If you are improving your physical well-being, specific goals typically can be measured, such as cutting down on cholesterol, running a mile faster, or carrying a heavier weight. Your hard work is making a difference. If you’re trying to improve your mental health and well-being, it may seem like there’s no obvious way to gauge if you’re gaining strength carrying the mental burden.
You’re training, attending counselling sessions, and taking a break; however, what are you sure they’re working on?
Ways to Tell If Your Mental Health Is Improving
It can be difficult to determine whether you are improving your mental state; there are methods to gauge the improvement. A few ways to gauge your improvement are listed below.
1. You’ve Accomplished Goals
When you first begin therapy, your therapy therapist will inquire about what you’re looking for in therapy. Therapy is often sought out in the event of a problem. However, know it’s not necessary to need to be in a state of crisis to seek help! Therapy can be as effective in keeping your mental well-being when everything is going well.
In the end, someone could declare that depression prevents people from socializing. The recognition of the problem will help you determine the goal of having a social gathering every week.
2. You Notice a Reduction in Symptoms
While trying to quantify the effects of your efforts on your mental well-being may appear elusive or even unclear, there are a couple of ways to do it.
A good place to begin looking at the effect is the reduction in symptom severity. If, for instance, when you first started therapy to treat anxiety attacks, perhaps you experienced three attacks per week, and there’s only one now, that indicates that you’ve made progress. Don’t worry when you’re still not having the level of having no panic attacks. The aim is not perfection but progress.
3. You Have Better Boundaries
How you manage the boundaries is an excellent way to gauge your progress. A good example could be that your friend expects you to put everything aside and be there whenever she calls. If you’ve ever had the opportunity, you could have done this out of fear of losing the relationship with a dear friend.
4. You Have More Trust in Yourself
If you’re a person who is dependent on the opinions of others in making choices, learning to rely on your judgment could be a significant milestone on your path to better mental health.
Do you remember that feeling when you realize you’ve selected the perfect outfit? Imagine that feeling with more selections.
5. Your Emotional Intelligence Increases
While we’re not able to assess emotional intelligence in the same way we do cognitive intelligence, there are ways to observe an improvement in your emotional intelligence. You’ll see that your interactions with people around you are more favorable.
Certain signs could indicate that you’re not internalizing or keeping your feelings within as you used to.
What If My Condition Is Chronic?
If you suffer from a chronic mental health problem, it is possible to feel depressed in having to endure this condition for the rest of your life. However, there are some more obvious indicators to recognize to determine your level of progress:
Reduced episodes: If you have major depression and usually have at least two or three episodes over a year, it could appear that you only have one episode per year. In other words, it could appear as a reduction in the duration of episodes.
A rise in healthy behaviors: If you are dealing with the effects of a serious mental illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, your episodes could always be part of your daily life. But even attending regular therapy, even if you have not previously, indicates progress. Being willing to take your medication every day is another good indication.
A Word From Mind Mentor
While these are a few ways to see improvement in taking care of the health of your mind, it’s only a small sample. Even if you don’t see improvement in any area doesn’t necessarily mean that your mental health isn’t improving or that the hard work was in vain.
Sometimes, others can notice signs of changes in our psychological health and performance before we see these changes in ourselves. A trusted therapist can assist you in setting goals and teach you how to identify these changes for yourself.
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