What are some non-treatment options for mental illness patients? Non-medication talk therapy or psychotherapy treatment is a common technique used by psychologists to help people with a mental health condition to cope with their cognitive and emotional wellbeing.
More serious mental illnesses will require medications to help with suppressing these cognitive and emotions. At the same time, psychotherapy treatments are generally the preferred method amongst many people with a mental health condition.
Unfortunately, more than 70% of people with a mental condition chose not to engage in any form of psychotherapy or medication. There are many personal reasons for this refusal to seek treatment, such as privacy, perceived expensive cost of therapy, no time, unwilling to commute, etc.
So, why not start with non-treatment therapy? Better non-treatments alternatives are available as we explore these options: –
Meditation is a Non-Treatment Option
Meditation is one of the most preferred methods of non-treatment therapy that helps people to calm their minds. Meditation allows people to focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity.
Meditation has been around for more than 5,000 years and is widely practiced by hundreds of millions of people to help with mental and emotional health. In the fight against stress, meditation could improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia.
Against anxiety, meditation has shown positive results in the control of job-related stresses in high-pressure work environments. On emotional health, meditation has also demonstrated measurable changes in areas related to positive thinking and optimism.
Meditation Helps You Understand Yourself
For self-awareness, meditation may help you to develop a better understanding of yourself and help you grow into your best self. For people with attention deficit, just 4 days of practicing meditation may be enough to increase attention span.
Meditation could partially improve memory in patients with dementia and reduce stress for people caring for family members with dementia. Meditation increases positive feelings toward yourself and others and reduces social anxiety, marriage conflict, and help anger management.
Finally, meditation could help to fight addictions, improve sleep, control cognitive and emotional pain, and decrease blood pressure. Meditation is a highly recommended exercise for people with a mental health condition.
Yoga is a Non-Treatment Option
Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years and is being practiced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Yoga consists of three main components to cater to your physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. These come in the form of the poses, breathing, and meditation.
During yoga, the brain releases chemicals that help to relax but also lower stress and anxiety levels that include gamma-aminobutyric acid, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. Each of these functions helps you calm down and feel better.
During a yoga session, certain parts of the brain slow down to allow them to rest. This functionality helps the yogis (people who practice yoga) to de-stress, which takes place in the frontal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain.
Additionally, yoga also helps to reduce stress by lowering the body’s cortisol and adrenaline levels – two critical stress hormones. When you feel stressed or anticipate something stressful about to happen, the stress response is triggered. As a result, the body releases stress hormones to become more alert, make the heart beats faster, and spike the blood pressure. Practicing yoga helps to decrease cortisol and adrenaline as a result of an increased level of anxiety and stress.
Your Breathing is Important in Mental Illness Therapy
Breathing, like we are doing every day, is immensely scientific and beneficial to reduce stress and anxiety. Slow down and pay attention to your breath. Deep breathing exercises reflect what meditation, yoga, and other stress-reducing therapies provide – a positive effect on our body and mind.
Deep breathing exercise is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. When you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to the body. Increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure will decrease as you breathe deeply to relax.
Breathing affects the whole body. Breathing exercises are an excellent way to relax, reduce tension, and relieve stress. Breathing exercises are easy to learn. Whenever and wherever stress and anxiety kick in, it pays to take constant deep breaths for 5 to 10 minutes to calm down the body and mind.
Acceptance of Your Therapy is Important
I believe the acceptance factor to be one of the most realistic conditions against anxiety, depression, stress, etc. Many of the external factors and conditions are beyond our control. Therefore, to be able to accept these situations is probably a great way to relieve ourselves from these undesirable emotions.
We also need to accept that as human beings suffer from some form of mental stress. Unavoidable in many situations. This is the first step toward overcoming some early negative thoughts and emotions. Humans are not perfect, and recognizing such imperfections will help us to accept our capacity and limitations.
Secondly, we need to accept that mental illness is just a form of suffering, and you are not alone having such feelings. At any time, more than 25% of the global population will suffer from one of the recognizable mental illness. To be able to handle these mental illnesses is vital for recovery.
Finally, we need to know who we are. The need to better understand ourselves is key to finding our strengths and weaknesses and be at peace. Understanding ourselves may sound so easy, but many people couldn’t understand themselves and wouldn’t accept who they are.
Goal Setting is Essential in All Treatment Options
Goal setting is an essential task in the mental health journey toward recovery. Be it during or pre-mental illness, and it is necessary to set some small goals to achieve daily. Achieving these small goals should be taken and perceived positively to overcome the mental and emotional challenges.
To figure out what goals to set, you should think about
1. The importance of these goals (no matter how big or small),
2. Hopes and dreams
3. What do you love and like?
4. What’s happy, grateful, and gratitude?
5. What are the areas to improve?
Set Short and Long-Term Goals
You should set these goals on a short- and long-term basis. Additionally, you should also separate these goals from personal, work, family, friends and social, etc. Goal setting will allow you to realize the objectives, claim the victory, and feel better about yourself.
Be realistic about these goals. It’s always good to take baby steps. Recognize and reward yourself when achieving these goals, no matter how small these goals might be.
Be
1. Specific,
2. Measurable
3. Achievable
4. Practical,
5. Fast,
You want to put everything you have into achieving the goals, because they are going to make you feel good.
Music is a Non-Treatment Therapy Option
Music tunes right into the brain and touches your heart. In these cases of mental health, soft music helps in the healing process.
An eye-whooping 71% of musicians or singers have developed anxiety or depression or both in their lifetime. A significant number of musicians have factored in some form of mental illness relief in their music to help people with a mental health condition.
The right music or song, when played correctly, is an excellent form of music therapy. Certified music therapists have in-depth knowledge of how music can evoke emotional responses to relax or stimulate people or help them heal. These music therapists combine a wide variety of musical styles to find the specific kind that aids the mental healing process.
Some prominent evidence and benefits of music therapies include the ease of anxieties or depressions and calming the mind and emotions. The sound of water (river flow, sea waves, etc.) is one of the most common forms of music therapy that has been scientifically proven to mitigate the effect of mental illnesses.
Laughter Can Be Its Own Type of Medicine
It’s no surprise that laughter is strong medicine. Laughter is proven to break the ice for strangers and draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes. Laughter strengthens the immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and minimizes stress.
A good laugh brings the mind and body back into balance. Humor lightens all burdens, inspires hope, connects with strangers, stay focused, and be alert. It also helps to reduce anger, anxiety, depression, and forgive.
Laughter provides so much healing power. The ability to laugh easily and frequently is an excellent remedy to surmounting problems, enhancing relationships, and supporting physical and emotional health. Most importantly, laughter is a priceless medicine that is fun, free, and easy to use.
Laughter Has Tons of Benefits
Research studies have also credited laughter with known benefits, such as: –
1. Relaxing the whole body
2. Boosting the immune system
3. Triggering the release of endorphins
4. Protecting the heart
5. Burning calories
6. Lightening the mood
7. Increasing your lifespan
8. Decreasing anger, anxiety, depression, and stress
9. Changing perspectives
10. Bringing fun and joy into life
So, What’s the Key Takeaway Here?
There is NO shame in seeking treatment for mental illness, which is so prevalent in many countries. At any point in any year, more than 10% of the population is suffering from mental illnesses.
So, instead of rejecting the need to seek psychotherapeutic treatment, why not instead focus on non-treatment activities. Embark on the journey to get a better and happier you. Life is too short to be suffering from these mental illnesses.
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Ahealo understands all patients’ rejections clearly. Therefore, we have tailored every aspect of the platform to overcome all patients’ concerns, and to provide mental care without the need for patients’ identity, and at the patients’ time of choice, without the need to travel and absolutely no medications.
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