Chapter 7

According to www.mind.org.uk, "If you're having problems sleeping, you might: be more likely to feel anxious, depressed or suicidal. be more likely to have psychotic episodes – poor sleep can trigger mania, psychosis or paranoia, or make existing symptoms worse." nedc.com.au, "How does starvation affect mental health? Emotional and Cognitive changes: Depression, anxiety, irritability, increased mood fluctuations, intense and negative emotional reactions, decreased enthusiasm, reduced motivation, impaired concentration, problem solving and comprehension, increased rigidity, obsessional thinking and reduced alertness." wamu.org, "Just as the heart, lungs and other organs weaken and shrivel without food, eventually so does the brain. The concern for children is that their brains are still developing and any loss of function due to starvation could be permanent." and bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com, "Low vitamin D levels were found to correlate with major depression [7] and premenstrual mood symptoms in women [8], and mood disorders and cognitive impairment in older adults [9]. Two randomized controlled trials (RCT) have shown that raising vitamin D levels improved depression." It has been proven that eating, sleeping, and getting sunshine have been directly tied to mental health. But I know for many people eating and motivation can be challenging. I suffer from motivation issues and have suffered from disordered eating in the past. But one fact about eating is that the more you starve yourself, the more fat your body stores for when it doesn't get enough, so say you lose 10 pounds because of disordered eating, you'll gain back 15 then next time you eat again. If you want to lose weight you should eat more protein and healthy foods, and work out for reasonable amounts of time. Starvation destroys your mental state and your physical state and can lead to nutrient deficiency and death. So please eat and drink water, the lack of water can also affect mental health, but too much in too little amounts of time can have serious effects on your body and can even lead to death. Too little of something is bad but too much is too. Please keep everything in moderation. The next chapter will be covering codependency. Thank you for reading My Journey Through Mental Health, Going Through it Together. Please remember to collect and comment on or review this book.