LIGHT SWITCH

by Francis Kyle Tamayao

It’s me, Hi, I’m the Problem, it’s me!....”

This situation has been more likely to happen amidst the pandemic as we were quarantined for more than 2 years and the youth are most vulnerable. In fact, according to National Statistics Office (NSO), 3.6 million Filipinos are facing mental issues and rank as the third most common comorbidity in the country.

Additionally, in the recent assessment of Department of Health (DOH), mental disorders have a prevalence of 16% to children but what are these disorders?

Enlighten The Mind

A mental disorder is defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior which is usually associated with distress or impairment in important areas of functioning. And these are different types of mental disorder:

Anxiety Depression

Depression is a disorder that makes people feel extremely sad, worried, and empty for a long period of time. People with depression are at an increased risk of suicide. In 2019, 280 million people worldwide are affected by this disorder.

Bipolar Disorder

This disorder affected 40 million people globally. People with this disorder experience alternating depressive episode with periods or manic symptoms that includes Euphoria, irritability, increased energy and impulsive reckless behavior.

Eating Disorder

Eating disorder such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa is an disorder characterized by abnormal eating due to stress. This results to different nutrition disorder and body issues. Eating disorder has affected 14 milion people in 2019 worldwide.

Schizophrenia

Anxiety is caused by excessive fear and worry and related behavioral disturbances that affects 301 million people worldwide. Anxiety has several kinds including : generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and separation anxiety disorder.

This mental disorder is characterized by significant changes in perceptions and behaviour. Symptoms of Schizophrenia may include persistent delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking and extreme agitation. Schizophrenia affected approximately 24 million globally and people with this condition have a life expectancy of 10-20 years below the general population.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This mental health disorder is characterized by extreme scariness caused by traumatic and horrific experiences of the patient. According to statistics, the leading cause of this disease is sexual relationship violence that accounts approximately 33% of the cases of PTSD.

These disorders are really dangerous/harmful to our health as they bring various psychological and physical diseases to our body that may lead to death. Though, these are preventable through undergoing to these procedures:

Socialization

This first important thing to do when suffering from any of these diseases is to open up with other people especially to our family. Sharing our problems will allow us to lessen our burden and reduce the suffocating feeling brought by these disorders. We will also gain much support from them.

Healthy Lifestyle

20% According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 20% of the world’s children and adolescent have mental disorders or for problems and half of these begin before the age of 14.

Medication

The lifestyle of an individual reflects on his well-being as what he does affects his physical, social and mental health. So healthy practices including regular exercises, balanced diet and recreational activities are beneficial during the trying times of mental disorders for they releases happy hormones like endorphins and serotin.

The best thing to do when suffering to mental disorder is to consult to health professionals such as to psychiatrists so they could undergo to assessment and diagnosis. Doctors will also give them medicined like antidepressants and pills and recommend them to have a continuous therapy.

These treatment procedures are the best options to cope up with the different mental disorders though the patient’s willingness is the most needed factor because opening up with others is one of the most difficult thing to do. Moreover, we should not rely much on these procedures because prevention will always be better than cure and there are cases in which patients underwent to these treatment however still committed suicide.

So when we feel blue or alone, never be used of isolating yourself instead let us balance personal space and socialization and always turn the light switch on to overcome the trap of mental disorders.

Bicycle isn’t just a mode of transportation rather a hobby that gives us fun most especially when having rides with friends. And during the pandemic, the hype of people towards it grew higher as it became a trend and the number of cycling household rose to 7.3 million last April 2022 according to Social Weather Station (SWS). This biking fever most especially to teenagers opened a pathway for the government to allot special lanes for bikers and for them to build a community. Aside from that what are the benefits of biking in our health that makes people more into it?

•Improves Skeletal and Muscular Fitness. Biking requires physical effort in order to run bikes manually and the pedalling activity eventually strengthens the muscles, joints, and bones of the legs. It also allows us to build more muscle to shape body and prevents us from suffering to arthritis.

•Improves Cardiovascular Fitness. Biking is an exercise that requires stamina and endurance and during this activity it enhances our cardiovascular fitness and endurance resulting for better heart health and blood circulation. In 2017, researchers at the University of Glasgow concluded a five-year study involving over a quarter of a million people and found out that biking lessens the risk of having a heart disease by 45%.

•Maintains your Weight. Bicycle is a good exercise to burn calories essential for maintaining body weight. It raises our metabolic rate and burns fats. According to Health Line, Steady, moderate cycling burns about 300 calories in 60 minutes, but you can burn more than that if you increase the intensity.

•Improves your Mental Health. Biking was not just for physical health but it is also scientifically proven to affect our mental health significantly. While biking, our heart pumps blood around our body at a greater rate which allows faster spread of happy hormones such as endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. In fact, according to a survey of Cycleplan, 75% of cyclist noticed an improvement in their mental health.

These benefits of biking are vital in the human health as biking does not only affect the physical fitness but also the mental fitness of an individual.

Moreover, biking is also an eco-friendly vehicle that helps humanity to reduce carbon emissions in the field of transportation. It runs without being fueled by combustible fuels and does emit any pollutants. So let us try to grasp or clutch the opportunities of biking either as a mode of transportation, a recreational activity or as a sports event to attain not just the fun but also the benefits it can give to us. Together, we can change its effects in our wellness and its impact in our environment to practice a sustainable and healthy living.