For everyone, overcoming challenges and dealing with life’s curveballs can be difficult at times. For those who struggle with mental health ailments, dealing with life’s obstacles can be even harder. Thankfully, there are strategies, practices, and resources that one can take advantage of to better deal with life’s difficulties.
Being aware of these helpful suggestions can make it easier for those struggling with mental health to navigate times of hardship.
Here are some ways to cope with life’s adversities while battling mental health.
Steer clear of stress-inducing situations and people
While some negative situations may be unavoidable, there are others that one can strive to stay away from whenever possible. This includes situations that cause one to feel overly stressed, helpless, or overwhelmed.
In addition, it can be helpful to avoid individuals who consistently cause one to feel negative feelings. This includes overly negative acquaintances and partners in unhealthy relationships. For those struggling with difficult or unpredictable partners, it can help to be aware of adult protective services and other helpful resources.
Steering clear of stressful people and situations can be a powerful and beneficial practice for anyone intent on cultivating a consistent state of well-being. For those who struggle with mental health, it can be even more impactful. Dealing with life’s adversities can take a good deal of one’s energy and mental bandwidth. If one already feels overwhelmed by specific people and situations, negative feelings can be exacerbated when facing hardship.
Accordingly, avoiding stressful situations and people can help those who struggle with mental illness more capable of coping with life’s adversities.
Have support structures in place
Feeling isolated and alone has the power to greatly increase the negative feelings one experiences as a result of adversity. For those battling with mental health, this may be felt even more acutely. As such, it’s important to have support structures in place so that one can always reach out to someone when feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or depressed. Support resources can include anyone ranging from a professional counsellor to a family member.
Whether one needs support due to domestic violence or someone to talk things over with, support structures ensure that there is always someone to reach out to. Having support during difficult or trying times makes it easier to cope with challenging situations and lessens feelings of overwhelm and stress. This being the case, anyone who struggles with mental health should explore resources and create a support structure to ensure that there is always someone to reach out to in times of need.
Engage in personal care
When one feels unwell, vulnerable, or helpless, obstacles in life will seem more challenging and crippling. As such, making it a point to regularly engage in personal care and healthy habits can help give one a better chance of being able to deal with adversity healthily. Personal care involves engaging in practices such as good hygiene, exercise, healthy eating, consistent sleep, meditation, and keeping a clean house and workspace.
While one’s exact personal care routine will be unique, it’s important to have a routine that helps one maintain a sense of calm and well-being whenever possible. The more rested and healthier one feels the less power adversity will have to throw one into a downward spiral. This is especially true if one suffers from mental health ailments such as anxiety or depression.
Accordingly, having a self-care routine will make it easier to be resilient in the face of the many challenges that life may throw at one.
Have healthy activities that help you cope with difficulties
Challenging situations can leave one feeling unmotivated, overwhelmed, and stressed. A way to combat these feelings when dealing with adversity is to engage in a healthy activity or hobby that helps one relax and cope with difficulties. This can include activities such as playing basketball, painting, cleaning, writing, dancing, and many others. Having a predetermined activity to engage in when feeling stressed will help give one a framework to fall back on so one doesn’t have to think too deeply amid a difficult situation.
It can help to have everything you need to engage in an activity ready to go at all times for whenever you need them. This can mean having a steady supply of paint and canvas or a fully-pumped-up basketball and a knowledge of where the closest basketball courts are. Having a healthy activity can help one avoid unhealthy habits that may come as a result of stress, such as impulse spending and lashing out at others.
Given the benefits of having a predetermined healthy activity, anyone dealing with mental health ailments should make this practice a priority to better cope with challenging obstacles in life.
Everyone is capable of cultivating resilience
Though life’s adversities can sometimes seem insurmountable, engaging in some key practices can make challenges easier to cope with. This is especially important for those struggling with mental illness since they may be more vulnerable when it comes to dealing with challenging situations.
From crafting support structures to engaging in healthy hobbies, taking the right steps can make it easier for anyone to overcome obstacles and strive to reach a state of well-being. No matter who one is, putting effort into taking advantage of these tips can make it more manageable to cope with life’s adversities.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg.
