Improving mental health is not a one-size-fits all approach. My hope is to look at mental health issues from various angles to help provide a new perspective to others.

I am planning on doing a series of posts that take a look at various mental health issues. My intent is to break them down and make these issues easier to understand. For example, the criteria for stress and anxiety are similar, but there are some differences. Perhaps understanding these differences may help someone seek help or change something in their lives to overcome the challenges they face.

Another example of the complexity of mental health is that there are between 277 and 10,377 criteria combinations to diagnose someone with major depressive disorder (MDD). (https://eiko-fried.com/10377-ways-for-major-depression…/). What causes such a significant disparity? Much depends on how the criteria are interpreted and what threshold providers think their clients have met.

So, what does this mean? It means that we are all different people that come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, and when issues arise within our lives are presented differently. While it is helpful to realize we are all unique, this may also lead to some frustration. When it comes to our physical health it can be easier to recognize when a bone is broken or that a fever is a symptom of an underlying illness. We may recognize the difficulty of getting out of bed due to depression or an overwhelming sense of fear that anxiety brings but it can be difficult to clearly articulate how we feel, see how it affects our perceptions, understand why we react the way we are, or perhaps even know why these symptoms are occurring in the first place.

I hope to present these various mental health issues in ways that are easy to understand and apply to your own life, if applicable. I am not a great writer, so expect a lot of pictures.

Please keep in mind that these posts are to be used as a general resource and do not constitute therapeutic advice.

Please see a licensed mental health provider if you have questions or concerns about your own well-being.