Emotional health and well-being are just as important as your physical health and fitness levels and as such, as you grow older, it is time to devote more energy to ensuring your mental health is in good condition.
To learn more about how you can take care of your overall well-being, continue reading to learn some helpful and effective mental health tips for older adults.
4 Mental Health Tips for Older Adults to Ponder
Improve Your Daily Diet – Firstly, even though it can often seem the answer for everything is to ‘eat more vegetables and drink more water, although becoming a cliché, this is actually an excellent way to take care of your brain. In particular, leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach with your evening meal will give your brain the valuable and necessary nutrients, minerals and vitamins it needs to be healthy, strong and fully functioning.
Stay hydrated – Drinking more water will not only help with brain health and therefore, as a direct result, your mental health and well-being, but will also provide these additional benefits:
– Helps to prevent migraines and headaches
– Healthier skin that heals faster
– A more efficient digestive system
– A way to prevent kidney stones and water infections
For a plethora of different reasons, all unique to the individual, if you have recently been experiencing strange periods of forgetfulness, it could well be this is just a normal sign of ageing. However, if you are unsure as to just how ‘normal’ what you are feeling could be, then making an appointment with your medical doctor is a good idea, just to put your mind at rest. There is, of course, a huge difference between old age and the onset of a memory-based illness, but it would be comforting to remember that it is prestigious and experienced help available at memory care in Georgia.
Be Physically Active – Another hugely influential method of looking after your mental health, particularly as you grow older, is to ensure you exercise, ideally outside of your home and garden, for at least twenty minutes every day. Even though, during periods of low mood, exercising at all, let alone getting dressed and heading to your local park seems less than enticing, exercise not only releases ‘happy’ hormones in the brain, such as dopamine, but you will undoubtedly feel even slightly better once your return home.
Talk to a Professional – If you even slightly suspect that you may have developed the onset of depression, or have felt fatigued, de-motivated and generally unhappy for more than a week or so, then do not hesitate to make an appointment with your medical doctor.
Even though the subject of mental health is vastly more publicised and discussed in the media and between friends and family members these days, it is still hard, especially for older people and the elderly, to admit they have an issue with their mental health and seek help. There are myriad ways to try and help depression and frankly, you are not doing yourself justice or treating yourself with the respect you deserve if you do not try and find ways to ease these low feelings.