Staying healthy is a central goal in many people’s lives, and parents want to promote good health for their children in any way they can.
Health advice is everywhere, but much of it focuses only on the body. As researchers continue to investigate what influences our health, we’re finding that physical health and mental health are more closely linked than we realized. If mental or physical health swing out of balance, an individual will suffer.
Understanding how our bodies and minds work together or against each other strengthens your ability to make positive choices for your health and the health of children in your care.
What Is Mental Health?
The broad definition of mental health refers to the well-being of an individual on emotional, social and psychological levels. The state of someone’s mental health has significant sway over the way they act, process emotions and make decisions. A person in good mental health can maintain healthy relationships, express a wide range of emotions and manage the difficulties of change.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as the state of well-being where every individual realizes his or her own potential, manages the normal stresses of life, works productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to her or his community.
Most people think of mental health as the absence of diagnosable disorders, but mental health is best represented as a continuum. On one end of the spectrum are people who exhibit active resilience and are capable of taking life’s uncertainties in stride. On the other end of the spectrum are individuals whose disorders cause severe impact on daily functioning. If someone falls in the center of the spectrum, they would likely describe their mental health as “fine.”
It’s possible, even common, for people to fall somewhere in the middle. Even if you don’t have a diagnosed condition and feel you function well enough in your day-to-day life, you may lack the resources to cope with a sudden change. These are some of the signs that someone’s mental health is shifting:
- Changes in sleeping and eating patterns
- Withdrawal from friends, family and activities
- Loss of energy
- Increasing irritability and mood swings
- Loss of performance at school or work
These symptoms indicate a decline in mental health and potentially point to a developing psychological disorder. Some of the most common disorders in children and young adults include:
- Bipolar Disorder
- Impulse Control Disorder
What Is Physical Health?
When it comes to kids and young adults, we often pay much more attention to physical health over mental health. Parents and guardians pour a lot of energy into ensuring kids grow up physically healthy, but they may not have a complete picture of what physical health entails. Physical health has two central components.
Good nutrition is essential for everyone, but growing bodies need even more resources. A host of vitamins and minerals is essential to physical health, as are the right amounts of protein and carbohydrates. Balancing your child’s diet gives them a much better chance of remaining physically healthy.
It’s increasingly challenging to ensure kids get enough exercise and physical activity. With the proliferation of screens in every area of life, children and young adults are becoming more sedentary. Although Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) activity guidelines recommend youth ages 6 to 17 get 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day, the majority of children don’t get anywhere near that.
TV is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to creating a sedentary lifestyle. Kids who watch three or more hours of TV per day are 65 percent more likely to become obese than children who watch less than one hour a day. Screen time of all types has negative effects on health, ranging from sleep loss to learning difficulty.
Other components to physical health include regular dental and vision checks to monitor development as well as ensuring kids get enough sleep to fuel their growth. Your child’s regular check-ups are the perfect opportunity to bring up any questions you have regarding physical health and catch any developing issues early on.
How Mental and Physical Health Are Related
The difference between physical and mental health is not as pronounced as you might think. For years, researchers have been asking a complex question — how do mental and physical health interact? The answer is predictably complicated, but we do know that mental illness impacts physical health directly and indirectly. Take a look at some of the concrete ways your body and mind influence each other.
1. Depression and the Immune System
Depression, the most common mental disorder in the United States, doesn’t just impact mood and motivation. It can directly affect the immune system by suppressing T cell responses to viruses and bacteria, making
it easier to get sick and stay sick for longer. A weakened immune system can also lead to a jump in the severity of allergies or asthma.
Some research suggests that it may be the other way around, and the immune system may actually cause depression. Stress — especially the chronic type — triggers an immune response within the brain itself. That inflammatory response may be a driving cause of depression.
A recent study on immune inflammation and depression involved the manipulation of immune receptors in mice. Researchers exposed the mice to repeated stress and observed that stress caused the mouse brains to release cytokines. Cytokines are a type of protein associated with inflammation, and their release led to damage in the medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that plays a critical role in depression. In other words, the researchers were able to trigger depressive symptoms as a result of the immune system’s response to stress.
A strong immune system is a hallmark of physical health, but the addition of stress increases the chances of depression. In turn, depression may further weaken the immune system, resulting in a discouraging cycle.
This case illustrates the fact that many health problems have both a physical and a mental element.
2. Mental Illness and Fatigue
Depression, anxiety and other mood disorders often result in persistent feelings of tiredness and exhaustion. Some inappropriately suggest that “it’s all in your head,” but research shows this is not the case. Being mentally tired leads to physical tiredness.
A study from Bangor University in Wales, the United Kingdom, had participants ride a stationary bike until they reached the point of exhaustion. They defined exhaustion as the inability to keep up with a pace of 60 revolutions per minute for five or more seconds.
Participants performed the test in two different situations. In one situation, they rode the bike like usual. In the second setup, participants first engaged in a 90-minute task with elements drawing on memory, fast reactions and inhibiting impulsive responses to stimuli.
After participants engaged in the mental challenge, they reported feeling tired and a little listless. Most importantly, the participants reached the point of exhaustion 15 percent earlier.
Mental illness is closely linked with fatigue, and that persistent tiredness can easily lead to declines in physical health. When someone is chronically depressed or anxious, they are less likely to engage in exercise and to quit early when they do. Fatigue from mental illness can also interfere with basic hygiene, increasing vulnerability to disease.
4. Anger, Anxiety and Heart Health
Angry outbursts and the stress of anxiety are bad for the heart. An Australian study set out to see if acute emotions can cause heart attacks like you see in movies — and unfortunately, the trope is true.
Dr. Thomas Buckley, lead author of the study, said, “Our findings confirm what has been suggested in prior studies and anecdotal evidence…that episodes of intense anger can act as a trigger for a heart attack.”
In the two hours following a bout of intense anger, which the study defined as tense body language, clenched fists or teeth, and feeling “ready to burst,” a person’s risk of heart attack becomes 8.5 times higher.
In the case of anxiety, the risk of heart attack rises 9.5 fold in the following two hours. While youth are generally a long way away from having to worry about heart attacks, anger and anxiety involved in impulse control disorders can negatively affect their growing hearts.
What You Can Do to Improve Mental Health
If you or a child in your life is struggling with depression, anxiety or another psychological disorder, there are steps you can take on your own to improve mental health.
1. Start With Self-Care
Self-care is any action you take with the intention of preserving or improving your current mental state or your mental health overall. Self-care activities serve two central purposes — setting healthy boundaries and developing the ability to cope with life’s ups and downs. Here are three tips to get you started.
Solidify a Sleep Schedule
Not getting enough sleep can exacerbate mental health problems. According to Harvard Medical School, individuals with a history of insomnia are four times as likely to develop depression. Conversely, more than 50 percent of people with anxiety and up to 90 percent of people with depression experience sleep problems of some kind.
Sleep routines are especially important for kids. Without enough sleep, children can suffer from weakened immune systems and problems in academic performance, behavior, and decreased mental health overall.
Creating a schedule and routine around adequate sleep is an effective step toward improving mental health for yourself or a child in your care. Developing a sleep routine can be as simple as setting a concrete bedtime, limiting or removing screen access for an hour before bed and capping off the night with your favorite herbal tea blend or a glass of warm milk.
Many children and adolescents don’t get enough time outside, and the problem is even worse for adults. Depression reduces the desire and motivation to get out of the house, but getting out of the house and walking
around in nature has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms.
Make time for at least two outside excursions per week, even if it’s just a quick walk around the block or down to the park for 20 minutes. Making outside time a routine helps improve your own mental health and sets an actionable example for any kids in your care.
Schedule Time for Activities
Working with your hands is a time-tested way to reduce the symptoms of depression and improve mental health. Half of your brain’s cortex is dedicated to the hands, so a hands-on hobby gives your brain a good workout.
You don’t need to take up mechanical engineering to benefit from hands-on activity. An art or cooking class will activate the same effects. Children’s brain development requires a healthy mix of cognitive and physical activity, so any hobby involving the use of hands alongside the mind will help them develop and maintain better mental health.
2. Seek Appropriate Treatment
Self-care is a crucial component to mental health, but in many cases, mental illness requires help from qualified experts. Counseling and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) teach individuals how to cope with mental illness that disrupts their everyday lives. Self-care can go a long way, only as a supplement to treatment programs designed to address your or a child’s disorder at the root.
What You Can Do to Improve Physical Health
For a child to get the most benefit from self-care and mental health treatment, they should also incorporate habits that improve their physical health. Here are three long-term changes you can make to improve a child’s health and yours.
- Limit screen time: We’ve already covered how screen time results in a sedentary lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you need to ban your child from screens altogether. Technology is an inevitable part of modern life, so teaching kids how to consume media in moderation is key. Try discussing screen time limits with older kids, to make it clear this is a matter of leading a balanced life, not a punishment.
- Teach healthy food choices: Eating well is tough for many adults, but learning more about food allows you to instill good habits in your child. If you aren’t sure where to start, visit the MyPlate website from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to see guidelines, resources and suggestions on healthy eating. The site allows you to browse by audience so you can find materials designed to appeal to kids, teens and college-age young adults.
- Encourage exercise: It’s much easier for a child or young adult to incorporate healthy exercise habits than it is for an adult. Kids also have more time and more options to fit in exercise, from P.E. at school to local sports clubs. Making physical activity a routine part of life provides kids with a built-in, healthy coping mechanism that improves mental health in the long run.
Hillside: Your Partner in Mental Health
The link between physical and mental health is complex in general, and even more so when it comes to growing children. If you have questions about mental health or disorders concerning a child in your life, you may be scared and unsure of what to do next. Bring your questions to Hillside, Atlanta’s leading non-profit mental health treatment organization for youth. If you’re ready to facilitate healing for your child, contact us and learn more about treatment options for kids and young adults struggling with their mental health.