Five Main Things

I was not planning on posting this until I started to realize how greatly my mental health was being affected by everything that is going on.

If you look at my previous comments and posts, you will know that I have said there are five basic items that have helped my mental health.  There are a bunch of other things too, however these five basic points are important to my recovery.  And I am finding out the hard way that missing one of these can be detrimental to mental health.

Here are the five basic points that have made my recovery successful:

1. Exercise
2. Health and Food
3. Work
4. Social Life (Which is tied to work)
5. Spirituality

These five things altogether have helped my mental health.   Numbers 1, 2 and 5, I can definitely do while home, no question. 

However, through all of this, numbers 3 and 4 have been taken away from me.  I can still work, yes, I can work at home, but I’ve always said work gives me a bit of a social life, so not being able to go into the office, even if it’s only myself and one other person there, has dramatically hurt my mental health. 

I have always said those five things above are what make my mental health recovery successful, take one or two away, and I am starting to find out the hard way, what will happen. 

I need work and to socialize, so does everyone else.  Video calls are not the same, I have my mind to prove it.  Because I have so much experience with managing my mental health, I have semi-figured it out for the short term. 

But from this, I have learned three things (and probably many more but these seem to be the most important):

1. I need all five of those items together to manage my mental health.
2. How in regular times, do people manage their mental health without all these five items together.  I have determined I cannot.
3. What are people doing in these times that do not have experience managing mental health, like I do?

Take this as you want, you may agree or disagree, does not really matter, but these times have taught me how important those five points combined are for managing my mental health, and maybe for managing your mental health too.