Mental Health or Lifestyle? Understanding the Connection Between Daily Habits and Wellbeing

Mental health issues or lifestyle issues? Interesting question, right? Perhaps one you’ve never asked yourself, as you might not be displaying any obvious signs that your emotional wellbeing is at risk. 

However, for a great many people (maybe even you), lifestyle is anything but balanced and can create unnecessary risks.

We live in an increasingly adrenalised society, which has become the new normal. But hitting life hard and fast and living off the buzz of adrenaline is arguably just as dangerous to your health as real drugs. It can lead to burnout and serious mental health problems that start with stress and anxiety but can, if left unchecked, develop into full-blown depression.

And in the end, both can be life-limiting.

Physical illness can result from chronic stress, and the fact we’re living increasingly unnatural, adrenaline-driven lifestyles (often fuelled by relentless digital addiction) is only adding to the problem. For many, alcohol is used as an antidote to stress, anxiety and depression, but this simply exacerbates those conditions.

Addiction to work and the drive to succeed are often prioritised over our own wellbeing, too, and I call this the domino effect: 
You overwork and over-give; you drink to relax or get to sleep as your mind is in overdrive; you sleep poorly because you drank too much or are full of cortisol and adrenaline; you can’t get up so you fill yourself with coffee or sugary food; then you crash and so you work later to make up the time; then you can’t sleep again. And so it goes on. You feel rubbish but you push on through because that’s what’s expected. Not by anyone else, but by you.

Then, something else happens that tips you over the edge, such as bereavement, and suddenly you are plunged into anxiety, depression or panic. Because the foundations of your mental wellbeing have already been weakened by the excesses of your lifestyle, your mental health begins to fray.

My advice is to be gentle with yourself. Find five things that bring you joy and aren’t reliant on indulgence, money or validation. They should make you feel good without any kind of guilt hangover the next day – such as spending more time outdoors, switching off your phone and saying “no” more often. Anything that helps bring down that adrenaline.

So, before you diagnose yourself with a mental health issue, ask yourself: do I have a mental health problem, or is my lifestyle the problem? 

For more information about Zoë and her work, you can visit her website here.