Mental health disorders and stress is something that affects countless working Americans each year. In fact, nearly one in five U.S. adults 18 or older reported some type of mental illness in 2016. Also, over 70 percent of adults reported at least one symptom of stress according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unfortunately, when people deal with mental health issues at work, it can affect business and lead to problems with job performance. Poor mental health and stress can lead to a loss in productivity, a lack of engagement in one’s work, less communication with coworkers, and a lack of daily functioning.
More specifically, an issue like depression can interfere with some’s ability to complete physical tasks about 20 percent of the time and can reduce cognitive performance about 35 percent of the time. Even when taking other health risks such as smoking and obesity into account, employees who have depression still had the highest health care costs during the 3 years following an initial health risk assessment.
Luckily, there are a number of things that you can do to improve your mental health and your situation at work and all it takes is a few small lifestyle changes.
Exercise
For one, you can prioritize exercise more. Exercise is linked to improved mental health and can help with a number of specific problems such as depression. Whether you are going on a run, weight lifting, playing a sport, or simply going on a walk, getting out and getting your blood flowing can go a long way toward improving your situation.
Diet
Along with this, diet is something that seriously needs to be considered when discussing overall health. Just make sure that your sugar intake isn’t too high and that you are getting a balanced and diverse diet that includes vegetables and fruit. It is also important to make sure that you are getting adequate water intake throughout the day.
Sleep
Along with these somewhat common solutions to improving mental health, you should also ensure that you are getting the right amount of sleep during the night. Problems like insomnia and oversleeping are things that can make cause issues with your mental health.
While some of these things may seem obvious, it is important to commit to them. However, if you make these changes and nothing seems to be improving, you may want to look into getting professional help from a therapist or treatment center.
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