Due to shared symptoms and in some instances, a lack of research, many mental health issues wind up getting an umbrella diagnosis. Although there are countless people who suffer from various forms of anxiety, depression and addiction, not all of these problems share the same cause. Moreover, it is unlikely that all patients who suffer from similar issues will respond positively to the same forms of treatment. For these and other reasons, alternative mental health services are well worth consideration.
What Alternative Mental Health Services Include
Alternative mental health services are far different from conventional remedies for mental illness in that they are centered around helping people find new coping skills, targeting the symptoms of severe mental illness at their source and resolving physiological issues that might be the cause of a person’s ailments. People can pursue alternative mental health services in an effort to avoid pharmaceutical products or they can use these therapies in conjunction with other, more conventional forms of treatment. Many patients turn to alternative therapies after all other avenues have already been explored and with little success.
Common forms of stress, depression and anxiety relief include nutritional programs that are aimed at resolving nutritional deficiencies, increases in physical activities, changes in breathing strategies and meditative activities among other things. Implementing a diet that contains adequate nutrients for the individual can have an extraordinary impact on mood balance and overall mental health. People can also learn coping strategies such as diaphragmatic breathing that alter brain wave functioning through a marked increase in oxygen delivery and by helping the individual to establish maximum control over respiratory functioning. Other coping strategies include yoga, meditation and massage. There are even mental health patients who opt to receive acupuncture, chiropractic therapies and homeopathy. For many of these efforts, the ultimate goal is to support and promote whole health and overall well-being.
How Psychobiotics Are Providing New Options In Alternative Mental Health
A surprising link between mental health and the health of the gut has opened the door to a whole new way of approaching alternative mental health. Psychobiotics are a special class of probiotics that can produce and deliver neuroactive substances that alleviate problems like depression and anxiety via the brain-gut axis. A comprehensive array of beneficial bacteria in the gut can promote optimal mental health, however, these stores of bacteria are often lost through exposure to environmental toxins, poor life habits and the use of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical products. Many mental health professionals now believe that identifying the exact deficit of beneficial bacteria that an individual suffers from and correcting this deficit with the proper probiotic could be the most effective way to resolve mental health issues in a long-term fashion. The link between gut health and mental health has also lead to new thinking concerning inherited mental health issues, given that each person is born with a sterile digestive tract and inherits his microbiome from his mother at birth. Thus, in the instance of psychobiotics, alternative medicine can do far more than resolve mental health issues; they can also help explain the origin of these ailments as well.
The Impressive Benefits Of Mental Health Services
According to Myrna Yenter counseling, “People can benefit best from alternative mental health services when these remedies are both selected and applied by trained professionals. This ensures that those who suffer from depression, anxiety or drug addiction due to nutritional deficiencies are not attempting to resolve their issues solely by developing better coping skills.” The proper application of the correct technique can produce lasting benefits for the individual. In many instances, identifying and correcting a deficiency will not only resolve a person’s current struggles, but it will also prevent the same or similar issues from recurring. People who use alternative therapies commonly find that these have far fewer side effects than most pharmaceutical products and that they can often be used in almost any environment. Like most other alternative forms of alternative mental health care, simple yoga poses, diaphragmatic breathing, improved eating habits, probiotics and meditative activities are simple, convenient and empowering.
