Mental Health - is the problem getting worse?

I had an interesting conversation today with a friend about whether the problem of mental health is getting worse in our society.

Chemicals - My view is that it is becoming a bigger problem primarily because we are exposed to many more chemicals in our food by consuming larger quantities of vitamins, preservatives and pesticides. Our environment is also a factor, from television, mobile phones and computers to pollution and air conditioning. Did you know that coca cola is used to clean blood off the road and the plastic from bottled water can be harmful to us?

Isolation - Social media, work and technology  has made people more isolated in many ways and the importance of family and friends has become less of a priority. Facebook is one of the most searched for terms in google. How many hours do you spend on facebook, email and your mobile versus speaking to your best friend?

Self-inflicted pressures - people complain all the time about the pressure to be financially and personally successful in all aspects of their life. This stems from our innate insecurity. How much do you worry? What do you worry about? Do you really need to worry about these things? What is the worst that can happen?

People pressure and bullying - is a major source of conflict and can cause considerable emotional and mental distress. It can cause insomnia which only makes individuals less able to cope with their problems. From rude people on public transport or on the street, to the work place and school, we all have these buttons that are being pushed and it causes havoc in our lives. We need to learn effective ways to deal with these problems.  

I don't have any studies or scientific evidence to support my views, nor do I intend to make this post about that. It is food for thought. However, according to the NHS website, one in four people will have mental health problems in their life. That's a large proportion of the population.For more information on mental health, www.nhs.uk is a good place to start.

It's important to look at our lives and examine what is good and bad for us and the people we love. Then we need to decide whether we want to change aspects of our lives and how we will do that. The problem may be manifesting itself in other ways such as alcoholism, stress or depression and we might not even recognise what it is stemming from. It is sad that mental health has become more common and that many people are not equipped or able to cope with it, but we can empower ourselves by thinking about it and taking action.