Non-Traditional Mental Health Approaches

Clinically speaking, fighting mental health is a long and arduous process. As such, people have been looking into alternative methods on how to address the mental health crisis and overcome it. While not as effective as the “real deal,” here are some of the most commonly used non-traditional mental health approaches.

E-Counseling

E-counseling borders on being traditional; however, due to the innovative use of modern technology, it can’t be considered traditional. E-counseling allows you to connect with counselors and therapists over the internet anywhere that you have access to the internet.

E-counseling provides many more benefits than traditional counseling. It’s more convenient, for one, and it offers much more accessibility than conventional counseling. E-counseling is often generally more affordable and is one of the only alternative approaches that can tackle mental illnesses in the same precise way as a regular therapy.

Yoga

Yoga is a holistic form of health and wellness that has been passed down from Ancient India. A comprehensive yoga practice follows an 8-branch system that provides holistic solutions for balancing the mind, body, soul, and spirit. No doubt, following a complete yoga routine would completely refresh your mental health.

What we call yoga in the West is simply one branch of this huge system: asana, or yoga postures. These postures are known to help bring about relaxation, mental calmness, and improved physical health – all of which can combat mental illness.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Meditation and mindfulness are often confused, but they’re not the same thing. Meditation is a practice that can bring about mindfulness in an individual. Mindfulness is a state of being in which one approaches reality as it is, without filters, judgments, biases, and without thinking about the past or the future.

This state of mind doesn’t give space for mental health problems to exist. Anxieties, for example, are always founded in the future – when you’re mindful and living in the moment, you won’t be thinking about the future.

Eating Healthy

Many people aren’t aware of the serious impact that your diet can have on your mental health. Eating unhealthy foods like processed carbs and refined sugars can wreak havoc on your mental health. 

The ‘rollercoaster ride’ of ups and downs, good moods and bad moods, that many people experience daily isn’t merely how life is. It’s a chain reaction caused by the consumption of carbs and sugar, two substances that almost everyone consumes multiple times daily – which are known to contribute to depression and mood instability reliably.

The first thing to do if you want to start eating healthy is to cut out the unhealthy foods. Don’t eat any refined carbs, minimize gluten, and don’t eat sugar. Once you’ve cut the bad stuff, start incorporating more vegetables and fruits.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

There are lots of reasons that we’re told to get 8 hours of sleep every night. While this number might fluctuate from person to person (some people may do fine on 7 hours, whereas others might require 8 or 9), the importance of a healthy sleep schedule cannot be stressed enough.

If you don’t get enough sleep at night, you will become sleep deprived. Symptoms of sleep deprivation can include emotional instability, anxiety, and depression. Over the long-term, these problems can become chronic and require therapy to overcome.

Conclusion

There are lots of ways that you can improve your mental health without actually needing to seek therapy. Try out some of these holistic methods and see if you feel any better.