The National Mental Health Awareness Month campaign, which is spearheaded by the National Institute of Mental Health, seeks to raise awareness of mental health issues in our country and provide resources to help.
Mental health issues are sometimes stigmatized yet prevalent among the population. The National Alliance on Mental Illness states that one in five adults experience mental illness each year, while one in six children, ages 6 to 17, experience a mental health disorder each year.
When encountering any legal situation, or conflict for that matter, it is vital to be aware of how it can affect your mental health.
The Centers for Disease Control and prevention notes that mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Legal matters and contentious experiences are often high-stakes affairs, and they can impact how we think, feel and act.
Your mental health can certainly be affected by going through legal traumas, because they are often important and/or central to one’s life. If that were not the case, you would not be in court in the first place. In my law practice, it is common that disputes involve children and bring about major life changes for an entire family. A divorce unequivocally causes stress, whether the basis for the stress is financial, child-related, emotional, cultural, or a combination of factors.
Helping to define common mental health issues can also help lead to solutions. The NIMH defines stress as “the physical or mental response to an external cause.” Stress increases the body’s cortisol levels and sometimes its fight-or-flight reaction. When the stressor ends, the negative stress can dissipate.
The CDC recognizes that a myriad of issues can be caused by stress, including trouble making decisions. Worse, the quality of the decisions made under these conditions may be compromised. Additionally, people suffer from insomnia, feelings of fear, anger, and worry, to name but a few.
When stress goes unmanaged, it can lead to anxiety, which, according to the NIMH, is “your body’s reaction to stress and can occur even if there is no current threat.” Improperly managed stress and anxiety can cause problems with the immune, digestive, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems, in addition to the increased risk of developing mental disorders.
What can someone do while involved in legal matters? Unfortunately, sometimes when people try to manage stress or anxiety on their own, they turn to increased alcohol or drug use, including the misuse of prescription drugs, says the CDC.
But there are healthy ways to cope with stress, according to Cleveland Clinic, including:
- Maintaining emotionally-supportive relationships
- Exercising and eating healthy foods
- Utilizing relaxation techniques, such as practicing yoga and meditating.
For these techniques to work, however, one must be both self-aware and proactive. Trying to treat the problems after the symptoms set in is not only unhealthy, but also it could result in damage to your legal case.
If these practices don’t help, be sure to reach out to your healthcare practitioner, who can evaluate you and possibly refer you to a licensed therapist or for medical treatment.
No matter what, there are healthy ways through any legal confrontation. In that vein, be aware of the costs it takes on you. And remember, you are not alone.
This article originally appeared as a column for the Cleveland Jewish News.