What is mental health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Positive mental health is important because allows us to:
- Realise our full potential
- Cope with the stresses of life
- Work productively
- Make meaningful contributions to our communities
There are many things we can do ourselves to help maintain positive mental health. Some of these include:
- Connecting with others
- Staying positive
- Getting physically active
- Helping others
- Getting enough sleep
- Developing coping skills
Signs and symptoms of mental health problems
It's important to recognise the signs that you, or a colleague's, mental wellbeing is below par, so you can reach out for help quickly. Some well-known signs include:
- Eating or sleeping too much or too little
- Pulling away from people and usual activities
- Having low or no energy
- Inability to make decisions and/or perform daily tasks
- Feeling as though nothing matters
- Unexplained aches and pains
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
- Arguing with family, friends, colleagues
Throughout the week on our internal employee networks, we’re sharing stories and information, such as the above, on how to actively keep well and what to do when we’re not; helping us all to perform to the best of our abilities.