Habits that can trigger mental illness

Some mental illnesses have been attributed to habits formed overtime due to unhelpful lifestyle patterns, mental health specialists have said.

In an interview with Richard Adebayo, a consultant psychiatrist and clinical psychologist at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Yaba said every decision and action people take as they go about their daily lives impacts mental wellbeing. This is why it is important to understand the apparently simple habits that can trigger some mental health illnesses.

Habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

When talking about habits, which are individual practices that are capable of having effects on mental illness. There are so many, but the common ones among these habits include:

Habits of taking psychoactive substance

This refers to smoking of cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs like tramadol, codeine and other mind bending drugs that can alter the functions of the brain and a lot of people in  Nigeria are hooked up to those habits and also habits of drinking alcohol heavily and frequently, these are habits that have side effects.

Habits of sleep deprivation

Most people being affected by this are those who are in the habits of sleeping late and taking drugs that will not allow them to sleep on time. Some people like taking coffee to stay awake, so the habit of sleep deprivation either deliberately or by use of certain substances to keep them awake.

When people are in the habits, especially students who want to read so to keep them awake they take coffee or some other substances to stay awake. Even those who work in the office do the same, the long term effects results to stressing out the brain and in the process it gets to a stage the person can come down with some brain effects.

Lack of rest

Those who do not take time to rest, work all through the week, and suffer stress of the road fatigue but still do not find time to rest at the weekend. So practically they do not have enough rest to help their state of mind, people like that the kind of habit they imbibe is not helpful for their mental wellbeing and it can make someone come down with mental illness.

Food deprivation

Not eating at the actual time and eating the right food matters a lot to one’s mental wellbeing. The kind of food we eat contributes to mental illness. When the body lacks nutrients and vitamins it can affect the brain both in adults and children.

Eating habits are also very essential to mental wellbeing. People take junks instead of eating natural foods of vegetables and fruits that will boost their immunities and wellbeing but rather they prefer taking junks that could probably be adding to weight gain and becoming fatter, and this can affect mental alertness and wellbeing.

Other habits, some people do not take their health seriously

Some people do not take care of their health; they have a kind of apathy for their health. They do not go for medical check-up in terms of knowing their blood pressure and other general body checks and they are not aware of the condition so that they could manage it on time before they have complications.

An individual who those not care about medical check-up may eventually come down with stroke which can cause depression and could affect mental wellbeing.

Sedentary lifestyle

An individual who also has the habits of sedentary lifestyle may not have the time to exercise. This is not good enough for mental wellbeing and people like that may eventually come down with mental disorder.

These habits that are general from all medical conditions can also apply for mental wellbeing, so an individual who does not key into all these, more or less pushes his or her self to the edge of mental health disorder.