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Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#51
post #48
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, ancients managed to find damn good heuristics without all our knowledge and science. And we entire have a country proud of their universities, you know, ivy league branding and stuff, and they can't even take over the baton, just reprinting old books. [I mean the mental firmware to not get broken. When it is really broken, I feel often it might be hard to climb out without a dedicated help of a _psychiatrist_.]

I believe research related to mental health is lagging. While ancient therapies may have been effective in the past, we're now living in a completely different age, and coping strategies and treatments need to advance accordingly. It can be very challenging to fix things when they are truly broken. That's why starting with mental well-being is crucial for taking control of it and building resilience. Don't wait until…

Well, I'd argue that fundamental things changed at all. On the contrary, humans got rid of their usual stressors like death, hunger or sickness. So maintaining mental health should be _easier_.

The new things of 21th century might me discipline of dealing with unnatural abundance of pleasure/information/change/people, but simple countermeasures already pop into my head without too much thinking, like abstaining from read news or social media.

Or learning to ignore the cultural values spread by random people around. Homo sapiens are known for unconscious masochism by accepting harmful values and proudly battling them :-) I moved to Southern Europe, and I find it funny that people here are more joyful and content despite they earn less $$$ than citizens of depressed hardworking superpowers. Of course, they may have their own problems, but even on the subconscious level their facial expressions or postures perceived as noticeably relaxed.

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#52
post #51
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe research related to mental health is lagging. While ancient therapies may have been effective in the past, we're now living in a completely different age, and coping strategies and treatments need to advance accordingly. It can be very challenging to fix things when they are truly broken. That's why starting with mental well-being is crucial for taking control of it and building resilience. Don't wait until…

Well, I'd argue that fundamental things changed at all. On the contrary, humans got rid of their usual stressors like death, hunger or sickness. So maintaining mental health should be _easier_. The new things of 21th century might me discipline of dealing with unnatural abundance of pleasure/information/change/people, but simple countermeasures already pop into my head without too much thinking, like abstaining from…

I agree, fundamental things haven't changed much. However, cultural and social factors significantly impact our mental health. There is research available on these social factors if you Google it. The US, with its advanced economy, science, and technology, being an immigrant country, has benefited from life sciences and medical advancements. Despite this, we grapple with a society that is more complex than most. For instance, a less family-oriented culture and individuals with more mobility mean we receive less support. While support is a crucial factor in counseling treatment. This leads me to think that learning coping strategies through many single one-session counseling sessions might be more useful and practical than opting for a long-term treatment plan that delves into the past to explore correlations :)

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#53
post #45
post #40

On-demand single session is not personalized for you, so you will just get mostly boilerplate advices. If you want to go that route, go for the long-term as you can start getting personalized advice and root cause identification. Off topic, on the question about my plans... I started cooking three years ago and that turned out to be an awesome mental exercise and mental well-being routine that takes you away from the…

Thank you for your cooking therapy :) Similarly, I like cleaning dishes LOL Cleaning dishes can be a therapeutic activity as well, providing a sense of order/clarity and helping unclutter the mind.

Well start cooking then too, you will pile up dishes. win-win :D

Re: Ask HN: How would you take care of your mental well-being?

#54

Working on my mental health involves the following: - healthy, fresh food - regular exercise - no alcohol or drugs (none) - staying on good terms with family and friends I think counsellors can be helpful if you're in the early stages of a real mental health issue. But once you've learned something like ACT (The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris) they aren't really necessary anymore.

I bought a Garmin watch (FR265) last month and it's been great in keeping me on track with my exercise routine. I don't care for its advanced features like 'training readiness' and 'sleep score' – I prefer not to rely on my watch to gauge how I feel for obvious reasons. However, I have customised my watch face to display a daily step counter and a weekly 'exercise minutes' counter [1], which tracks exercise performed at a medium to high heart rate. My target is 10,000 steps a day and 180 minutes of exercise per week. Having those stats available at a glance on my wrist has significantly helped me stay on top of them. I can recommend it! Otherwise, I've disabled all smartwatch features. 8-)

[1](https://i.imgur.com/LhJ86u2.jpeg)

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