are feelings that people close to you can identify with.
So, when someone asks you what’s wrong, take some time to reflect. If you let them in, you may notice the rejection and take appropriate coping measures.
- Insomnia is worse
Has it become more difficult to sleep at night lately? If so, it may be more than just insomnia. You may not be able to get your mind to shut down easily, and this may be due to anxiety.
If you have a lot of stuff, it will be difficult for you to sleep at night. You may stay up most of the night analyzing and solving problems. This is an accurate indicator that you need to take a break from stressors.
- Recurrent illness
Have you noticed that you catch all the colds and viruses in the office, home or just in public places? Yes, this is intense.
Well, mental health can affect your immune system, making it weaker and making you more susceptible to germs. If you are sicker than usual, you may be suffering from physical depression.
- You are not yourself
Maybe you can’t figure out what’s wrong, and that’s just you. Your entire being seems absent, and you have no drive or passion for anything.
It is possible that your mental health is deteriorating, something so subtle that you have not noticed this process until now, until you feel bad. Pay attention to your lack of motivation and procrastination. It may be abnormal.
