Good mental health enables us to fully enjoy and appreciate other people, day-to-day life and our environment. According to the World Health Organization, mental health is “a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”

A mental illness is a health problem that significantly affects how a person thinks, behaves and interacts with other people. It is diagnosed according to standardised criteria. One in 5 Australians will suffer from a mental illness in any given year. A mental health problem also affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, but to a lesser extent than a mental illness. It is very common to be affected by a mental health illness or problem, and thankfully there are some measures you can take to improve your health. Things you can do for yourself include exercising regularly, eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep, developing new skills, spending time with friends and loved ones and talking about or expressing your feelings. If this isn’t quite enough to get you feeling well, then perhaps it’s time to talk to a health professional such as a psychotherapist, who can help you achieve greater health.

Jump to:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Bipolar
• Stress
• Relationships
• Suicide
• Anorexia and Bulimia

Anxiety is defined as feelings of stress and worry that do not subside once the cause has passed. They are ongoing and exist without any particular reason or cause. It is a condition that interferes with life and makes it difficult to cope with daily life.

Common symptoms include panic attacks, racing heart, tightness in chest, quick breathing, hot and cold flushes and feeling tense and edgy. Sufferers may also experience feelings of excessive fear, worry and obsessive thinking. Anxiety can result in avoiding a situation that makes you feel anxious, and will often impact on study, work, social life and relationships.

There are different types of anxiety, e.g. phobia, social phobia, panic disorder, PTSD, OCD.

Treatments vary depending on the phobia and the severity of the symptoms. If moderate to severe, medication may be useful. If mild, a change in lifestyle including reducing stress levels and having regular exercise, and learning to meditate can be enough.

Often Counselling and Psychotherapy are important to help you recognise and work through past experiences that are contributing to your present emotional situation.

Acupuncture is also very helpful in getting the body to be more relaxed and reduce stress in the body, and hence day to day life is less overwhelming.

Depression is described as intense feelings of sadness, moodiness or feeling low/down for extended periods of time, and sometimes without any obvious reason. You commonly have these feelings for more than 2 weeks and you may have lost interest or pleasure in usual activities.

Common symptoms or behaviours include not going out much; not getting things done; withdrawing from friends/family; relying on alcohol and/or sedatives; inability to concentrate. Also feeling overwhelmed, unhappy, disappointed, miserable, frustrated, irritable, guilty, thoughts of being worthless and feeling that life is not worth living.

Physical symptoms include being tired, alert, sick and run down, headaches, insomnia change of appetite and significant weight changes.
If you are experiencing these symptoms and thoughts, it is important to get support. There are many resources available with someone to talk to often 24hrs a day, such as:

• Lifeline 13 11 14 https://www.lifeline.org.au/
• Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 https://kidshelpline.com.au/
• Sane Helpline 1800 18 7263 https://www.sane.org/get-help
• Headspace 1800 650 890 http://headspace.org.au/
• Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support
• Mensline 1300 78 99 78 https://www.mensline.org.au/

Speaking with a Psychotherapist is important, as they have several methods they may utilise that are useful in helping with depression, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

Studies have also shown that Acupuncture can be effective in helping patients deal with depression.

Bipolar disorder, also knowns as manic depression, is a mental illness marked by extreme shifts in mood ranging from a manic to a depressive state.

A person with mania will feel excited, impulsive, euphoric, and full of energy. He or she might engage in risky or unhealthy behaviour. The depressive episodes might bring on deep sadness and hopelessness. Depression causes a loss of energy and interest in activities the patient once enjoyed. This phase can include periods of too little or too much sleep. Also, suicidal thoughts or attempts may come with deep depression.

Manic depression is generally treated with drugs, but there are lifestyle choices that you can make to help. Such as learning what your triggers for manic episodes are, so by avoiding them can reduce these episodes, but also be aware of when a manic episode is coming on, to take measures to minimise them. Speaking with a Counsellor or Psychotherapist can help to recognise and work through past experiences that are contributing to your present emotional situation.

Acupuncture is very helpful in getting the body to be more relaxed and reduce stress in the body, and hence day to day life is less overwhelming.

Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of perceived demand or threat. When you feel threatened, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which prepare the body for emergency action. Other changes occur including increased heart rate, tight muscles, increased blood pressure, increased breathing, and heightened senses. This is known as the “fight or flight” or mobilization stress response and is your body’s way of protecting you.

Stress within your comfort zone can help you perform under pressure, motivate you to do your best. Our bodies are not good at differentiating life threatening stress from day today stress, and if we regularly experience this fight or flight response on a daily basis it can have detrimental effects on our mood, relationships and physical and mental health.

Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can affect your immune system, digestive and reproductive systems, blood pressure, memory and concentration, weight, sleep and skin. It can result in increased risk of heart attack and stroke and speed up the ageing process and cause anxiety and depression.

It can be very daunting to be experiencing chronic stress, and it will often feel as if you can’t change your situation, but there are things you can do. Seeing a Psychotherapist is the best place to start. They can help you identify causes of stress, and help you work through emotional blocks, as well as give you tools to help make dealing with these situations easier.

Sometimes Acupuncture is also very effective to rebalance your body, and your nervous system and get it out of fight or flight and into equilibrium.

A relationship is defined as the way two or more people or things are connected. Whether it be between family members, husband and wife, lovers, friends or work colleagues, relationships can be vary a great deal, and throughout the course of a relationship they can change a great deal. It’s vital to form relationships with others, as relationships are central to psychological health. Positive and supportive relationships with friends, family, or partners are associated with reduced levels of depression and stress. Good relationships are also good for your physical health. Social support has been found to have immune-boosting effect. Sometimes it can be difficult forming and/or maintaining positive, healthy relationships, as they can be complex, which is reflected by the fact that ⅓ of all adults are affected by loneliness.

It is not surprising, then, that relationship counselling is amongst the most common reasons for visiting a Psychotherapist. They can help you determine where the problems lie, why they may have developed, and give you tools to help you improve your current and future relationships. If you are having relationship problems with your partner, then couples counselling is a great resource.

In Australia, suicide is the leading cause of death for males and females aged between 15 and 44. In a typical year, around 2,500 people in Australia die by suicide. That’s more than seven people every day. For every person who dies this way, it is estimated 20 more attempt suicide.

Around 20% of Australians are affected by some form of mental illness every year, yet many do not receive the treatment and support they need. The suicide rate among people with a mental illness is at least seven times higher than the general population. It is one of the main causes of premature death in this group.

If you are at immediate risk of harm to yourself or others, please contact emergency services on 000 or see a complete list of helplines at the bottom of this page.

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are conditions considered eating disorders. There are important differences between these two conditions. In anorexia you are very underweight, whereas in bulimia, you are most likely to be average or over-weight. If you have anorexia you tend to eat less than you need to but if you have bulimia you have times when you “binge-eat”. This is followed by times when you try to counteract the over-eating. This may be by vomiting, by not eating, by excessive exercise, or by misusing medicines. People with bulimia feel a loss of control over their excess eating. Anorexia affects women and men of all ages, while Bulimia is 10 times more likely in women than men.

Anorexia is characterized by three key features:

1. Refusal to maintain a healthy body weight.
2. An intense fear of gaining weight.
3. A distorted body image.

Behavioural signs and symptoms of Anorexia include: following a strict diet despite being thin, including obsessing over calories and fat content; weighing portions; pretending to eat while hiding or throwing away food; making excuses to avoid eating; secretive food rituals.

Physical signs and symptoms include dramatic weight loss; feeling fat, despite being underweight; fixation on body image, including weight, body shape clothing size, frequent weigh-ins; critical of appearance; denial that you’re too thin while trying to conceal it.

Bulimia affects your ability to have a normal eating pattern, as the main symptoms are bingeing and purging. Bingeing means that you have repeated episodes of eating large (sometimes extremely large) amounts of food.

Purging means trying to counteract the ‘fattening’ effects of the food from the bingeing, such as using diet pills, laxatives, or diuretics; throwing up after eating (frequently disappearing after meals or going to the bathroom, you may run the water to disguise sounds of vomiting or reappear smelling like mouthwash or mints); compulsive exercising (often working out extra hard after bingeing or eating something “bad”). These can then lead to physical problems such as irregular periods, chemical imbalances (affecting heart and kidneys), bowel problems, teeth problems and depression.

There is no one cause of Anorexia or Bulimia. They are complex conditions that arise from a combination of many social, emotional, and biological factors. Although our culture’s idealization of thinness plays a powerful role, there are many other contributing factors, including your family environment, emotional difficulties, low self-esteem, and traumatic experiences you may have gone through in the past. Hence is important to get help and support from a mental health practitioner such as a Psychotherapist or Counsellor. They will help you to determine what the specific contributing factors are, where they stem from, and give you tools to help work through them, to help improve your emotional state and your relationship to food and eating.

• Lifeline 13 11 14 https://www.lifeline.org.au/
• Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 https://kidshelpline.com.au/
• Sane Helpline 1800 18 7263 https://www.sane.org/get-help
• Headspace 1800 650 890 http://headspace.org.au/
• Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support
• Suicide callback service 1300 659 467
• Mensline 1300 78 99 78 https://www.mensline.org.au/