Finding the strategy or strategies that help you frame your thinking so that you can live more comfortably day to day is key to safeguarding and improving your mental health. Although it might take some time to discover what works best, it’s essential to your well-being and overall quality of life that you find coping strategies. Below are five techniques that many people have found helpful.
- Relaxation techniques – Considered particularly effective in stress management, these techniques fall mostly into three categories:
- Autogenic relaxation –In this technique, you use both visual imagery and body awareness to reduce stress. You imagine a peaceful scene, like watching the ocean, and focus on controlled and deep breathing, feeling the effects of slowing your heart rate and relaxing each part of your body.
- Progressive muscle relaxation –This technique helps you focus on the difference between muscle tension and relaxation. First, you slowly tense and then relax each muscle group in 30 second intervals, then
- Visualization –This involves forming mental images that take you on a visual journey to a peaceful, calming place or situation.
- Meditation – Many have found that taking the time out each day to do some form of meditation has a calming effect on their mind. Meditation, like relaxation techniques, also has proven physical health benefits – like lowering blood pressure.
- Keep a journal – Writing is an effective way for some to deal with their intense emotions as well as work through problems troubling them. The act of putting what you are feeling on paper (or on your computer screen) often has both a cathartic and calming effect.
- Join a support group – Joining with others who struggle with the same issues as you can be helpful as well. Chances are good that you will find numerous opportunities in your community to join groups that focus on a wide range of needs, including addiction, mental illnesses and more. Groups that are led by professional counselors are particularly effective. They are considered a safe place for people to discuss the traumas, setbacks, triggers, and struggles that are often related to dealing with all types of mental illness. A good support group will help address the current and ongoing issues of its members so they are better equipped to deal with them.
- Learn about the illness – Understanding the nature of the illness or disorder you live with is a good first step toward feeling more in control of it. There are many outlets that provide information about mental health and coping strategies, as well as opportunities to attend workshops and seminars that provide information and coping strategy suggestions.
At Advantage Mental Health Center, we offer support groups, workshops and seminars designed to aid adults who are facing mental health issues, such as anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. We help them move their lives forward and attain a level of personal happiness and fulfillment in a safe, empathic and confidential environment that will assist in coping with life’s greatest challenges to improve your mental health. We specialize in working with alcoholism, addictions, and recovery issues. Additionally, we work with mental health issues, trauma, and relationship difficulties.
We use several therapeutic approaches, including cognitive-behavioral, strengths-based, and dialectical behavioral techniques. Our mission is to provide quality mental health services so you feel comfortable to heal, improve, and change what you can through psychotherapy. We want to help you take the steps necessary to improve your mental health.
Advantage Mental Health Center has several counselors on staff who are experts in a wide range of specialties. If you’re feeling disconnected from your loved ones because of trauma, suffering from an addiction, or are concerned about your overall mental health, contact us today to discuss your needs and schedule an evaluation with one of our trained therapists.