As a full time flight attendant and part time cuddler, I just want to remind my fellow cuddle buddies to always use hand sanitizer and if you're sick, stay home and take care of yourself!
Happy cuddles!
Staying physically healthy is important in these times. One needs to ensure that one keeps the immunity strong.
But what about staying mentally healthy?
Isn't mental hygiene just as important?
Sheltering in place at home sometimes mean dealing with spouses, significant others, children, family members and neighbors we often do not see. Because everyone is usually busy working or just being active. Now everyone is living in the same space at the same time. Now what?
How does one deal with the limitations of having to live in place constantly with a person you're having conflict with? Or even handle having to constantly interact with out misunderstanding and disagreement? Or just maintain healthy emotional interactions with our loved ones?
Is it any wonder that alcohol is considered an essential item at this time?
Also shelter in place for those who live alone can also foster deeper social isolation. If there's no one to reach out to with a phone call or text. Then how does one deal with having sit with long alleys of emotion and thoughts? One can't physically go out and about and mingle with all activities shut down. Especially for folks who chose not to have or aren't able to have friends.
By the same token that next year could yield a baby boom. It could also bring a slew of suicides.
Some folks are also indefinitely not able to earn an income. Some are survivors of victims of this virus who are displaced physically and financially.
So what does it really mean to stay healthy?
And who cares about some one's stupid mental health when folks are dying of a dead virus that lives off cold and low humidity?
Who cares about arm chair folks who sit and philosophize over issues they understand and know little about?
Who cares about imbecile minds that are observing from their narrow minded lens folks drinking bottles of whiskey or vodka to cope with being a type 2 diabetic but suddenly unable to pay for insulin and has a pregnant spouse needing to keep up with her prenatal care? Now a person under investigation for COVID 19 symptoms is facing the possibility of dying because he couldn't afford to buy his insulin since the price hike last November. But who cares?
Mental health is only something people think about when someone take the extreme reaction and hurt others. Or something to use as a social weapon to distance, judge or stigmatize others. Who cares if the only outlet of release for difficult life experiences is yourself and the space you occupy? That is your problem.
Nobody is talking about lonliness here. That's another issue. Totally separate from managing and navigating mental hygiene. That's a symptom of a deeper underlying concern.
But who cares?
Especially when such thoughts as these is coming from an imbecile infantile mind.
Know thy physiological body and what is baseline. Especially with this virus where there are no symptoms.
What is my baseline bowel routine?
Diarrhea is actually one of the first non respiratory symptoms. So are abdominal pain and vomiting.
What is my baseline Temperature?
Usually fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit
@Bles - How do you know if you are mentally healthy? And who decides if you are or are not?
On every measurement scale using my value as a baseline, I am exactly average.
@UKGuy that's the point. You don't. But it doesn't mean that you don't mind it and pay attention to how you handle and project yourself to others. To how you manage your thoughts and emotions in different and sometimes difficult life experiences. To what you allow yourself to filter in your mind.
Honestly you can decide if you're mentally healthy or not by paying attention to how you feel and act at your baseline. That's with your usual life routine when there is no extenuating or additional circumstances impacting you.
Very often it's others who make that decision for you . The people you live and work with and amongst who also often have the first hand observation of you at your baseline behavior.
There is no cut and dried answer . Mental health is complicated. I'm no psychiatrist nor mental health expert . But the best I can say is that nobody knows the state of my mind more than I do and to some extent the people who are in the best possible position to observe me at my baseline behavior. Behavior pattern is the dominant criteria used to diagnose mental health disorders among other physiological and clinical ones .
Hence it is in my best interest to mind or pay close attention to what I think, how I feel and what I do with that everyday .
Besides what is mental health? And what does it mean to be mentally healthy?
I would bet everyone has a different definition. The medical literature is very broad in it's definition and discussion of mental health and mental behavioral disorders and list what it considers mental health disorders on a very wide spectrum and scale.