Health
Taking charge
of your mental and physical health in this pandemic Isolation, depression mental health – all words we have heard plenty of times before and even more so after the pandemic drove us all indoors. While we may become desensitised to hearing about this, mental health is even more important especially as Australia gears up to become social once more.
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By Sanjan Suri
he pandemic has been hard on a lot of people, isolating the elderly, putting pressure on working parents to manage home schooling and full-time work and just generally for everyone else as we have been forced to reduce our social interactions. Mental health has not only impacted individual health but also families as Australia has seen an unpresented rise in domestic violence and suicides. And as we gear up to go back to ‘normal’ life it has led to social anxiety in a lot of people as well. While mental health in itself is an enigmatic subject that affects each individual differently there are some common symptoms and signs that we can all look out for. While this is in no way a prescription on how to deal with mental health, the following are helpful tips we can all actively use to understand how we are feeling and identify signs of mental and emotional distress early on. Download Our App
Some of the common signs of mental and/or emotional stress are: 1. Lack of focus or motivation 2. Irritability 3. L ack of interest in talking to friends and/or family 4. Eating too much or eating too less 5. Rapid weigh gain/loss 6. C hanges in sleeping patterns (sleeping considerably more than usual or finding it hard to sleep at all) The above symptoms may sound obviNOVEMBER I 2020
ous and are not by any means exhaustive, they are often easy to miss. It is easy to blame staying at home to eating excessively or not being able to sleep at night and ignore that there may be an underlying stress from work or other aspects of your life. While not all of us may experience this stress at an extreme level a drastic and sudden change, especially a forced one is bound to affect everyone in some way. So the best way to look after your mental health is to identify these signs early on www.DesiAustralia.com
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