As students navigating the educational system in Nigeria, it is not uncommon to fall short or lose yourself from overwhelming emotions and stress. Your mental health includes your emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how you think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how you handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life and should be looked after. Here are a few ways to keep your mental health in check;
- Get enough sleep: Sleep is a very important part of both physical and mental health. After a long day, rest/sleep is needed to help your brain and body relax right before facing another task.
- Eat well: Eating well is not only important for your body, but your mind as well. Deficiencies in our diets can lead to low moods and crankiness. Try as much as possible to stick to a balanced diet.
- Manage stress: Stress is often unavoidable but knowing what triggers your stress levels and how to maintain or manage it is key. A great way to manage overwhelming school tasks or stress is by making a list. Whatever it is, write it down and tick them off as your day progresses, then you realize they all can be done.
- Engage in activities or exercise: Activity and exercise are essential in maintaining good mental health. Being active not only gives you a sense of achievement but also boosts the chemicals in your brain that help put you in a good mood. When you are feeling overwhelmed and tired from schoolwork, do some exercises.
- Avoid alcohol, smoking and drugs: Drinking and smoking aren’t things that we always associate with withdrawal symptoms, but they can cause some stress which impacts your mental health. When you’ve had a few drinks, you can feel more depressed and anxious the next day, and it can be harder to concentrate. If you smoke, between cigarettes your body and brain go into withdrawal which makes you irritable and anxious. Other drugs also give you withdrawal symptoms leaving your state of mind poor. Try as much as possible to stay away from them.
- Do something you enjoy: Make time to do the things that put you at ease and you enjoy. Whether it is taking walks, painting, reading, binging your favourite shows or listening to music. If you don’t spend time doing things you like, you become stressed and irritable.
- Ask for help: There is no shame in needing a support system when you don’t feel good. Everyone goes through overwhelming stress. If you cannot handle a particular course work or lecturer, reach out and seek help or input from others. It is important to recognize when things are weighing you down and when to ask for help.
In everything, it is important to remember these feelings will pass, even if the fear is real the danger is not.
Refs; www.peoplefirstinfo.org.uk
