Mental health is usually discussed in relation to common triggers like stress, trauma, genetics, or chemical imbalances. However, many hidden factors can also play a significant role in shaping our psychological well-being. These lesser-known influences may silently affect our mood, cognition, and overall mental stability without us even realizing it.
While some of these elements can’t be conveniently replaced or addressed — like a genetic predisposition towards a mental health issue – it can assist to understand underlying issues that contribute to the challenges we’re currently facing. And for underlying conditions that are within our control to address or change, it’s helpful to understand them and see if we can play a more active role in taking care of our mental health.
Habitual Factors can affect mental health
The Role of Sleep Deprivation in Emotional Instability
Lack of sleep doesn’t just make you tired—it alters brain chemistry. Sleep deprivation is connected to increased irritability, anxiety, and even hallucinations in extreme cases.
Caffeine and Sugar: Silent Saboteurs of Mental Health
Excess coffee and sugar cause spikes and crashes in energy levels, leading to mood swings, irritability, and stress. While there is a provision of temporary boosts, they may negatively impact mental health in the long run.
Multitasking and Its Effect on Brain Function
Constantly juggling multiple tasks may overload the brain, reducing focus and increasing stress levels. The human brain isn’t wired for excessive multitasking, and attempting it too often can lead to mental fatigue and burnout.
Lack of Creative Expression and Emotional Suppression
Engaging in creative activities like painting, writing, or playing music serves as an emotional outlet. Suppressing creativity can lead to frustration and increased emotional distress over time.
Biological and Physiological Factors can affect mental health
Gut-Brain Connection and Mental Well-Being
Your emotional state is greatly influenced by the condition of your stomach. Millions of neurons that connect to the brain are found in the gut. Depression and anxiety may be exacerbated by poor gut health brought on by an unbalanced diet.
Unknown Nutritional Deficits That Lead to Mood Variations
Mood swings, impatience, and brain fog can result from deficiencies in important minerals such as magnesium, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and B vitamins. Your mental health may suffer if you are deficient in certain vital nutrients, even if your diet appears to be balanced.
Hormonal Imbalances and Their Subtle Effects on Mental Health
Hormones control mood, and even slight variations in cortisol, estrogen, or thyroid hormones can result in anxiety, despair, or fogginess. Hormonal changes during menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and menopause, in particular, cause changes in women’s mental health.
Chronic Inflammation and Its Link to Depression
Persistent low-grade inflammation in the body has been connected to mental health disorders. Conditions like obesity, autoimmune diseases, and poor dietary choices contribute to chronic inflammation, which may lead to increased risks of depression and cognitive decline..
Realistic explanatory style
People with depression tend to explain things either pessimistically or realistically. Very often, however, their way of explaining things to themselves leads them to greater helplessness, self-isolation, and withdrawal.
- According to multiple research studies in positive psychology, an optimistic explanatory style tends to help you feel happier.
- Recent studies revealed that a pessimistic explanatory style has been linked to greater depression, especially when social support is low.
Vitamin D deficiency
I ask my patients with depressed moods to have their physician rule out vitamin D deficiency. Far too often, vitamin D deficiency mimics depression and goes untreated.
- In a recent large-scale study, a sample of adults aged 18-65 from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety(NESDA), including 1,102 with current depression and 790 with remitted depressive disorder, as well as 494 healthy adults, had their serum levels of vitamin D evaluated.
- Of these, a third (33.6%) had deficient or insufficient serum D. As compared with the healthy adults.
- The lowest D levels were found in participants with current depression, particularly in those with the most severe symptoms.
- In their studied sample of currently depressed people, low vitamin D was associated with more severe symptoms of depression at a 2-year follow-up!
- Low vitamin D levels may create a real vulnerability for depression, so if you’re depressed, get your vitamin D levels checked.
Medication
Depression can be a side effect of many medicines. The patient information leaflet (PIL) in the packet with your medication can tell you whether depression is a side effect. Or you could ask your doctor or pharmacist about any side effects.
If you think medication is causing your depression, you can talk to your doctor about taking an alternative. This is especially if you’re expecting your treatment to last for a long time.
We can’t always change the factors that influence our mental health, but we can get support to make them more manageable. Mental health professionals are trained to help us understand our unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences that shape our well-being. They can also guide us in creating a plan to navigate challenges more effectively.
Do not hesitate to seek assistance if you are experiencing mental health issues or are feeling overburdened by any of these covert pressures. You don’t have to face it alone; there is support available. For a free, private consultation, speak with a qualified counselor right now.