Quality of Life

No one ever wakes up and says “Hey, just for fun, I think I’ll find some treatment for my mental health and addiction recovery.” Treatment is something most people wait to seek until someone else asks them to or they have hit rock bottom. These don’t have to be the only options, though. When you suspect that you might need help because your mental health is beyond your own capabilities to manage, you can seek help before you hit rock bottom. It is a matter of choosing quality of life.

What is Quality of Life?

Your quality of life is the extent to which you are healthy, comfortable, and happy. It does not mean you are perfect, or even that you have everything you ever wanted in life. Rather, it is based on your ability to function every day, to get along with others in your life, and very specifically your overall mental health.

Mental health includes your emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health is determined by how you think, feel, act, manage stress, get along with others, and make choices within your life. 

While there are plenty of people who are not functioning at 100 percent in some of these areas, things such as depression, anxiety, and substance use can greatly impair our ability to function at home, school, or work. Even when our sleep or eating habits are impaired, we may need to seek help. You don’t need to wait to get help until your health and safety or the health and safety of others is at risk. You can get help now to ensure your quality of life.

When to Seek Help

Seeking treatment before your life completely derails means that, above all else, your life doesn’t completely derail. That means you are less likely to need to interrupt school or work, and you don’t make bigger mistakes that bring you more regret. You can stop the train, so to speak, before your life turns into a train wreck. You don’t need to wait to see how bad things get, you can act now and save you and your loved ones a world of hurt.

Seeking help for quality of life versus seeking help in crisis also means that your treatment can be more effective. If you do not wait until your brain is in crisis mode, you are more likely to respond more quickly to treatment. Most treatment is more effective when you are engaged and willing to seek healing. If you are actively seeking treatment for your quality of life, then you are already engaged and ready to help yourself.

Before It Is Too Late

The oft unspoken message in when to get help is that depression, anxiety, substance use, and other mental health issues can lead to death. When you lack mental health, behaviors can lead to accidents, overdose, or suicide. Those are risks that are not worth taking. Your life is always worth saving, whether you realize it or not. Rather than risk everything, isn’t it better to seek treatment now, for quality of life? Or even just for life itself?

If you are feeling like you might harm yourself, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for immediate support by calling, texting, or chatting 988.

Sometimes, when we are depressed, our brains function a little bit like a short circuit might, and they are sending us only negative messages. At a certain point, your brain, which was built to help you survive, may send messages that your life does not matter. But it absolutely does. If only we could see the impact our lives have on all those around us – family members, friends, teachers, co-workers, neighbors, and more. You have a place in this world, and you are meant to survive this and possibly many other challenges. That is why it is so important to seek help now, before it is too late.

Restoring Sanity

If you do not want to get treatment for your own quality of life, then consider the quality of life of those around you. Your mental health does not only affect you. It affects all those around you who are impacted by you and your actions. When you lack mental health, it causes others to lack mental health, too. Those who truly love you will also be worried about you. There is a ripple effect around you that you may not be able to see when you are not healthy, but what you do affects a lot of other people. For the sake of restoring the sanity of both you and those around you, you should seek treatment sooner rather than later.

Perhaps you have never thought about your quality of life. It is easy to get caught up in our lifestyles and to think that this is the way our lives have to be. But you can always find ways to improve your quality of life, especially when it comes to your mental health. You are more likely to realize you need help when your life is only mildly to moderately impaired, so don’t wait until it gets any worse.

Your life is worth living. You deserve to have mental health. You deserve a quality of life that doesn’t interrupt even the most basic activities like school, work, family life, and sleep. You can change the course of your life and restore your quality of life by seeking treatment now.

This article is for informational purposes only and not to be considered medical advice. If your child is having a mental health emergency, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for immediate support by calling, texting, or chatting 988. You can also text HOME to 741741 -the Crisis Text Line- from anywhere in the country to talk with a trained crisis counselor.

Find your quality of life today. Call Embark Behavioral Health 1-855-809-0409 today. Find out for yourself why mental health does not need to include any more detours.