These days, most of us realize that our mental health is an important thing to take care of. This is a relatively recent cultural development, however. It used to be the case that most people did not really appreciate the value or importance of their own mental health, and generally that led to some pretty poor overall health. For as we will see, having poor mental health does tend to affect you in ways beyond those you might expect, and it is going to be something you want to pay close attention to for that reason. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the major effects you can expect to see if you fail to look after your mental health.

Unhappiness

Probably the first thing that you will think of, and the most common result of not taking care of your mental health, is going to be that you are unhappy. Being unhappy will make life much harder to deal with, and will itself result in a number of other issues which you would rather not have to deal with. You can think of unhappiness as something of a warning sign. If you start to feel unhappy and you are not entirely sure why, then it might be that you have not been properly taking care of your mental health, and that you need to think about what you can do to do so better.

Hopefully in time, your happiness will return, and you will know that the efforts you are making are working out. The one thing you should make use of is that you do not ignore such a warning sign. If you are unhappy, think about what you can do to fix it as soon as possible.

Drop In Sociability

The moment you start experiencing problems with your mental health, it is very common for this to affect your ability to be social. Mental illness affecting social health can happen to anyone, not matter what your age, gender or ethnicity. 

It is so hard to spend time with people when you are struggling inside, and sometimes to be around people is just the last thing you want in the world. Again, if you notice yourself suddenly losing interest in people, it might be a sign that you need to turn things around. This is also an example of one of those things which can be both a cause and an effect of bad mental health. So making a point of remaining as social as possible is also going to help keep poor mental health at bay, at the same time as being a sign that your mental health is strong. Remember that, and try to do what you can to remain social.

Poor Hygiene

As we have already said, sometimes the same thing can be both a cause and an effect. This is certainly true of poor hygiene. If you have poor hygiene, it has a way of making you feel worse about yourself, and that is not the best for your own mental health. Likewise, however, if you are already not taking good care of your personal hygiene, then that can be a sign that you might be depressed. In any case, it is certainly one of the major effects that you can expect from poor mental health, and it is something that can make things like socializing much more difficult indeed. You can probably start to see how all of these things fit together – how when you are in good spirits and you are taking good care of yourself, that makes for a better ability to socialize, and so on.

Addiction

Those who suffer with mental health problems are significantly more likely to find themselves addicted to some substance or another as well. In fact, the statistics show that there is a strong correlation between the two, and it is just as likely to go one way as the other. In other words, drug addiction can be a cause and an effect just as often, and it is fairer to just say that they go hand-in-hand a lot of the time. If you have an addiction of any kind, then you will find that dealing with it has a way of also improving your mental health profoundly. Some of the best ways to deal with your addiction are those which take your mental health problems into account as well, such as dual diagnosis treatment centers, which are designed to deal with both your addiction and poor mental health as one issue. Whatever your addiction might be, just taking steps towards overcoming it is going to be the best thing you ever did for your mental health.

Change In Sleeping Patterns

By nature, your sleeping patterns will always vary a little. After all, you are not going to get a solid, exact eight hours every night for your entire life. But if you have noticed a stark alteration in the kind of hours you tend to sleep, then that can be a very clear sign that something is going on with your mental health. Sudden changes in sleeping patterns can mean that your mood is all over the place, and is very often a sign of depression, so you will want to take that as a real warning sign if it happens to you. Most commonly, it can be either suffering from insomnia and not sleeping through the night at all – or it might be oversleeping for many hours each morning, and finding it hard to get out of bed. Both of these are concerning, and can form part of the vicious cycle of depression. Do what you can to sort out your sleeping pattern, and seek some help if you feel it might be necessary.

Mood Swings

Mood swings are the kind of thing that can happen a lot for many reasons. They are often hormonal changes rather than psychological ones, which is why they can be such a clear sign that there is something going on beneath the surface that needs looking at. If you suddenly start having mood swings, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the emotion of those mood swings and simply believe what they tell you, but this is their danger. Instead, you need to try and see through them – a friend might help with this, as they often do – and see the mood swings for what they are. These fluctuations are rarely a healthy sign, and you should do whatever you can to try and help your mental health along in order to improve them.

Poor Concentration

Finding it hard to focus on things which you would normally have no trouble focusing on is another clear sign that your mental health might be struggling. This can be depression, anxiety or a range of other issues, and no matter what it is you should make sure that you are going to try and help yourself to get better. If you can do that, and your concentration starts to improve, then you know that you are doing what you need to in order to make yourself much healthier. Poor concentration can affect your work life and ultimately ruin your career or your studies, so it is a hugely important thing to be aware of for that reason.

As you can see, there are plenty of effects of not taking care of your mental health which you might come across. If you want to look after yourself better, try to deal with these issues as they crop up – and try to look after your mental health much more in the first instance too.