Taking a stand on what influences mental health
A long time ago, I was given a piece of advice that was as essential as it was difficult to follow. I was told that to become clear on what I stand for means understanding, some people will be aligned with me. And others will be repelled.
Because the alternative doesn’t work. Trying to be everything for everyone, leaves you being right for no one. And while this seems pretty like a pretty simple sentiment, the desire to help can make it difficult to knowingly stand against another’s beliefs.
This is a stance that places me firmly in opposition to a lot of long-held beliefs surrounding mental health.
And I’m entirely okay with that.
Nutrition is the most overlooked factor in mental health.
My professional experience in mental health is not in the clinical space. I worked for an NGO specializing in social inclusion, with roots were in the disability sector. I had the opportunity to develop and grow the services we offered in social and community integration to directly focus on mental health.
It was an exciting time in the mental health space in Western Australia. We had a newly formed Mental Health Commission, and the landscape of both clinical and social understanding of mental health was changing.
Changing times in mental health
On the one hand, there was the traditional approach to mental illness. This can be best summed up by the commonly used analogy ‘someone with mental illness, not taking medication is like someone with diabetes not taking insulin. It’s a genetic problem, but with the right medication, it can be managed for life.’
At the same time, a different approach to mental health was starting to be understood in WA, as it had long since been adopted in other parts of the world. The new model often assumes that mental illness was caused by traumatic life experiences and uses a person-centred approach to treatment. It can be summed up by the statement ‘people can and do recover from mental illness.’
NOTE: Causes and approaches for treatment for mental illness are topics with significant depth and detail not addressed in this piece. For more information, have a look here and here.
Now, the details of these two concepts have been debated at length. I know, because I was there for a lot of these debates over the years. And as time passed, the discussions got more heated and more polarized. Reaching a point where many professionals on either side of the conversation were unwilling to acknowledge the other as having a place in any individual’s recovery journey.
When the other shoe dropped
I remember clearly the day the other shoe dropped for me. It was at another seminar, where we had another powerful speaker talking about recovery. Sitting next to me was an Occupational Therapist who was nodding along with the speaker’s statements. After the presentation concluded, we got to talking, and I said to him ‘I believe in so much of what she says, but I just don’t feel that life experiences or genetics are the only factor in mental health.’
The OT turned to me and said without missing a beat, ‘It’s because you’ve been deceived by the system, and you don’t understand recovery.’
My story is a topic for another time, but it would be sufficient to say my personal experience with mental health and well-being did not align with those statements.
The funny part is this OT – he’s a great person. In the years following this conversation, he went on to do big things in the space of mental health and social inclusion.
The missing piece
For the next five years, I battled with that question. Because neither sat right with me. The idea that the ONLY cause of mental illnesses is either a genetic issue that could only ever be managed with medication, or that it was based entirely on past traumatic experiences.
To me, both missed a significant factor by only focusing on the illness.
What about prevention? What about leading a lifestyle that supported mental health?
Why do we wait until it’s illness?
We have come to accept the truth that lifestyle factors could improve the mental health of someone with a lived experience of mental illness.
But my question was this ‘why do we have to wait until we are unwell to focus on our mental health?’
It’s not the case with physical health (or at least it would be fair to say we all know we shouldn’t wait until we are unwell).
Just like eating a heart-healthy diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, were their factors that could improve brain health and reduce the risk of mental illness?
And it turns out the answer is yes.
What else can impact mental health?
The following factors can heavily influence mental health
- Nutrition
- Sleep
- Physical Activity
It is my opinion that the most undervalued of those three is nutrition.
And the great news is this – the importance of nutrition for mental health is not just my opinion!
Causal, not caused by
Research out of Deakin University at the Centre for Food & Mood has found that nutrition has a causal impact on mental health. And that’s big news. Because until recently, the involvement of food and mood centred around food behaviours caused by mental illness.
And while this is true, it turns out these are only compounding factors.
The findings that the relationship between food and mental health is causal means that even when you remove all the other variables that influence individual mental health, food, and nutrition, can affect mental wellness.
It can be a cause of good or bad mental health.
Now that’s amazing.
An easier first step for wellness
Because even if you get back to the two broad examples, I gave earlier. Genetics as the cause of mental illness. Traumatic life experiences as the cause of mental illness. If we allow ourselves to accept the idea they might not be the only factors, suddenly we have options. Genetics are hard to change, and finding the right medication can be difficult and take years. Recovering from past or current trauma is also no small task.
But food? That’s a lot easier to change. There are, of course, barriers, but making healthy food choices can start right away. Choices that fit alongside whatever other treatments or interventions are being used.
Making healthy food choices to support mental health is available to everyone. It doesn’t have to be the only thing you do for your mental health. But it might be the one thing that makes a difference.
