Holistic mental health may indeed include your basic talk therapy, but it also looks beyond that and connects with other alternative mental health therapies like diet, nutrition and changes in lifestyle to achieve optimal psychological functioning.
It emphasizes the interconnectedness of the body, mind and spirit and utilizes methods outside the realm of conventional psychotherapy.
Unlike traditional psychiatry, instead of medicating the brain with toxic drugs, it attempts to find the underlying cause of the psychological symptom that is exhibited.
Main stream medicine or psychology has a very limited understanding and knowledge about the role of brain chemistry in mental health and the impact of diet, nutrition and chemicals in the environment on the brain.
The physiological and psychological have a profound impact on one another. Good mental health can’t exist without attending to the physical and spiritual matters and vice versa and it also can’t exist without balancing brain chemistry.
Holistic mental health addresses psychological problems from the biochemical angle. Although both mainstream psychology and alternative therapies understand that neurotransmitters are at the root of all mental health conditions, mainstream psychology attempts to fix these problems with medication, and we attempt to fix them with diet, nutritional supplements and changes in lifestyle.
In the biochemical approach there is no such thing as “mental” illness in and of itself. Any so called “mental illness” can always be linked to something physiological as the root cause. Mental disorders, conditions, illnesses etc., are the result of biochemical disorders with symptoms that exhibit in the psychological arena.
What appears to be a psychological symptom is really triggered by something in body chemistry or environmental sources such as pesticides, foods or other chemicals.
The Impact of Diet, Nutrition and Environmental Toxins on Your Mental Health
The three most important elements in holistic mental health is the role of diet, nutrition and environmental toxins.
Learn more about role of diet and nutrition.
Psychological disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, Hyperactivity, Learning Disorders, Bi-polar Depression, Manic Depression, Alcoholism and Schizophrenia can be treated quite successfully with diet and nutritional supplementation, as well as changes in lifestyle and improving air quality in the environment.
The brain is dependent on adequate supplies of nutrients in order to function properly, when it doesn’t receive these nutrients then the deficiency is exhibited in a variety of negative symptoms in thought, mood, emotion, perception and behavior.
Mental health is deeply affected by the following factors:
- Neurotransmitters
- Pesticides & herbicides
- Food allergies & sensitivities
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Candida overgrowth
- Hormone imbalances
- Environmental toxins
- Hypoglycemia- low blood sugar
- Food additives & preservatives
- Hypothyroidism – low thyroid
- Sugar
- Adrenal fatigue
Be sure to click on each of the issues listed above to learn about their impact on your mental and physical health.
Symptoms from these issues can range anywhere from mild melancholy to suicidal depression. They may include anxiety, outbursts of anger, autism, hyperactivity, schizophrenia and mania, obsessive compulsive disorders, memory difficulties, learning disorders, drug and alcohol addiction, paranoia and agoraphobia.
For example, many people have found that eliminating dairy and wheat products from their diet can greatly reduce the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, hyperactivity and autism.
While others have amazing results in relieving adhd or hyperactivity, depression, autism, anxiety, and just about any psychological problem you can think of by following a Candida Diet, ADHD diet or paleolithic diet and balancing neurotransmitters.
And yet many other people have found relief from these same afflictions with supplementation of a variety of vitamins and minerals like B-complex, amino acids, fatty acids, getting adequate sunlight and magnesium.
Other alternative mental health methods may include cleaning up toxins from the environment, pinpointing food allergies & sensitivities that may exist, identifying any possible metabolic disorders such as hypoglycemia or malfunctioning in organs like the thryoid and adrenals.
Here at Holistic Help you will find a variety of holistic mental health guidance from Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed. I have both personal and professional experience in finding relief the holistic way from a large variety of mental health conditions.
If you’d like to learn more about what services I offer or make an appointment, please visit the Counseling Page or the Contact Page.
We will examine your condition from all the angles we’ve discussed above to determine which factors may play a role in your situation and the best course of action for you to take. All services are available by telephone consultation, so it doesn’t matter where you live.
The hallmark in the holistic mental health approach is that each person is treated according to their unique biochemical needs. Every situation is different from person to person, even when they share a common diagnosis. How your body responds and functions is different from everyone else. You can’t be placed in a cookie cutter treatment approach and achieve optimal results.
