What’s driving you crazy? Top tips to improve our mental health

In general, we men can be pretty decent about taking care of our physical shape, hitting the gym and playing sports, but what about working out our mental health?

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health but us men don’t seem to prioritise it that way.

Whether you’ve been overlooked for a promotion at work or got dumped by your girlfriend, bottling those feelings up is never the answer. And yes, you are allowed to have some feelings lads, sure didn't we all have a tear in our eye when we heard Field of Athenry blasting through the stadium in Gdansk?

If you want to try improving your mental health and heal yourself to chill out, try some of these tips:

Exercise

Simple as. A 20 minute aerobic exercise session will stimulate your endorphin production and give you that ‘runner’s high’ feeling. But beware of using exercise to solve all your problems, it can become too much. Have a look at SpunOut.ie’s information on exercise addiction.

Avoid alcohol

Alcohol is a depressant (we've all experienced 'the fear') so if you go for a few drinks when you’re in a bad mood, it may just make you feel more depressed.

Listen to music

This might sound silly but it’s a fact that listening to your favourite music triggers your body’s dopamine levels and lifts your mood! You've probably noticed that a great tune can help you to push it that bit harder in the gym, so it clearly does help your mood. Easy peasy.

Hug your dog. Or your girlfriend if you prefer.

Physical contact with a loved one; be it human or pet form, can increase your oxytocin and create a feeling of calm and connectedness. This also works for women and helps increase their sex drive so give it a go lads, nothing ventured nothing gained!

Rant your rage

The workplace probably isn’t the best time for this but having a little rant can help in the de-stressing process, how do you think JOE stays so calm and collected all the time?

Writing your ideas down on paper (or in a journal) will help you let go of all the thoughts running around in your head. Similarly, sharing your story in a supportive environment can also be positive so check out SpunOut.ie’s opinion section where people can voice their problems or solutions in a non-judgemental environment. You can start blogging for SpunOut.ie today, simply by clicking here.

Eat some fish

How does a sardine sandwich sound? Not great we figured, but not only is fish a hugely important part of our diet in order to stay in shape, countries like Japan and Taiwan, who have high fish consumption, have depression levels 10 times lower than us, so get that Vitamin D into you.

Besides, when was the last time you saw a stressed out cat? Your problems might seem big, but remember there are always solutions.

For guys, it can be hard to talk to friends but it is a good idea to talk to someone so check out SpunOut.ie’s help section here. There is a list of services nationwide that could help you now.