Mental Health Post #18: Some Random Causes of Poor Mental Health

I'm sure many of you have heard a few things by now about serotonin and other neurotransmitters and their probable involvement in mental health.  But mental health is so much more complex than changing how much neurotransmitter is hanging out in the brain.  We have these awesome antidepressants that help us to help ourselves, but we still don't know fully why or how different physiological changes can affect our psychology.  Plus, there are many other factors, both internal and external, that can affect how a person is feeling from day to day or year to year.  Here are a few that I've experienced or witnessed throughout my life:

1. Infectious/chronic disease: This is not black and white but also can have an intricacy of effects.  On the one hand, just feeling crummy from chronic pain or fever literally makes you not feel good.  I had the misfortune to suffer from mastitis (breast infections) after most of my pregnancies which would cause me to run very high fevers for days at a time.  Twice I was hospitalized and given IV antibiotics to get it under control.  Those fevers sapped me of my ability to think clearly, to make decisions and to feel whole.  Anyone who has been really sick can understand how something as innocuous as a fever can cause your mental health to diminish.  There is another aspect to this too, especially for those who have chronic or long-last conditions: being sick and unable to do the things you love is draining and often causes feelings of loss.  Even the most emotionally robust person is going to have times where it can be hard to have a good mood because they need so much more care from others, and spend so much more money on their medical interventions, and can have restricted activities.  These things can lead to poor mental health in the short- and the long-term.

2. Prescription drugs/OTC/supplements: I've had more lightbulb moments than I would've liked over the past few years regarding the medications and supplements I've taken for various things and their affect on my mental health.  For instance, I learned long ago that antihistamines affect my mood in a negative way.  The higher the dose or the stronger the medication, the bigger the effect.  Not too long ago I was prescribed a cheap, common prescription antihistamine called hydroxizine to help with the eczema in my basement (sorry, I just learned this euphemism so you're going to hear it non-stop because it's hilarious!).  It's also supposed to help with anxiety and has the added benefit of causing sleepiness which can be a godsend for someone who is unwittingly digging furrows in their own skin at night from the itchiness.  What my dermatologist didn't know is that hydroxizine may be great for anxiety, but it's a real bummer if you have major depression.  Two days after I started taking a baby dose, I was a complete wreck and I could not figure out why.  I had been sleeping tons, eating enough, and it wasn't almost my period.  But I was crying non-stop (okay, that's not abnormal since I'm a crier, but this was over the top) over my own parking job or ridiculous things like that.  Thankfully Google helped me find some good academic information that said hydroxizine can be contraindicated in persons with major depressive disorders.  To a lesser effect, I've noticed that even OTC allergy meds like Claritin and Allegra do this too, as well as Benadryl.  Because I have to take these drugs daily/weekly, I've learned to be ready if I am going to have to increase a dose and know to give myself extra time and self-care.  Benadryl, a cheap, super helpful rescue allergy medicine, will leave me a little moody the next day, and knowing that helps me to be able to be kinder to myself and lessen expectations for a couple days, as well as let the people around me know so they don't take my moodiness personally.  Other drugs that I'm aware of that can affect mood include all steroids (especially when coming off of a steroid), many herbal supplements for mood, and some cancer medicines.  Here's the take-away: if you just started a new medication and your mood has precipitously dropped, look it up and consider if maybe it is either that medicine you are taking, or maybe an interaction between two or more medications.  Or you are eating grapefruit.  (Am I the only one that thinks it's super weird how you cannot have grapefruit with like every single medication ever?!?)

3. Temporary medical conditions: I want to specifically zero on vitamin and mineral deficiencies here.  I've had a long-standing war with my body and it's ability to hang on to ferritin (iron) in my red blood cells.  Thus, I've had chronic iron-deficiency anemia for literally decades now.  About every year, I go in for iron infusions which tops me off for a few months before I need more gas in the tank.  Anemia makes me not only fatigued and craving corn (I have no idea why, but I'm just grateful I'm not eating detergent or dirt like other people with pica), but also incredibly fragile mentally.  I know many different deficiencies in essential nutrients can cause this symptom in people.  One of the first things my new psychiatrists from every move have ever done was order a full CBC (complete blood count) and a workup on my nutrient levels.  For some people, getting more folate or vitamin B in their diet can be enough to help them sustain a positive mood.  For others it can be a big piece of the puzzle with other interventions to figuring out better mental health.

 

4. Trauma: I've mentioned this before because I have experienced trauma in my life.  Examples can include physical, sexual and emotional abuse, living through war, moving frequently, medical trauma, experiencing the death of a loved one, and many, many other things, particularly as they happen to a young child.  Childhood trauma literally changes the way the brain develops and grows.  It can cause certain parts of the brain to shrink, or neurotransmitters to release too much or too often, or not enough or not often enough.  It literally changes the scaffolding of the nervous system and can have long-term impacts on a person's mood as well as their approach to life.  How to address this?  Through boat-loads of trauma counseling and usually medications.  And then of course patience and time.

I think the hardest thing about mental illness for me has been the amount of patience I've had to learn to deal with the time it takes to address any of these things.  Even when you have something as small as a fever that is making your feel rotten, time seems to slow down and it can be hard to get to the next day.  Dealing with poor mental health in a loved one is also just so difficult.  You want them (and yourself) to stop suffering immediately and for everyone to be happy and contented.  Please don't give up, on yourself or your loved one.  Hard times usually do end and joy and happiness come back.  Sometimes the hard things don't go away, but your capacity to live with them and still be joyful is increased.  I know truth this and depend on it myself.

 

Photo note: am the only one that thinks the little antennas of slugs and snails are SOOOOO cute??  Ya they are covered in a mucusy slime, and they eat holes in my tomatoes, but those antennas!!