Factors that can affect your mental health

"Loneliness is feeling sad about being by yourself, particularly over a long period of time. Isolation is being separated from other people and your environment. Loneliness can sometimes be felt even in relationships or when surrounded by people."¹

Feelings of loneliness and/or isolation are something that most people experience at some time in their lives. These feelings are normal and usually pass but if they don’t go away and last for a long time, it can have a negative impact on your mental health and wellbeing.²

There are many reasons why people feel lonely or isolated. Some reasons may include:

• relocation or death of your spouse, family member, partner or friend
• living on your own
• poor family connection
• difficulties socialising and feeling like you don’t belong
• feelings of loss or grief
• poor physical health or frailty
• mental health issues or conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety)
• unable to participate in activities due to illness, mobility or transport issues
• retirement from work
• a lack of purpose or meaning in life
• language barriers or reduced connections with your culture.³

What can you do?

Don’t give up, staying connected with your community, family and friends can make a difference to how you feel.

Try the following or visit ways to look after your mental health:

• Catch-up with family or friends you may have lost touch with. Make the first move; don’t wait for others to get in touch with you. If they live far away, try calling, emailing, text messaging etc.⁴
• Get out and about – if you are able to go out, attending social activities, exercising, visiting people, going to the shops or library are all ways that may help.
• Take care of yourself - remember to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep and reduce or avoid alcohol and other drug use.
• Find and join activities where you can meet other people with the same interests - this may include starting a new hobby, joining a club or volunteering. You are less likely to feel isolated and alone when you are doing things you enjoy with other people.^{5 6}

For information on what you can do and how to stay connected, look on the news and events page, Act-Belong-Commit website⁷ or the Do Something Near You website.

Grief is a natural response to loss.

Examples of loss may include:

• death of a loved one
• the end of a relationship
• a miscarriage
• loss of a job
• losing a way of life
• children leaving home
• infertility
• separation from friends and family.⁸

There is no right or wrong way to experience loss, or to grieve and we can experience it in many ways with a wide range of emotions such as:

• shock – especially if the loss is unexpected
• sadness
• anger
• anxiety
• regret
• feeling overwhelmed
• guilt.^{14 9}

Grief is something that takes time to work through. Everyone experiences grief in their own way and feelings of grief can last for weeks, months or even years. It is important to have support of friends, family or those you trust that you can talk to when you need. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If your grief lasts longer than six months and affects your work, health and relationships with others and there is no sign of improvement, consider visiting your GP for support.

For more information about grief and loss, visit beyondblue or visit the support services section on this website.

Domestic and family violence is when you feel unsafe, powerless or afraid due to the actions of someone close to you.¹⁰ According to Lifeline, domestic and family violence behaviour can include:¹¹

• Physical harm - threats of self/physical harm, smashing things, hurting pets
• Social - controlling where you go and who you see
• Stalking – repeated threatening or harassing behaviour such as following someone, making excessive phone calls, texts or emails to them
• Emotional and psychological harm - humiliation, put downs and blaming
• Financial - strict or unfair control of money
• Verbal - name calling, yelling
• Sexual assault - and rape
• Spiritual or cultural - controlling practices or choices.¹²

Non-physical forms of assault can be just as damaging as physical assaults. If you feel disrespected, unable to be yourself, afraid to disagree or negotiate for what you want, this may be a sign of domestic and family violence.¹⁴

• For more information related to domestic and family violence visit Lifeline or the Department of Human Services.

Help and support

If you are in crisis right now, call 000.

If you need to speak to a professional counselor call 1800 RESPECT, a national family violence and sexual assault counselling service. Call this free, confidential service, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week on 1800 737 732 to speak with a professional counselor.

For Perth metropolitan area women’s refuges go to womenscouncil.com.au/womens-refuges.html

For rural and remote women's refuges go to womenscouncil.com.au/rural--remote-refuges.html

For help visit our Support Services page.

Bullying is when a person is repeatedly and intentionally subjected to verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm.¹³ 

Bullying can happen to anyone, anywhere. It can be in schools, at home, at work, in online social spaces, via text messaging or via email.

There is a national definition of bullying for Australian schools that says:

Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.¹⁷

Workplace bullying is repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety.¹⁴

No matter what form bullying takes, everyone’s experience is different and it can affect every part of their life including their mental health and wellbeing. Many people who experience bullying feel powerless and alone and may be fearful of what the bully may do next if they tell someone. However, people who don’t talk about what is happening can become more and more isolated, which may lead to an increased risk of experiencing mental health issues. ^{15 16}

Take action

When taking action to try and stop bullying, it is important to look after yourself and get support. The following tips may help:

• ask them to stop
• walk away and don’t respond to them
• talk to someone
• keep a diary
• report the bullying
• get support from friends, family or someone you trust.²⁰

Further Information

Visit ReachOut, headspace, Bullying. No Way! or Heads up for more information and support about bullying and how to prevent or respond to bullying. 

Support

It can help to talk to someone you trust. If you are worried about what will happen, talk to someone who is completely separate from the situation. If this doesn’t help, try talking to your GP or contacting a support service.

Unemployment, redundancy, loss of a business, large investment losses or other financial loss can have a negative impact on your mental health.¹⁷ In these circumstances, it is normal to experience a range of emotions and problems including:

• difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep
• anger, irritability, frustration, shock, sadness etc
• feelings of embarrassment or guilt
• distancing yourself from others and not socialising as much as usual
• loss of direction, feeling overwhelmed, anxious, powerless or fearful.¹⁸ 

For most people these feelings decrease or disappear with time. To manage these, try the following tips on ways to look after your mental health and wellbeing. However, if after trying these tips, these feelings still don’t seem to be going away and they’re impacting your life, you may find it helpful to talk to someone you trust or your GP.

Looking after yourself

Looking after your mental health and wellbeing will help you manage the stress and worry of unemployment or business loss. There are simple and practical things you can do to look after your mental health and wellbeing during this time.⁵

Take it one day at a time

These situations can make you feel like there is too much to cope with all at once. Focus on the here and now and trust that you will have what it takes to cope with tomorrow. Plan your day so that at the end of it you will feel you have achieved something, however small. ¹⁹ 

Stay positive and keep up your energy

It can be helpful to focus on the future and the things that are within your control. There are things you can do to help you move forward, such as:

• Maintaining a regular daily routine can provide many benefits such as a sense of
  greater control of things in your life, a sense of purpose and assist in maintaining focus on important things. It also allows you to build time into your day to maintain your mental health and wellbeing;
• Making a job search plan;
• Writing a list of activities or little things you can do that make you feel good;
• Writing a list of the positive things you’ve achieved, skills you have and things you’ve done well; and
• Rather than worrying about things you can’t control, work out a list of things you can do such as learning new skills to improve your employment options.

For more information visit Centrelink.²⁰

Talk about it and ask for help

Talk about your feelings and the stress you are under with family, friends or people you trust. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to people close to you call a helpline, see a counsellor or your G.P.. For more information go to Support Services.

Help with financial concerns

• For income support while you are looking for work visit Centrelink.²¹
• For free advice on home loan repayments, or credit card repayments or other financial hardships call Consumer Credit Legal Service (WA) Inc. on (08) 92217066 or visit the Advice drop down box on their website.²² 

Get legal aid and advice

If you have a legal problem, talk to a solicitor early in the process. If you cannot afford a solicitor, contact Legal Aid.

Support Resource

beyondblue’s resource titled ‘Taking care of yourself after retrenchment or financial loss’, is designed to provide steps, practical tips and useful contacts to help you work through your situation and regain a sense of control.²²

A good night’s sleep is essential to our mental and physical health and wellbeing. A lack of sleep can have a major impact on our mood, concentration, memory and quality of life.²⁹ Good quality sleep is about the amount of ‘deep sleep’ a person gets, not the length of sleep.³⁰

From time-to-time everybody experiences problems with sleeping. This can include having trouble getting to sleep or waking up frequently and not being able to get back to sleep.

The Sleep Health Foundation recommends ‘Ten Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep’ being:

1. have a regular sleep pattern
2. spend the right amount of time in bed
3. bed is for sleeping, not entertainment
4. wind down and relax before going to bed
5. make sure your bedroom is comfortable
6. alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes – to be avoided, particularly prior to going to bed
7. avoid daytime naps
8. don’t lie awake watching the clock – get up and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy again
9. avoid sleeping pills except in exceptional circumstances
10. you may need professional help.³¹

Sleep can be disrupted for a number of reasons. However, if these sleeping problems last for weeks or months and these tips don’t seem to be working, it is important to talk to your GP who can assist you with addressing these sleeping problems or looking into whether you may have a sleep disorder.

Stages of life

There are times across your life when you are more vulnerable to experiencing mental health issues. These times are related to major changes in your life or when you are transitioning from one stage of life to another, which may place extra stress on you.

Changes such as pregnancy and becoming a new parent, starting school or changing schools, the teenage years, entering the workforce and retirement are times throughout life when you may need some extra support or information about how to cope.

Some examples of these life stages include:

• Pregnancy, becoming a new parent (including postnatal depression) 
  • Becoming a parent can be an exciting time but also be very challenging and physically demanding.
  • Check out our support tools or visit beyondblue for more information and support.
• Childhood years – starting schools, changing schools and the move to high school
  • The beginning of school is a time of transition for both parents and child. With your child now engaging in a completely new environment with a different set of expectations to their home life.
  • They are learning a whole new set of social skills, such as how to get along with others and how to be resilient when they don’t get what they want.
  • For more information on how to support your children at this time visit beyondblue or if you need more help contact the school psychologist or talk to your GP.
• Teenage years
  • Transition from primary school to high school is another big step, with a new environment and a new set of expectations.
  • In your teenage years you experience a range of emotions. Events such as new relationships, studying for exams, starting a new job and figuring out your friendship group can be challenging.
  • During this time, following puberty, the brain is also going through a critical time of development which affects emotions, decision making, controlling impulses, anticipating consequences of behaviour and the ability to take-in information and understand it, then set goals and plan.³² 
  • If these issues are affecting you, for more information visit beyondblue and headspace or check out these tips and tools.
• Adults (18 to 65 years)
  • Moving into the adult world can bring its own set of stresses, deciding what you want to do when leaving school, whether to do tertiary study, and what to study or searching for a job.
  • Negotiating the adult world with new freedoms and responsibilities can be challenging.
  • Developing relationships, starting a family, getting married and long hours of work all bring stresses that can impact on your mental health.
  • For information visit beyondblue. For help on relationships visit Relationships Australia WA or check out tips and tools on how to cope with everyday life. For assistance with mental health issues find out how your GP can help or go to the support services page.
• Older adults (over 65 years) and retirement
  • Getting older brings its share of challenges, and you may find it difficult to look after your mental health and wellbeing at times.
  • If feelings like sadness or worry are preventing you from getting the most out of life, help and support is available for seniors with mental health issues.
  • Check out these tips and tools on what you can do to look after your mental health. For more information visit beyondblue. If these tips and information don’t work then your GP can help.

Major life events

Everybody experience ups and downs in their lives. These could be due to the stress brought about by major events that occur in life such as:

• financial worries
• job loss
• a death
• an accident or long term injury
• breakdown of a relationship.

Sometimes even happy events like the birth of a baby, moving interstate or overseas, planning a wedding or retirement can be stressful and result in you feeling down.

If you feel like these life events are affecting your mental health. Try these tips and tools or visit Support Services.

During difficult times in life, people sometimes turn to alcohol or other drugs to help them cope. There is a strong link between alcohol and other drug use and mental health issues.

People may use alcohol and other drugs as a coping mechanism for their mental health issues. ^{33 34}

Alcohol and other drug use can also cause anxiety, depression, paranoia and psychosis in those people who have a vulnerability to mental health issues.^{35 36}

Alcohol and other drug use changes the way you behave, feel and make decisions. Whilst someone may use alcohol or other drugs because they think it makes them feel better in the short-term, they actually can leave you feeling worse in the long-term, especially if you already have an existing mental health issue.

Alcohol and other drug use can impact your mental health in a number of ways. This includes:

• affecting your mood in the longer term
• impacting on other coping skills
• affecting relationships
• undermining self-esteem
• increasing likelihood of self-harm and suicide in those at-risk. 

Help and support

The Alcohol and Drug Support Service provides free, 24/7, non-judgemental telephone, counselling, information, referral and support lines for alcohol and other drug use or for anyone concerned about a loved one’s alcohol or other drug use.

For information on alcohol and your health visit: www.alcoholthinkagain.com.au.

For information on drugs and your health visit: www.drugaware.com.au.

For information on tobacco and your health visit: www.makesmokinghistory.org.au