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Staying Mentally Healthy

  • Published
  • By Lt. Cmdr. Ken Simmet
  • 92nd Medical Group Mental Health Flight deputy director
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Editor's Note: This article is the second in a 4-part series on Comprehensive Airman Fitness. The goal of CAF is to help Airmen, Air Force civilians and family members become more resilient and better-equipped to deal with the rigors of military life by promoting mental, spiritual, social and physical fitness. This week's article focuses on mental fitness.

What do you picture, when you think of being mentally healthy? Some people may get a picture of someone lying on a couch, telling a therapist about all the issues plaguing their life. Others may imagine spending time on a beach, unwinding from the rigors of a stressful work environment. Not bad answers, but unfortunately, there are too many people out there that have no clue about what it takes to be and stay mentally healthy. As part of the Comprehensive Airmen Fitness series, this article looks at some of the accepted ways to get and stay mentally healthy.

Take Care of Yourself: What does this mean? It means getting enough quality sleep, getting enough of the right foods, and getting enough exercise. To be mentally healthy, we need to be as physically healthy as possible. Body and mind are tied together-it is much easier to feel good about yourself when you feel good inside yourself. One article I read indicated that increased physical activity can create new brain cells.

Maintain Connections: Having healthy relationships with others is of critical importance to our well-being. Being social creatures, we need social interaction to remain mentally healthy. Also, having people you can trust and rely on, a support system, can give us the strength to deal with issues that we may feel that we are not able to cope with on our own. Don't you look forward to sharing stories with your family and friends?

Take Time for Yourself: If you don't already have one, find a hobby. As they say: "Take time to smell the roses." Take walks, have fun with your children and/or pets. As important as it is to have social contacts, taking time for you is just as important. It gives us time to process the events and activities of our daily lives and, probably more importantly, it gives us time to recharge.

Take Time to Look at Yourself: Ask yourself, "What pushes my buttons?" Think about what triggers you stress responses. Develop strategies to prevent, or at least minimize your responses. Take a moment to just stop and focus on what you are thinking or feeling. It is called 'being in the here and now.' Learn to look inward and address those thoughts or feelings. This can take practice, but once you got it down, you can do this anywhere, anytime-a great stress reliever!

Challenge Yourself: Set a goal, learn a new skill, become a collector of experiences! As they say: "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger!" That, to me, is the epitome of resilience and resilience is what I am talking about here. What is the real benefit of being resilient? I think that it is a matter of self-confidence. In my briefings, I ask people to look back on themselves to the day before they put on a military uniform for the first time. I ask them if they are the same person now, as they were then. I always get a 100 percent no from the group. I then ask, "What has changed?" The answer is always the same-we have changed, we have grown, we have overcome the challenges of joining the service and we have succeeded. Been there, done that...what's next? That is self-confidence and that, I feel, is a necessity for staying mentally healthy.

Ask for/Seek Help: None of us is invulnerable! At some point in our lives, we all need the help of an expert. Sometimes, we are confronted with issues that are so far outside the sphere of our experience, that we do not have the tools/knowledge to address the issue.
When an issue is so severe that it is interfering in our daily lives, that is when we have to find the strength to ask for help. It is like many of you have heard me say, "If you cut yourself, you go to a doctor to get stitched up. If you hurt in your heart or your mind, you seek an expert in mental health, you come see us. That is what we do!"

There are many facets to the subject of being mentally healthy, and it is a little different for each of us. However, many of those facets are common to all of us. I have tried to touch on what I feel are some of the most common strategies for getting and staying mentally healthy and I hope these prove to be of value to you.