What is a mental health problem?
A mental health problem arises when the usual stresses and strains in life start to grow and you feel there is little you can do to stop it -
- you find yourself worrying a lot more than usual
- you find it hard to stop this worry even when you try to stop it
- you find yourself flat, sad, irritable at times when you can see no good reason for it
- you feel your nature changing - you shout and scream at your children for no great reason; you can't find the energy to do the things you used to enjoy
- you avoid going places or doing things for fear that you will not cope
- you start to see the future as black
You may feel at this stage that you have gone beyond the usual ups and downs. It is the blood pressure idea again - all of us can feel like this from time to time but when it is there more days than not, it is time to do something about it.
By far the most common mental health problems are anxiety and depression. Many people also have problems with panic attacks, insomnia, alcohol and anger. It is usual for people to have more than one problem. For this reason, we will now call these problems stress.
