What Is Mental Health? - A.J.
Mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
Good mental health helps people make healthy choices, reach personal goals, develop healthy relationships, and cope with stress.
Poor mental health means people find it difficult to manage how they feel, think, act, or cope with stress. Poor mental health is not the same as mental illness, though. Mental illnesses are mental, behavioural, or emotional disorders that may not result in any impairment or may result to mild, moderate, or severe impairment that may limit or interfere with function in different areas of life.
It is important for people living with HIV to know that they have a higher chance of developing mood, anxiety, and cognitive disorders.
One of the most common mental health conditions that people with HIV face is depression. Depression can range from mild to severe, and the symptoms of depression can affect your day-to-day life. Both HIV-related medical conditions and HIV medications can contribute to depression. It is important to remember that mental disorders are treatable and people can recover.
For people with HIV, taking care of both physical and mental health are important.
People living with HIV are at a greatly increased risk of developing mental health conditions, often suffering from depression and anxiety as they adjust to their diagnosis, adapt to living with a chronic infectious disease and the stress associated with living with HIV. People living with mental health problems can also be at higher risk of HIV.
Situations that can contribute to mental health problems in people with HIV include:
Difficulty in telling others about an HIV diagnosis
Stigma and discrimination associated with HIV
Loss of social support and isolation
Difficulty in getting mental health services
In people living with HIV, HIV infection and related opportunistic infections can affect the brain and the rest of the nervous system. This may lead to changes in how a person thinks and behaves. In addition, some medicines used to treat HIV may have side effects that affect a person's mental health.
Some of the signs that can tell you have mental health concern are changes in how you feel or act. For example, potential signs of depression include:
Losing interest in activities that are usually enjoyable
Experiencing persistent sadness, hopelessness, feeling empty, or an overwhelming sense of pessimism
Feeling anxious or stressed
Having suicidal or injurious thoughts
Sleeping too much or too little
Changes in appetite and eating habits
Persistent worries or worries that you can’t get rid of
Racing thoughts
Frequent nightmares
Inability to recover from personal loss
Drug or alcohol use that is interfering with your life.
If you have any of these signs, it is important to get help. As a person living with HIV, you can manage mental health problems by talking to your health care provider about how you are feeling, and whether you’re having any problems with drugs, alcohol, eating or sleeping.
A.J.’s next blog will share some more ideas about how to get help and how to improve your mental health through self-care activities.
References include: Medical Management of HIV infection by John G Bartlett M.D (2012) and Social Support and HIV-Related Stigma on Depression by Chinedu Umeadi.
