If that’s the case, all you need to do is establish a healthy mindset and everything else will follow. Better grades. Better job. Better relationships. If only it was that easy! Instead, achieving a positive mindset tends to require a lot of work – work that’s particularly difficult when your mental health is already poor.

Mindset has everything to do with the way you think. It’s about attitudes, ideas and opinions as well as how you interact with other people and the rest of the world. Much of it can be established in early life based on our childhood experiences and relationships, which can make it very difficult to dig your way out of those old ways of thinking to establish something new.

It can be done, however. At its best, you can develop what’s known as a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. A growth mindset takes the attitude that there’s always room to grow and improve. Whatever challenges you face in life, you can learn new ways to deal with them. It’s like training in the gym to build muscles, but the muscle in question is your brain.

A growth mindset may help you develop the skills you need to deal with problems, both external ones and internal ones. You can let go of negative emotions and influences like the fear of failure, which can be paralyzing and exacerbate other low feelings. Other people become an opportunity to build new relationships and receive useful feedback, reducing isolation.

None of these things are easy. It involves a lot of introspection and self-awareness. You need to watch every thought; if it’s not helpful, redirect it. Sometimes you might need some kind of therapist to guide your process. If you have a diagnosable illness, you may also need medication to manage the symptoms before you can even start to work on long-term solutions like a broader mindset change.

You can’t always control how you feel, but you can control how you react. No one can feel good all the time, but working on your mindset allows you to deal with negative emotions when they happen.

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Luckily, there is equipment designed so that those with poor mobility don’t have to be stuck indoors. You can still be given the opportunity to go out with friends and family and take part in activities. You can experience the benefits of being out in the fresh air and sunlight. When your mood lifts, that’s better for your overall wellbeing.

It may be something as simple as a walking stick. You might be embarrassed to have a visible sign that you need help, but why should you be? Lots of people experience mobility problems, and isn’t it better to be outside with a mobility aid than stuck indoors with nothing else to do? Making the effort to walk sometimes, even if it’s only for short periods, will also make you physically stronger.

If you need more help with your balance, a walker or walking frame may be helpful. The top is around waist high, allowing you to hold it with a slight bend in your arms. There are four legs for maximum stability. Sometimes these legs are flat footed, and other times there may be wheels or gliders to allow you to slide the frame rather than having to lift it.

Rollators are a more complex variation on the walker. They have wheels and a seat, giving you the opportunity to rest whenever you are tired. There is often a shopping basket or other storage space attached for your convenience. They also tend to be more maneuverable.

More technological mobility aids can include scooters and wheelchairs. You can’t take them everywhere, which is unfortunate, but they do give you power over your movements. They may also have space to hang your bags or store anything you buy in the shops. Just remember to check ahead whether your destination will be accessible.

Sometimes the biggest hindrance to mobility is our own reluctance to accept the many devices that can help us. If we do, we could soon see an improvement in our mental health as well as physical fitness.

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Some days will be easier than others. Sometimes that’s just because it’s a routine day without any big challenges. Other times, it will only work because you’ve prepared yourself properly for what you have to face. Then there are the days with the big test or presentation, or when an unexpected drama arrives to throw everything out of whack.

You’re not at your best when you’re experiencing the symptoms of anxiety. Even if it’s not a full-blown panic attack, shaking hands make it difficult to hold things or write stuff down, and it’s hard to concentrate with your heart racing and breath short. If you want to achieve and improve, you need some kind of coping strategy.

With that said, a little bit of nervousness can be a good thing. An adrenaline rush just before you step on stage (figuratively or literally) can be just the boost you need to elevate your performance. A little bit of anxiety is natural, and when harnessed correctly, it can be a powerful way to push yourself to improve.

So, how do you use anxiety without letting it dominate? Simple steps can include breathing exercises and meditation. In more serious cases, there are medications that can alleviate symptoms to a more manageable level, and therapy from a professional psychologist or psychiatrist can be an effective way to learn how your own anxiety works and find healthier ways to react to it.

It may be helpful to plan ahead. If you know there’s an event coming up that will make you particularly anxious, you need to target your behavior towards that. Make sure you’re properly rested beforehand, try to eat a nutritious meal (but not too much – you don’t want to be sick) and remove as many other potential stressors as you can.

If you learn how to deal with more regular anxiety and successfully develop good coping mechanisms, you’ll be better placed to deal with unexpected situations that can cause your anxiety to spike without warning, like if you’re in an accident. Planning and practice… that’s how you learn.

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There’s a lot of stigma when it comes to hygiene. People who don’t meet societal standards when it comes to keeping clean and dressing properly can be ostracized. It’s associated with poverty and homelessness as well as mental illness. We might call people lazy rather than acknowledging they need help. It’s a source of shame, and shame is definitely not something that can help you recover from depression.

The things that can become difficult when we’re depressed can seem really basic. Washing our hands, brushing our teeth, having regular showers. We might keep wearing the same clothes over and over again rather than doing laundry. It’s not a fun experience, and for many people, it will make their depression worse. Plus, a lack of good hygiene can cause further health problems.

So why can’t someone just take those few steps to get clean and tidy? Well, for the most part, it’s about energy and motivation. Depression can leave you feeling constantly tired and make it impossible to summon any kind of enthusiasm for the activities you normally enjoy, let alone the ones that are reluctant necessities. The gray fog of depression hangs on you with such a weight that you feel like you can’t move.

Sometimes, depression will exist alongside other conditions, such as anxiety or sensory processing disorders (such as those often associated with autism), that can also make basic hygiene tasks uncomfortable. You may also be experiencing physical pain that makes taking those actions more difficult. When it reaches the stage where it’s interfering with your ability to live your daily life, it may be time to seek help.

Luckily, anytherapist who is experienced in treating depression will probably have seen patients with hygiene difficulties before. They’ll be able to help you develop strategies specific to your needs. Medication may also be helpful. Start improving your hygiene, and you may find that your overall mood lifts and it’s easier to manage any other depressive symptoms you are experiencing.

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Figuring out why is the first step to making yourself do something that you might not want to do or that seems too difficult to try. It’s something psychologists have spent years researching, coming up with all sorts of theories to explain our behavior. The truth is it’s probably at the mercy of dozens of different factors, some of which we control and some we don’t.

You may see motivation divided into three components. It starts with activation, which is the initial moment when you decide to do something. You might purchase some equipment, sign up for a course, or approach a person who can help you.

Then there’s persistence, which is keeping going after that original act. However excited you feel about your plan at the start, there are likely to be obstacles before you arrive where you want to be. Persistence is when you fix the equipment when it breaks, invest time and money in extra tutoring to get through a difficult class, or start again when you lose a valued mentor.

Third in this particular conception of motivation is intensity. It means you can’t just want to achieve something; you have to pursue it rigorously. Extra practice, staying late, and seeking out additional opportunities outside of regular classes/work hours are all things that can improve your chances, but these are also things that can be very difficult to do. Without intensity, activation and persistence are less likely to pay off, and vice versa.

No one can be motivated all the time, and not everyone is going to benefit from the same techniques to try to improve their motivation. It can take time and dedication to figure out what works for you, so you can persist in all of your goals with intensity.

There’s no quick fix when it comes to obtaining a goal. You’re going to need patience. It’s easy to be discouraged when you don’t achieve immediately, and that’s when your motivation most in danger. Remind yourself of previous achievements and break current tasks into smaller chunks if you want to reinspire yourself a little. You can do it!

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That’s where sports psychologists and sports psychiatrists come in. These are the experts who have studied healthy and unhealthy mindsets and know the best, scientifically tested ways to help you with yours. It’s a growing discipline, with more and more people realizing how important the mental side of things can be.

That doesn’t mean that the physical side can be ignored. Sports psychologists and psychiatrists need to be aware of how biological factors impact psychology and emotional state. As with all aspects of human health and behavior, it’s a complex and multi-layered field.

Sports psychology in America really got its start thanks to the work of Coleman Griffth in the 1920s. The focus is on how to help athletes improve their mindset, whether that’s through motivational techniques, attitudes to injury and rehabilitation, strengthening team unity and communication skills, setting goals or tackling maladaptive thought processes.

Psychology and psychiatry often overlap, but the training is different and there are variations in technique and focus. Psychiatry is a medical discipline practiced by doctors who have been to med school, while psychologists will have psychology degrees. An obvious and immediate difference between the two is that psychiatrists can prescribe medication, but psychologists cannot.

Mental health issues like depression and anxiety can have a serious impact on sports performance. Both psychologists and psychiatrists can play a role in treating these underlying conditions, but to ensure the most effective support, they must understand the specific challenges associated with being a sportsman as well, which may differ from others.

The focus of any psychological or psychiatric treatment will vary not just because the patient is involved in sport; it will also be dependent on what kind of sport and what kind of person. Any therapy needs to be tailored to the individual, allowing for a wide variety of human behaviors and experiences.

You don’t need to be a professional athlete to benefit from sports psychology or psychiatry. It could be useful in any situation where you need to improve your mindset.

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When it comes to addiction, recovery doesn’t mean a cure. It means management. It means that drugs or alcohol or gambling, to name just a few common addictions, are no longer in control. You regain power over your own life, which means the negative things associated with addiction (the physical toll it takes on the body, the damage to relationships, the economic costs) can also be reduced if not outright stopped.

It’s a lot easier to fall into an addiction than it is to climb out of one. Recovery is a long and complicated process, often with stumbles and relapses on the way. It’s not surprising. Addictions can develop because of a variety of genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors, and they all need to be accounted for in the recovery process.

Every person is going to look different when it comes to recovery. What works for one person won’t work for another. Luckily, as our understanding of addiction grows, so do the kinds of treatment available.

For some people, the first step is going to be medication. That might mean methadone or buprenorphine for an opioid addition involving heroin or painkillers, or a nicotine patch for a smoker. These types of treatments work to reduce the symptoms of withdrawal and make you less likely to crave your usual drug.

Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous are known as 12-step programs. They are designed to help you acknowledge your addiction, admit your weaknesses and actively work toward recovery. As a group therapy, you work with other people who have had similar experiences to you.

Therapy delivered by a psychologist or psychiatrist in a more medical setting may also be used to teach you new coping strategies and adjust your behavior. If you learn how to recognize triggers, manage stress, approach relationships in a healthier way and generally improve your approach to life, it reduces the risk that you will become susceptible to addiction again.

Addiction isn’t something that comes with easy answers, but recovery isn’t an impossible goal. It will take hard work and a good support network, but it can be done.

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You might know that cholesterol is another thing that tends to become more dangerous as we age. It becomes harder for the body to clear excess levels of LDL, which is known as the “bad” cholesterol, causing levels to rise. It’s not just age, though. Demographic differences in sex, race and socioeconomic status can also be risk factors, and they’re not things you can change like you can your lifestyle.

Let’s start with age, as that’s the one most talked about. Children are least likely to develop high cholesterol. The current recommendation is that children should have their cholesterol levels checked twice, once between the ages of 9 and 11 and once between 17 and 19. If they’re at risk, such as because they have diabetes or because of their family history, they may need more checks.

Adults may also need to check their cholesterol more often if they have other risk factors, but everyone needs to become more aware when they reach their 40s or 50s. By the time you reach 65 it’s recommended that you receive cholesterol tests every year. There is, however, a difference depending on your sex.

Specifically, while men are more likely to have high cholesterol than women, women do become more at risk when they go through the menopause. Women should also have higher levels of HDL, or good cholesterol, than men.

Then there’s race. Hispanic men tend to have higher LDL than non-Hispanic white men, while non-Hispanic black men tend to fall somewhere in the middle. For women, white women have some of the highest LDL levels, though they’re closer to Mexican-American women. Non-Hispanic black women have the highest LDL amount on average. When it comes to HDL, Asian Americans seem to have lower levels.

Why these disparities in race occur isn’t completely clear. It may have to do with access to healthcare. Black and Hispanic people may be less likely to get their cholesterol checked regularly, which could make it harder to catch it before it becomes more serious and harder to fix.

Understanding demographic differences in cholesterol levels and what causes them may make it easier to provide tailored healthcare.

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It is not uncommon to hear terms like “psychosis” or “psychotic” thrown around as generic synonyms for dangerously mentally ill. That’s despite psychosis having very specific criteria that have to be met before it can be diagnosed, and the majority of people with psychosis not harming anyone else.

The DSM, which is the manual that defines most mental illnesses, describes psychosis as being characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and motor skills, and negative symptoms such as a lack of emotional expression or motivation.

In short, psychosis affects how people perceive reality, causing them to see or hear things that aren’t there or have false beliefs about the world. It can affect how someone speaks or moves and even stop them from feeling pleasure.

There are lots of things that can cause psychosis. It is famously a prominent sign of schizophrenia, but it can also appear in some forms of bipolar disorder and in post-traumatic stress disorder, to name just a few of the associated conditions. It can also result from some forms of drug use.

Other forms of psychosis are situational, such as when postpartum psychosis occurs shortly after giving birth. People who are otherwise completely healthy may experience brief psychotic episodes at times of extreme stress, bereavement or when sleep-deprived. In short, it is something that could happen to anyone.

Sometimes psychosis will be limited to one episode and people will go on to live perfectly normal lives. In others, they may need ongoing medication to continue to manage their symptoms. There are many different types of antipsychotic medication, often classified as typical or atypical, and it may take some experimentation to find the drug and dose that is best for a particular individual.

Therapy may not help much with the actual symptoms of psychosis, but it may help sufferers come to terms with their condition and develop effective ways to manage it. Support and understanding from family and friends can also be vital.

It may sound scary, but psychosis isn’t what is normally portrayed in the media. Like other mental illnesses, with understanding and proper treatment, people can still have a good quality of life.

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Mindfulness is related to meditation. It’s about focusing your mind so you become more aware of both your physical body and your mental state. Your attention is entirely on the present moment, without any kind of judgment or evaluation of yourself. It is supposed to help you relax and accept your feelings without worrying whether they’re right or wrong.

It was in the 1970s that health professionals really started looking at the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness. It has since been incorporated into many treatment programs for various mental illnesses. Even people who are not religious or mentally ill have been known to use it to try to improve their wellbeing.

One of the most well-known forms of modern mindfulness is the mindfulness-based stress reduction program pioneered in Massachusetts in the 1970s. Secular in nature but drawing heavily on its Buddhist roots, it uses a combination of meditation, body scanning and the simple physical movements of basic yoga to investigate and accept thoughts, feelings, memories and impulses.

Evidence suggests these techniques work for many people and situations. That includes the old and the young, whether they’re mentally healthy or ill. Among its many apparent benefits is relieving various kinds of stress. It can improve your perception of your own body, reducing the impact of a negative body image, and it may give you better coping mechanisms when facing challenges at work or school. You may find your focus improved.

There’s no one magical solution to a problem like anxiety. Mindfulness has a lot of good points, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is going to benefit from it all of the time. Research is still being done into its effectiveness in different situations, and as its rising popularity leads to increased commercialization, it’s a good idea to approach it carefully.

Nevertheless, with so many people seeing advantages from mindfulness, it may be worth trying. Whether you use it alongside other therapies or medications or on its own, it could be a way to ease your anxiety and achieve a better quality of life.

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Diseases that occur at the same time are called comorbidities, and it might not be a surprise to learn that depression is particularly prone to sharing headspace with other mental illnesses (and some physical ones as well) (https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-020-02546-8). After all, when you’re not well, it’s natural for your mood to be lower, and it’s much harder to take steps to combat it. That can easily slip over into the clinical definition of depression.

People with a major depressive disorder quite often also have some kind of anxiety disorder as well. They may experience problems with substance abuse. That doesn’t just mean illegal drugs, with alcohol and tobacco smoking at the top of the list. Some may have personality disorders, which includes things like borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. More serious conditions may be schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Sometimes these conditions existing at the same time may be a coincidence. Other times, they may impact each other. They’re also going to affect your treatment options. Substance abuse disorders in particular may influence the kinds of prescribed medication you can take or how effective it will be.

If you’re facing a major physical illness like heart disease or cancer or even trying to manage more common conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes, depression is considered a risk factor that could make your long-term outcomes worse. It just makes everything more challenging.

This doesn’t just have implications for your mental and physical health. It makes things a lot more expensive for both you and society as a whole. When trying to manage depression, you need to consider comorbidities, and when treating other conditions, you need to be aware of the risks that depression poses.

Lots of scientific research has been done and will probably continue to be done regarding comorbidities for depression. By learning more about how different diseases, both mental and physical, interact, we might be able to improve outcomes for everyone involved. Just be aware of how complicated it can all be.

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This is particularly true with conditions like depression, which can make you tired and sap all your motivation. It interferes with your sleep habits, stops you from paying attention to diet and exercise, and generally makes it much harder to want to do anything.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can ignore diet and exercise. They’re both things that help you improve your mental wellbeing as well as your physical condition. Simply drinking enough water is essential to both feeling energetic and being clear-headed.

Then there’s sleep, or at least getting enough rest. You need to take time to relax if you ever want to recharge after burning a lot of energy. Physical and mental tiredness both slow you down, and both can only be recovered from with time and patience.

It’s not always possible to completely avoid stress, but making sure you get enough breaks is important. Try to manage your schedule so you’re not overworking. Make time for things like meditation or yoga if you find them helpful for calming you down and rejuvenating you.

While getting enough rest is an important part of maintaining your energy levels, so is activity. You might not want to go out if you’re tired, but even a little bit of movement or interaction can get your endorphins buzzing, which means more energy and a better mood. Again, your physical and mental health (and energy levels) are inexorably linked.

Treating mental health problems sometimes needs more than extra exercise or some deep breathing. You might need medication and/or therapy to get your symptoms under control, at which point you may find your energy returning to a healthier level.

It’s incredibly tiring being ill, whether physically or mentally. It’s worse when physical illness and mental illness feed off of each other. Whether a few changes to your lifestyle and routine can make all the difference or you need more professional guidance, getting both of these things under control can dramatically improve your energy levels.

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There’s the pressure to win. There’s the desperation not to let your family, friends and teammates down. There may be homesickness if you’re having to travel to meets. There’s the general anxiety that comes from being on a field or in an arena surrounded by spectators, every single one of whom is going to be judging you. It’s the same sort of performance anxiety you might get before a big presentation or before you go on stage in the theater.

When you’re anxious, your heart rate increases. You may get short of breath. There’s sweating and shaking. These kinds of physical symptoms can have a big impact on your performance. Sometimes it slows you down, and other times it gives you the energy boost you need to perform at your best. No wonder sports psychologists manage to stay in business!

Some of the techniques used for handling sports-related anxiety are simple. You may have used them when anxious in daily life as well. Things like breathing exercises are easy to do and can be swiftly effective. Just slowing things down and becoming aware of your reactions is a powerful thing. A good psychologist will teach you how to treat those aroused feelings as something good rather than a negative.

Other things that can help include ensuring you are well-prepared. If you’ve done enough training and have confidence in your ability, that can help balance your nerves. Some research suggests that athletes who are part of a team experience less anxiety, probably because they can support each other. Feeling that you’re on your own can make things worse.

Having people around you becomes extra important at an “away” game when you’re playing at someone else’s stadium. Don’t underestimate how reassuring it can be just to stand on familiar ground.

Anxiety is a natural part of sport. It’s not inherently good or bad; it’s all about how you deal with it. Sometimes it might slow you down, but other times you can use it to power you to new heights. Just take the time to prepare mentally as well as physically.

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One of these factors is physical mobility. There seems to be a link between people whose mobility is limited and those who experience depressive symptoms (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14582683/) (https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2011/thorpe-mobility). This doesn’t mean one causes the other, but it does suggest we need to be aware of the possible links.

Mobility is also complicated, involving the strength in our muscles and flexibility in our joints. We can improve it with exercise, through even simple things like walking up the stairs as well as more specialist moves like yoga. Everyone has a natural degree of mobility, so not everyone is going to be springing around and contorting their bodies.

When we get older, our mobility tends to deteriorate. It becomes harder to move around and do the things we like to do, even without the increased likelihood of conditions like arthritis. Elderly people with mobility issues are more likely to lose their independence and have to go into a home, and they’re more likely to be hospitalized. In these circumstances, it’s understandable that their mental health would suffer.

It can also work the other way. People who are depressed can struggle to maintain their regular activities. It can be hard to summon the energy and motivation to exercise regularly. That means it’s going to be harder to maintain good mobility in the face of the natural wear and tear that comes with age. A more sedentary lifestyle means poorer mental and physical health at the same time.

This relationship becomes more pronounced in groups that are already disadvantaged and marginalized. Poor communities and communities of color feel the impact even more severely. There can also be a difference between the experience of men and that of women, with women appearing to suffer the most.

Understanding the causes of both depression and poor mobility is an important first step to planning appropriate treatment. If people are to have access to the right kind of support, we need to be able to explain their symptoms. That’s why this kind of research is so important as we continue to explore the link between physical and mental health.

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Depression is more than just feeling sad. It’s ongoing feelings of despair and hopelessness that undermine your everyday activities. You lose interest in your favorite hobbies, you lose contact with your closest friends, and the more disconnected you feel, the harder it is to fight your way out again.

One of the most insidious things about depression is that your brain lies to you. It tells you that you shouldn’t make a fuss, it’s all your own fault, and that no one can help you. That’s not true. There are experts who can provide the kind of support you need, but sometimes it takes an effort to find them.

If you have clinical depression, treatment may involve medication, therapy or a combination of the two. Common antidepressants include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and noradrenaline and specific serotonergic antidepressants (NASSAs), which can have varying levels of effectiveness depending on the severity of the depression and your own brain chemistry. Some may also have side effects.

While antidepressants may be able to alleviate some of the immediate symptoms of depression, they don’t always tackle the underlying causes. That’s where therapy can prove useful. Techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to identify harmful thought patterns and develop new coping strategies for managing them in the long term. It’s generally a combination of approaches that forms the most effective treatment.

This is partially because the causes of depression, which can be a bit murky, often involve a combination of biological and environmental factors. Biology could be your genes or the specific combination of hormones and chemicals in your brain. Environmental factors could be external stressors, such as long-term financial worries or the grief of losing a loved one.

In some cases, it may not be clear how biology and environment interact. For example, if you have a family history of depression, is that because you’ve passed on a depression gene or is it because family members often have similar socioeconomic circumstances, facing similar difficulties in life?

Not everyone who experiences traumatic life events will develop depression. Just having a parent who suffers doesn’t mean you will. In many cases, it seems that a combination of biological susceptibility and external triggers are necessary to bring on the worst symptoms, so it takes a combination of biological (drugs) and social (therapy) solutions to treat them.

If medication and/or therapy are effective, it will be much easier for you to tackle the small things, like eating proper meals, getting plenty of exercise and ensuring you have enough sleep. These are all things that can make you feel brighter and more energized on a smaller scale, but aren’t enough against the bigger specter of clinical depression.

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