What Is On Your Mental Health Checklist?

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Mental Health Checklist
- Ch: 2.8 of How To Get Your Sh!t Together -

““I’m a big believer in what’s called personalized medicine, which refers to customising your health care to your specific needs based on your philosophy, genetics, value system and unique conditions.”

– David Agus

When the symptoms of a mental affliction begin to arise, it is important to take action to address the problem as soon as possible. This way the severity, duration and impact of the affliction will be minimised. Unfortunately given the nature of mental illness, it is often very difficult, if not impossible to even realise that action is needed, or to develop the motivation to do so.

Often by the time you are feeling depressed or anxious, any actions taken are only ones that will prevent any further damage.

Prevention is always better than a cure. For this reason I have a handmade poster displayed in a prominent location on my wall, called my ‘Mental Health Checklist’.

It begins with the words:

“When feeling: depressed, anxious, manic or dissociated try the following. They have helped you in the past and will help you again.”

Under that it has seven categories of suggestions, each with a variety of potential options that I could try:
- Exercise: BJJ, Weights, Running, Stretching, Tai Chi
- Shock The System: Cold Shower, Sprints, Spicy Food, Music
- Nature: Sunshine, Forest Walk, Beach, Pets
- Meditate: Seated, Present State Awareness, Cleaning
- Read/Write: Read Fiction, Journal, Free Writing
- Be Logical: Explicitly State Thoughts & Compare To Statistics
- Status Check: Am I Tired? Hungry? Thirsty? Sick?
- Seek Professional Help: Talk To Your Psychologist

You will notice that the advice given in my ‘Mental Health Checklist’ all form at least one separate chapter in this book. For that reason I won’t go into the specifics benefits of each intervention, rather I will elaborate on the importance of having the ‘Mental Health Checklist’ written up and displayed.

I know myself well enough to know that left alone the symptoms of a mental health affliction will take a significant amount of time to run its course. However if I take steps to overcome it, my suffering will be significantly reduced.

Unfortunately when I am suffering, I don’t often remember this fact. The ‘Mental Health Checklist’ sits as a constant reminder to myself that I can take action against oncoming mental health afflictions.

I don’t choose to have mental illness, but I can choose how I respond to it.

The ‘Mental Health Checklist’ provides me with a collection of proven techniques that work (for me at least) to minimise the impact of mental afflictions - provided I take action and do them.

I made sure to specifically include the words ‘They have helped you in the past and will help you again’, because I know that during a bout of mental affliction, it is very easy to feel so downtrodden that it seems like nothing could possibly shift my mental state. This sentence reminds me that it is possible to get better, I just have to take action.

Finally I end my ‘Mental Health Checklist’ with the advice to myself to ‘Seek Professional Help’. For me this means booking an appointment with my psychologist. I have mentioned it before, but it is worth repeating: there is nothing to be ashamed of in seeking professional help, and the services of a good psychologist is invaluable to the recovery process.

I would like to be able to stop my descent into a mental health affliction through the prior interventions, but I am not hesitant to book in a session when needed. I would suggest that you do the same.

TAKE ACTION

Create your own ‘Mental Health Checklist’. You can use mine as a guide, but I strongly advise you to customise your own, based on what works for you.

Your checklist will always be a work in progress and should be changed and updated as you learn more techniques and experiment with what works for you at the onset of a mental health affliction.

Feel free to use the advice found in any of the chapters of this book to add to your checklist.

Once you have created your checklist, display it prominently in your house. Somewhere that you will easily see it when you need it. This checklist is all but useless if you don’t use it.

The next time that you notice the onset of a mental health affliction, go to your ‘Mental Health Checklist’ and take action to pull yourself out of it!

I like using the ‘Mental Health Checklist’ because even if the individual interventions don’t work, you are still taking an action with the intent of healing.

Sometimes this factor alone can be enough to curb some of the worst components of the mental health affliction. By using the ‘Mental Health Checklist’ you are telling yourself that you are committed to at least trying to take action to help yourself.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What if nothing gets me out of a bad mental state? I feel like I have nothing to put onto the checklist

A: It may not seem like it at the time, but there will be things that shift your mental state in one direction or another. Take a look at the advice found in chapter 3.1 ‘Express Yourself Daily’. It will provide you with the tools to be able to look back over your past in a detached manner to see what those factors are.

Everyone’s mental state can alter and can be impacted by the actions they take. Test different things out for yourself.

The next time you notice the onset of a mental affliction, rather than staying inside, go outside. Compare any differences. Then try going for a walk, eating different foods, meditation and so on. Eventually you will find interventions that work.

If this still fails, I would strongly suggest that you seek the help of a professional therapist. They will be able to look at your situation from a trained, experienced and detached perspective and will suggest interventions that you may not yet have considered.

Q: I have an intervention on my checklist that sometimes helps me, but last time I was depressed it didn’t work. Should I remove it?

A: No, not everything will work each time. For me, it really depends on the situation that I find myself in, how quickly I catch the mental affliction, as well as the underlying cause of it that seems to determine which intervention will work.

Resources
The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris

Summary
Displaying a list of self-proven interventions prominently on your wall gives you the best chance to halt the duration, intensity and impact of mental afflictions.