第1999期:Dealing with Mental Health

Christian: So recently, I've been coming across a lot of mental health posts on social media, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. And I've just been wondering, what is mental health? Could you please explain it to me? 

Christian：最近，我在 Instagram、Twitter、Facebook、YouTube 等社交媒体上看到了很多心理健康帖子。我只是想知道，什么是心理健康？你能给我解释一下吗？ 

Tahia: Sure. So in a nutshell, mental health is about the day-in, day-out state of our emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. But unfortunately, we tend to neglect our mental health and brush it aside until it snowballs into a more serious problem and even a mental health disorder in some cases. 

塔希亚：当然。简而言之，心理健康是指我们日复一日的情绪、心理和社会健康状态。但不幸的是，我们往往忽视我们的心理健康，并将其抛在一边，直到它像滚雪球一样发展成更严重的问题，甚至在某些情况下成为心理健康障碍。 

Christian: Wow. Okay. Could you please explain what is a mental health disorder, and what kind of different mental health disorders are there? 

克里斯蒂安：哇。好的。您能否解释一下什么是心理健康障碍，以及有哪些不同的心理健康障碍？

Tahia: So, everybody experiences mental health issues, but for some people, they might have a mental health disorder genetically, or for some people, they might develop mental health disorders over time. So there are about five categories of mental health disorders, I would say. The first one is mood disorders like depression and bipolar, where you can be really happy one moment and extremely sad the next, and this can actually start interrupting your day to day life and your ability to complete simple tasks. There's also psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, where you can hallucinate. There's body disorders like anorexia and body dysmorphia, which affects the way that you look at yourself physically and ultimately affects how you psychologically perceive yourself. There are also cognitive disorders, which are issues relating to learning difficulties, Alzheimer's and things like this. And then the final, perhaps most common area of mental health disorders is anxiety, which includes things like social anxiety and OCD, which stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. So this could be for example, obsessively cleaning, because you feel as though if you don't clean, you're being lazy or you feel like you can't be productive. So that's kind of the five different categories of mental health disorders that I think are out there at the moment. 

塔希亚：所以，每个人都会经历心理健康问题，但对于某些人来说，他们可能在遗传上患有心理健康障碍，或者对于某些人来说，随着时间的推移，他们可能会出现心理健康障碍。我想说，心理健康障碍大约有五类。第一种是情绪障碍，如抑郁症和躁郁症，您可能某一时刻非常高兴，下一时刻非常悲伤，这实际上会开始干扰您的日常生活和完成简单任务的能力。还有精神分裂症等精神疾病，您可能会产生幻觉。厌食症和身体畸形等身体疾病会影响你看待自己身体的方式，并最终影响你在心理上看待自己的方式。还有认知障碍，即与学习困难、阿尔茨海默病等相关的问题。最后，也许是最常见的精神健康障碍领域是焦虑，其中包括社交焦虑和强迫症（强迫症）等。例如，这可能是过度清洁，因为你感觉好像自己不清洁、很懒或者感觉自己无法提高工作效率。我认为这就是目前存在的五种不同类别的精神健康障碍。 

Christian: Wow. That's very interesting. And I do think that I have social anxiety because whenever I go out, I tend to get very nervous and sweaty. So for someone like me and for other people that may have other mental health disorders, what can we do to improve our mental health? 

克里斯蒂安：哇。这很有趣。我确实认为我有社交焦虑，因为每当我出去时，我都会变得非常紧张和出汗。那么，对于像我这样的人和其他可能患有其他心理健康障碍的人来说，我们可以做些什么来改善我们的心理健康呢？ 

Tahia: Well, depending on what you think you're struggling with, there are loads of different techniques and specific things that you can do to tackle them. So, for example, have you seen fidget toys recently on social media? 

塔希亚：嗯，根据你认为自己正在努力解决的问题，你可以采取很多不同的技术和具体的措施来解决这些问题。举例来说，您最近在社交媒体上看到过烦躁的玩具吗？

Christian: Yeah, I have. 

克里斯蒂安：是的，我有。 

Tahia: So, fidget toys are a really good way to just manage your anxiety. So, for example, my little sister loves using fidget toys when she's speaking or when she's thinking about something that's making her feel stressed out. It's just a way of physically releasing some of the energy that you have built up inside of you because of your anxiety. 

塔希亚：所以，坐立不安的玩具是控制焦虑的好方法。例如，我的妹妹在说话或思考让她感到压力的事情时喜欢使用坐立不安的玩具。这只是一种身体释放你因焦虑而积聚的能量的方法。 

Christian: Wow. That's amazing. I think I'm going to have to buy one. 

克里斯蒂安：哇。太棒了。我想我必须买一个。 

Tahia: Definitely. I would recommend it. But apart from more specific things that you can do, I have some general advice. I think that we really have to take care of our physical health, meaning exercising and eating and drinking the right foods and lots of water. We also have to make sure that we're spending time with our friends and families and then we take time for ourselves. I personally love meditating as this is me time. And I also like doing self care activities like putting on a mask and going to the salon to look and feel good. I would really recommend that you spend a lot of me time and do have a self-care activity that you care about. What activity would you do? 

塔希亚：当然。我会推荐它。但除了您可以做的更具体的事情之外，我还有一些一般性建议。我认为我们确实必须照顾我们的身体健康，这意味着锻炼身体、饮食正确的食物和大量的水。我们还必须确保花时间与朋友和家人在一起，然后花时间陪伴自己。我个人喜欢冥想，因为这是我的时间。我也喜欢做自我护理活动，比如戴上面具、去沙龙让自己看起来更好、感觉更好。我真的建议您花很多时间并进行您关心的自我护理活动。你会做什么活动？ 

Christian: I think I would do meditating, but I'm not too sure how to do it. Could you please explain to me how I could meditate? 

克里斯蒂安：我想我会冥想，但我不太确定该怎么做。您能向我解释一下我如何冥想吗？ 

Tahia: Sure. There are loads of useful apps that you could use that gives you tips and techniques on how to meditate. One that I use is Balance, and it teaches me how to use breathing techniques to manage my stress. For example, by breathing in for four seconds, holding my breath for seven seconds and breathing out for eight seconds, which is called the 4-7-8 technique. You should definitely try that. 

塔希亚：当然。您可以使用大量有用的应用程序，为您提供有关如何冥想的提示和技巧。我使用的一种是平衡，它教我如何使用呼吸技巧来控制压力。例如，吸气四秒，屏住呼吸七秒，呼气八秒，这就是所谓的4-7-8技巧。你绝对应该尝试一下。

Christian: Amazing. I will definitely try that. Thank you. 

克里斯蒂安：太棒了。我一定会尝试的。谢谢。