{"id":212,"date":"2026-08-18T05:38:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepsychologisthub.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2026-08-18T05:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:53:02","slug":"promoting-mh-breaking-the-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepsychologisthub.com\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"Promoting MH, Breaking the Barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Importance of Mental Health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of mental health promotion is to promote protective factors and good behaviors that can possibly prevent and lower the risk factors that can result in the onset of a mental disorder. Life satisfaction, self-acceptance, a sense of purpose, identity, a sense of connection and belonging, self-determination, and resilience\u2014the capacity to bounce back\u2014are all components of mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s vital to realize that mental health issues are not always obvious, just like physical health issues. In our communities, professions, educational institutions, and personal residences, some people struggle to preserve their mental health. The majority of people don’t hesitate to schedule annual physical exams, dental cleanings, vision exams, and other procedures. But when it comes to mental health, these statistics indicate that there is a stigma associated with seeking assistance, which leads to inaccurate information, poor guidance, or no action at all. People with mental health issues should not be the only ones receiving mental health care. Regular mental health exams can lower anxiety, elevate emotions, facilitate clearer thinking, foster a greater sense of calm or inner peace, boost self-esteem, lessen the likelihood of developing depression, and enhance interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges People Face in their Day to Day Living<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Interaction:<\/strong> Many people find it difficult to get past their fear and anxiety while interacting with strangers. People don\u2019t want to go out of their comfort zone because they get so scared, however, learning always starts out of comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Yourself a Priority: <\/strong>Taking care of ourselves should always be a part of our to-do lists. In our culture, we do care for everyone but we don\u2019t have time for ourselves. Saying no to work, friends and family is the hardest thing but we need to connect with the inner self so we can hear the voice that is telling us a different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying Moods and Feelings: <\/strong>People don\u2019t want to focus on their mood or feelings and they try to avoid their unpleasant emotions. Since our childhood, we learned that we can\u2019t share unpleasant emotions because it\u2019s painful so we don\u2019t know how to accept our feelings and how to deal with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintaining a Good Routine: <\/strong>It\u2019s difficult to make a routine and be consistent. We have so many excuses for not doing physical activity, socialization, or self-care. Even our students struggle a lot with their routines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living up to Expectations: <\/strong>In our culture parents’ expectations make things tough. They want to fulfill their wishes through their children. They pressurized their children to do things according to them so in this way, the personality of the child does not get a chance to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barriers for People to Seek MH services<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cost:<\/strong> One barrier related to MH services is its cost. MH services are so much expensive that people can\u2019t afford. In our countries, people are unable to fulfill their basic needs so how they can afford the fee for therapy. So, we can work with some nonprofit organizations to provide free therapy to those clients who can\u2019t afford regular rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lack of Professionals and Services<\/strong>: Another barrier related to the MH services in our community is about lack of professionals and services. In Pakistani culture training for professionals is not enough as compared to USA culture. The therapist here needs to seek therapy for themselves too. During the course work, you have to get experience as a client so that you can feel the pain of the other person. According to Dr. Zahid<\/strong>, A therapist also needs a therapist so that therapist can work on their own issues first before seeing another person as a client. There is so much need to take care of the ethics, boundaries, and therapeutic relationship, however in our countries people are not trained enough so sometimes they damage the client. There are no licensing bodies that can have some checks and balances so maybe there is a need for licensing board to secure the client\u2019s rights so that clients can feel safer and more secure.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limited Ability of MH Education and Awareness:<\/strong> Mental illnesses, can be harder to recognize because Symptoms are often dismissed as \u201cpersonality\u201d or \u201cattitude\u201d issues or moody. Clinical anxiety, for instance, could be written off as “worrying too much,” and depression frequently manifests as “laziness” or “fatigue.” In our culture, people would prefer to go to visit spiritual healers because they feel like these problems are linked to spirituality or religiosity. Sometimes people discuss that therapy does not work, yes, I think that\u2019s true that therapy does not work for them because they want to change other people but they don\u2019t want to change themselves. They complain about everything. Maybe you have already observed these types of people in your surroundings. Criticizing others is the easiest task in the world, however working on self or changing self is the hardest thing in the world so when people don\u2019t want to work on themselves, they criticize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Stigma and MH treatment:<\/strong> People who have some courage to go to the therapist they will get the label from their family members, and friends that you are mad and crazy that\u2019s why you are visiting the therapist. This kind of social stigma stopped people not to get help. In our cultures we feel like that if we ask for some help people would judge us and think that we are incompetent so we always struggle for accepting help. Males in our society do not share their thoughts or feelings because they feel that its a weakness for them so this kind of situation stopped them not to think about their problems. People want that they can get an easy way to treat their depression such as getting a pill and curing their symptoms overnight but the therapeutic treatment takes time at least 10-12 sessions and nobody wants to take that amount of time. It’s more about changing the lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promotion of Mental Health\/ Well being<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a therapist, counselors, and clinical psychologists we have so many responsibilities on our shoulders to promote MH, especially in our culture where nobody considers MH issues as a serious problem. Early childhood interventions can help to promote mental health (e.g. Preschool psychosocial programs, home visits for women who are pregnant); We can also provide support for children (e.g., problem-solving and coping skills, Child and youth development programs, programs for skill building); We can develop some programs for vulnerable populations, including migrants, native peoples, minorities, and those displaced by conflicts and ecological disasters (e.g. following disasters, psychosocial interventions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Charge of One’s Life:<\/strong> We can promote well-being by taking charge of our lives.Nobody likes to feel uncontrollable. It could make you feel anxious or frightened. It’s crucial to stop placing blame on uncontrollable external factors. Let go of the things you can’t control and accept responsibility for the things you can. Nothing is permanent in this life and when we try to hold things that are not in our control, it leads to suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set Attainable Realistic Goals: <\/strong>Setting goals is excellent.Setting unreasonable goals, however, can only lead to disappointment, additional pressure, and stress but on the other side when we achieve our goals, when we feel good about ourselves, our mental health improves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Five<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also promote MH by focusing on the Big five. What are the big five, it’s Diet, Exercise, Mindfulness, sleep, and connection. This is more about changing the lifestyle instead of moving towards medicine. Our mental and physical health can both improve with better physical health and we can improve our physical health by practicing the big five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n