With suicides making national headlines in the past few weeks and as the rates continue to rise across the country, it’s more important than ever to shed light on the subject of mental health. It’s an unfortunate fact that many people neglect seeking treatment or speaking up about the subject due to the stigma that can often be attached to mental illness. The truth is, mental health conditions should be viewed no differently than physical illness. As someone would not be ashamed to seek treatment for physical pain or discomfort, they should feel no shame in speaking to their doctor about mental health struggles.
Psychiatrist Dr. Jagdeep Kaur of Keystone Behavioral Health is concerned about the mental and emotional wellbeing of everyone, and wants everybody to have the tools they need for combating stress. For today’s Take Care article, we are sharing a letter that Dr. Kaur has written to our community:
Dear Reader,
The impact of everyday stress and our emotional response to this stress worries me a lot. I am very much concerned about everybody in our community (adults, children, infants, and our pets). Daily news in the media about suicides and the suicide rate going up all over the country are worrisome. As human beings, we are very sensitive to changes in our environment. However, we also have a strong ability to adapt to these changes.
Our brains are very flexible and beautifully designed to make our lives easier. It’s important to relax and think about our ongoing problems. There is always a way out. We have full power to change our thoughts. Our thoughts are tightly connected to our feelings and our behaviors and actions. Suicide is not the answer. Suicide is making the misery worse.
I want you all to have a strong will to be well. You need to be aware of your stress, and bring a strong desire to feel better to your consciousness. Whenever you feel hurt, sad, mad or frustrated, take a break from whatever you are doing and practice a mental health exercise: Relax your whole body and take a deep breath. Do deep breathing for a minute or two. Fill your heart with love and kindness. Send lots of love to yourself because you deserve that. You are very valuable. Pay attention to your thoughts. Are you mad at someone? Can you sense anger toward anybody? Please do me a favor and send lots of love to them as well. It is not going to harm or hurt anybody. Sit with that feeling for as long as you want. Keep doing the deep breathing. Now, how do you feel? Do you feel any better? You can practice this exercise every day to benefit from it fully.
Unhealthy coping skills (use of excessive caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, illicit drugs, compulsive gambling, relationship conflict, etc.) are not helping at all. Actually they are making the problem worse. Stress affects our bodies. It releases stress hormones, which is the starting point of many long-term (chronic) diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, breathing problems, arthritis, depression, and many others. I am amazed that food and diets get more media coverage than emotional health. We see a lot of information about clean eating so harmful chemicals are not part of our diets. But what about the toxic chemicals that our bodies are generating in response to our emotions? We can easily process those toxic chemicals only if we change our responses and take care of ourselves.
You already know how to take care of yourself- start doing that. Do things that have meaning and purpose for you. Do things that are fulfilling for you. Ask for help early in the process as delaying it is not going to help. It’s important to talk to your medical provider about your feelings to be pointed in the right direction.
You are precious and have lots of potential to achieve your goals. Please keep that in mind always.
Take care,
Sincerely,
Jagdeep Kaur, MD
Any responses or comments to this letter are greatly appreciated. Please send your feedback to: jakaur@keystonehealth.org.
This article contains general information only and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis, treatment or care by a qualified health care provider.
