{"id":1360,"date":"2023-04-11T00:22:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T00:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/?p=1360"},"modified":"2025-04-10T00:38:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T00:38:54","slug":"mental-health-symptoms-to-not-ignore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/mental-health-symptoms-to-not-ignore\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health Symptoms To Not Ignore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image alignwide uagb-block-d24b49df wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-wide\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/AdobeStock_296477925-1024x731.jpeg \" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 150px\" src=\"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/AdobeStock_296477925-1024x731.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-1362\" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\" title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:39px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There are hundreds of symptoms that can indicate a mental health issue is developing, but it can be difficult to know when to pay attention to them and when they are not a concern. Here is a relatively simple way to be able to assess whether you are experiencing mental health symptoms that you should not ignore and for which you may want to seek help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, these are the five general aspects of your life where you would be most likely to notice difficulties:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mood<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Energy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sleep<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sex drive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These five areas are highly affected by fluctuations in stress, hormones, physical health and illness, trauma, and genetic predispositions toward mental health issues.&nbsp;&nbsp;Often problems in any of these areas can affect a person\u2019s behavior and ability to function cognitively, emotionally, socially, and physically.&nbsp;&nbsp;To assess for mental health symptoms that you should not ignore, look for these 5 things within those five areas above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Extremes:<\/strong>&nbsp;For example, mood or energy too high or too low, appetite out of control or non-existent, sleeping all the time or only a few hours, hyperactive sex drive or non-existent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rapid shifts:<\/strong>&nbsp;Mood alternates between high, low, or normal rapidly. Sleep is unpredictable and shifts between insomnia and hypersomnia quickly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Abnormality:<\/strong>&nbsp;Something about your symptoms in a particular area is very different from how you normally are, or you believe it is simply not normal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dysfunction<\/strong>: It is preventing you from functioning normally in some important area of your life (work, school, home, personal life, relationships).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Concern<\/strong>: Others close to you are expressing concern about your habits, presentation, or behavior. You may not always be able to assess the first 4 things on this list accurately if there is a mental health issue occurring, so it pays to listen to those close to you and ask why they are concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr<\/em>.\u00a0<em>Anita Sanz<\/em>, PhD, Psychologist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:19px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-77b09a25 alignwide uagb-is-root-container\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:52px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:46px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<form role=\"search\" method=\"get\" action=\"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/\" class=\"wp-block-search__button-outside wp-block-search__text-button wp-block-search\"    ><label class=\"wp-block-search__label\" for=\"wp-block-search__input-1\" >Search<\/label><div class=\"wp-block-search__inside-wrapper\" ><input class=\"wp-block-search__input\" id=\"wp-block-search__input-1\" placeholder=\"\" value=\"\" type=\"search\" name=\"s\" required \/><button aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"wp-block-search__button wp-element-button\" type=\"submit\" >Search<\/button><\/div><\/form>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are hundreds of symptoms that can indicate a mental health issue is developing, but it can be difficult to know when to pay attention to them and when they are not a concern. Here is a relatively simple way to be able to assess whether you are experiencing mental health symptoms that you should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-1360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-therapy","category-couch","tag-on_the_couch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitasanz.com\/wp-dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}