Summary
A reader asks how to monitor mental health without becoming excessively worried about possible disorders. They wonder whether symptoms are always obvious and when professional help or feedback from others becomes important.
The response encourages reasonable awareness rather than constant worry and describes changes in daily activities or experiences as possible reasons for concern.
It notes that some problems can impair self-awareness, making feedback from people who care useful, and suggests professional evaluation when the reader or someone close to them notices a problem.
Question
Reader · Identity withheldHi, I just have a quick question relating to mental health. With all the different mental disorders we know about these days, how are people suppose to deal with there mental health?
Is it simply a case of seeing a psychiatrist when you think something maybe wrong? Or should you look for actual symptoms of things? Or should you treat it in the same way that you would you psychical health?
Mental health issues are so shrouded in stigma and superstition, its hard to know how somebody should deal with it. Is it important to think about you’re mental health, and make sure nothing is wrong? Or would problems be very obvious? Or not apparent at all? Like in schizophrenia?
I guess its really easy to be a hypochondriac these days, especially with mental health, thanks for you’re time
Answer
Mark Vigil Dombeck, Ph.D.It is important to think about your mental health, but it isn’t necessary to worry overly about it. If you are feeling good and if others around you are providing you with feedback that suggests that they are happy (or at least not alarmed) with how you are treating them, then you are probably doing fine.
Most of the time, you will know if you have a significant mental health problem because it will affect your life in a noticeable way (e.g., you’ll avoid activities you once enjoyed, or you’ll start hearing voices when you didn’t before).
In some minority of cases, your judgment may be compromised and you will not understand that something has happened to you.
In this case, it is the people around you who will be the best judges of whether you are doing well (and not your own judgment). If you (or someone who cares about you) thinks there is a problem, then it would be wise to get that problem checked out with a mental health doctor (a Psychiatrist or a Clinical Psychologist).
