Keeping tabs on your mental health is tricky. You live “inside your brain,” so evaluating it from the outside is no easy task. You hope that you feel better, but knowing whether you do isn’t always easy.
Fortunately, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself to get a better picture of how you’re doing. Take a look at the following:
Are Your Sleeping Habits Returning To Normal?
When you have a serious mental health condition, like depression, it can adversely affect your sleeping habits. You can sometimes find yourself struggling to get any rest at all. Alternatively, you can sleep too much – all the way through until lunchtime on occasion.
However, if you notice yourself getting back into your old pattern, it could be a sure sign that you’re on the mend. Once you get back into your rhythm, it is a sign you’re on the path to better health.
Are Your Relapses Becoming Less Frequent?
Keeping track of your relapses is essential if you have mental health problems. You want to know how often they happen so you can document trends. If you’re getting better, relapses will become less frequent. But recording them in a journal is essential. If you don’t, you can wind up believing things aren’t getting any better, even when they are.
Are You Able To Function In Your Daily Activities?
Mental health problems can make it difficult to function in your daily activities. Going to work or even getting out of bed can feel like a monumental effort. The whole point of things like Midwest Behavioral Health telehealth services is to help you through these difficult times. Professionals support and coach you, helping you deal with the root of the problem and get on with your life.
If you feel that getting out of bed is becoming easier, it is a good sign that you’re mending. Mental health problems don’t last forever. They ebb and flow throughout your life. Having a spring in your step in the morning is a sure sign that things are getting better for you.
Are Your Symptoms Getting Better?
Knowing whether your symptoms are getting better day to day is difficult. Improvements tend to occur slowly through time – so much so that you can find it hard to notice.
Using objective measures to track your symptoms, therefore, is essential. The Wakefield Questionnaire, for instance, is a crucial tool you can use to judge where you’re at with your depression. You just fill out the answers, and then it will spit back a numerical score, telling you your current situation. If you score more than 15 on the test, the designers of the questionnaire recommend that you seek professional guidance and help.
When you know your mental health is improving, it helps a great deal. It shows you that the worst is over and that you’re on the path to recovery. It is a bumpy road, but one that you must tread if you want to see these difficult times through.