Wellness From Within: Mental Health for Beginners

With our society’s growing emphasis on mental health, taking care of your and your loved ones’ mental health is as crucial as looking after your physical health. We share three books to kickstart your journey towards a better understanding of mental wellness.

One in seven people in Singapore has experienced a mental disorder, based on the second Singapore Mental Health Study that started in 2016. The top three mental disorders are major depressive disorder, alcohol abuse and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Find this shocking? Maybe you think, “I’m not one of them”, but mental health isn’t a topic to ignore just because you find it uncomfortable or impossible in your life.

Our emotional, psychological and social well-being makes up our mental health. Our mental health affects our thoughts, behaviours and also shapes how we deal with stress, interact with othersandourchoices. In the same way, we take care of our physical health, the road to mental wellness includes awareness and understanding.

Busting Mental Health Myths

Hands up if you have heard “crazy” or “psycho” carelessly used to describe an individual whose behaviour or thoughts may seem different from the norm. Stigma is very powerful in discrediting mental illness or lapses in mental health and is key in failure to recognise our own biases or misconceptions.

Facts and Fictions in Mental Health is one book that aims to bust these myths with scientific research. This is no boring textbook for a Psychology undergrad that will put you to sleep within the first few pages. The authors have taken an entertaining style to focus on the common misconceptions surrounding mental health and its treatment.

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They understand that these myths have various sources, a popular one being the media which has a tendency to amplify views by untrained individuals and one’s own prejudices or subjective mindset. By discussing findings from scientific research related to often misunderstood disorders like panic attacks, post-trauma stress and addictions in an accessible manner to everyone, readers will find themselves eagerly turning the pages to learn a more balanced and accurate view of important topics in mental health.

Mental Wellness At Work

With greater awareness, society is giving mental health and wellness its due importance in everyday life, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Straits Times reported that almost seven in 10 people who lived in Singapore said that 2021 had been the most stressful at work, and more than half struggled more with their mental health in 2021 than 2020. Both public and private companies also understand that there is an increasing need to protect the mental wellness of workers and have developed and increased resources and support.

All these initiatives make sense considering how much time an individual spends working and how the physical workplace has been blended with the home as working from home, and different work arrangements become more popular.

Whether you are an employee or a boss, Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace is an essential guidebook for promoting positive mental health. In fact, the Business Book Awards 2021 highly commended this book in its HR & Management category.

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The book not only takes a closer look at how the changing workplace environment has disrupted the employer and employee relationships and interactions influencing wellbeing, the authors use detailed, real-world case studies to highlight concerns from both employer and employee perspectives.

Whether you are a boss or an employee, these scenarios are highly relatable. From “How to Look After Your Wellbeing at Work” and “Manage Your Mental Health at Work” to “How to Be a Good Place to Work”, the book addresses an employee’s stress and anxiety and also guides employers on how to manage staff’s mental health issues. This enlightening read also provides practical tips and suggestions for those concerned with their wellbeing at work, managing and promoting employees’ mental welfare.