ontopik fal of szöveg
Mental illness is not just one thing. By that i mean it isnt just bad thoughts. Because the bad thoughts are created through neural networks. Using these networks strengthens them and makes them more permanent causing a change in the neurochemistry and neutral state of your brain. The negative emotions of these states releases cortisol and other stress hormones and may also lead to drug use, bad habits, and poor physical health and may also be compounded by unhealthy relationships and environments releasing more cortisol and stress. This long term stress and long term unhealthy state leads to more damage to the brain and changes to the neurochemistry. Some of this damage may worsen the mental illness, some may make it harder to reverse the damage or return to healthy states. All of this repeats and compounds and repeats and compounds.
Addressing bad mental health is not just addressing negative thoughts. You need to address the negative and unhealthy thought patterns (CBT, DBT), the unhealthy relationships amd environments (psychosocial treatment), the neuralnetworks that reinforce this state or prevent the state from changing (drugs and pharamacology), and then teaching how to prevent slipping back into that negative mindset. It is very much like taking a morbidly obese person and getting them fit. You cant just change the diet, you need to address all aspects of the physical health and in ways that will change as their health improves.
Bad mental health doesnt happen just because of a single one of these factors either. It is a combination of these factors; unhealthy environments and relationships, life stressors, unhealthy coping mechanisms, negative thought patterns, brain damage, and often enough some level of epigenetic or genetic vulnerability that leads to mental illness.
Can you reduce your quality of life by thinking negatively all the time? Yes. Definitely and it is something worth changing to better your life and your mental health. But severe mental illness often requires a bigger hit than just negative thoughts. Still, thinking negative thoughts leaves you vulnerable. Perhaps those thoughts prevent you from leaving an abusive relationship. Shortly afterwards your parent dies and you are hit deeply by this. Add in some alcohol used to cope and terrible self care and you are very quickly heading into a situation that can leave you with anxiety problems, depression, drug abuse, and possibly other mental illnesses.
Mental health is something that needs to be addressed holistically. Treatment needs to address not just your neurochemistry but also your behaviors, thoughts, and environment. Too often health practitioners will focus on a single area and hope the other areas follow suit or that the area being addressed is the cause of the decline in other areas. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesnt.