When it comes to your health, it isn’t just the physical bit that makes you a healthy person. Rather, your emotional health also needs to be taken care of. Being emotionally healthy will help you function better. In fact, emotional and mental health go hand-in-hand. Hence, if your emotional health is not in the best place, it will negatively affect your mental health as well.
So we talked to Dr Bhavna Barmi, a renowned Delhi-based clinical psychologist, to understand the signs of poor emotional health that can help you seek help when needed.
But first, why is taking care of our emotional health so important?
“Emotional health conditions are common and widespread as they are an intrinsic as well as a necessary part of everything that we do, from our daily life to our long term goals,” says Dr Barmi. “If we are not able to think rationally and behave appropriately, we can spiral down into poor coping mechanisms and poor emotional functioning. This can result in us feeling vulnerable and unable to think, feel, or act in ways we want to,” she adds.
Emotional health entails being able to process certain emotions and understanding as well as reacting according to your feelings. Hence, emotional health has a lot to do with changing moods. Here are some signs of poor emotional health we all need to look out for, according to the expert:
1. Anger
Anger can be a very destructive emotion and when you’re not feeling emotionally healthy, you may experience more of it. Says Dr Barmi, “There can be anger, irritability, short temper, and displacement of anger.”
2. Feeling hopeless
Nothing is the end of the world and we can always change our circumstances with our actions as long as we make that effort required to turn things in our favour. Poor emotional health, can, however, make you believe that you can’t. Our expert tells us that, “Feeling low and depressive/dysthymic mood with ideas of helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness take over when you have poor emotional health.”
3. Losing interest in your favourite activities
We all have activities that we like doing. It could be working out but it could also be something as simple as watching television. When you lose interest in these, it points to something deeper. Dr Barmi mentions that feeling “lack of happiness in originally pleasurable activities” can point to emotional distress.
4. Becoming socially distant
Not being healthy emotionally can lead to distancing yourself socially even from people you felt a genuine connection with, be it friends or family or a romantic interest. The doctor notes that “being aloof in even relationships that were once close bonded” could mean that your emotional health needs attention.
5. Hampered productivity
Talking about another aspect of poor emotional health, Dr Barmi says, “losing interest in routine work and not even prioritizing urgent works that need to be done points to poor emotional health.”
Erratic thinking, chronic anxiety sometimes leading to panic as well as phobias, an exaggerated sense of loss of self-worth, impulsive actions, and difficulty in decision making along with poor concentration are some other signs of poor emotional health.
If these are some of the things you’re experiencing, it is best you visit a professional to figure out how to make your emotional health better.
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