Taking care of your mental health is just important as taking care of your physical health. Exercise and mental health can work together to enhance your quality of life and build up your mental stamina. 

Below we will discuss the benefits of physical exercise and how it can improve mental clarity, limit stress, and improve your self-confidence. There are many ways that exercise and mental health are connected, so working to improve both of these areas will make you an overall healthier person. Taking time to move your body when you are struggling can be hard, but the benefits are worth it. 

Mood-Boosting

Mental illness can affect your mood in severe ways, but participating in exercise can help elevate lower mood. While exercise will not cure your depression or bipolar, it can help release dopamine into the brain which will lift your mood and give your body more energy. Research has shown that exercise can improve your quality of life and limit symptoms of mental illness significantly. 

Exercise and mental health go hand in hand because exercise can help promote better sleep, and coping skills, and improve self-esteem. All of these factors can contribute to your mental stamina as well. Even though exercise may not cure your mental illness, it will help improve your daily cognitive function. 

Will Mindfulness Actually Provide Benefits?

Doing yoga, pilates, and stretching can help you meet your exercise goals as well as become more self-aware. Mindfulness exercises have been proven to help aid in clinical issues such as mental health and chronic pain. Meditation along with yoga or stretching can help you feel more relaxed and prevent injury to your muscles. Some research suggests that those with fibromyalgia, asthma, insomnia, anxiety, and high blood pressure have seen results from meditation.

Mindfulness exercises combined with centering your body can help improve sleep, increase muscle strength, and improve diabetes control. Even if you may not fully believe in the benefits of mindfulness, taking some time to reflect on your life is always beneficial. 

What Exercises Are Most Helpful?

Moving your body can help get more blood flow to your extremities and limit health issues later in life, but some physical exercises provide more health benefits than others. Depending on your physical activity level, some exercises may make you feel fatigued rather than rejuvenated. Choose exercises that push your limits, but not ones that feel impossible. 

Some of the most effective exercises include walking, running, aerobics, yoga, boxing, swimming, and resistance training. Exercise will help you build up muscle and flexibility that will make future cardio easier. Running, resistance, and walking help you clear your mind and boost your dopamine production. 

Managing Stress In A Healthy Way

Mental illness and just the daily wears of life can lead to high stress. Exercise can make stress easier to manage by providing clarity and boosting dopamine production. Having awareness about your stress and taking steps to control your mental health will help you avoid burnout. 

Stress is a common occurrence in life, so learning a healthy way to manage it will help you avoid increasing mental health symptoms. It is almost impossible to avoid stress, but managing it with diet, exercise, and therapy are good ways to live your life around stressful situations.

Psychological Benefits Of Team Sports

Working with others can be a skill that is useful in a variety of different settings. Starting kids young with physical exercise and sports will teach them people skills and keep them active. Team sports build resilience, teach life skills, encourage teamwork, and help them learn proper exercise routines. 

Exercise and mental health work well together when school or competitive team sports are involved. Getting physical exercise as well as something that they have to work for will give them better mental stamina. 

Other Mental Health Resources

As the stigma around mental health continues to dissipate, more mental health resources and ideas will come forward. Taking care of your mental health is much less taboo and is a lot easier to manage in our modern world. 

Diet, exercise, time off, hobbies, and human connection are all items that can boost your mental health. You can find more resources from Red Willow Counseling and Recovery for a variety of issues like addiction, forgiveness, stress, and anxiety. 
Red Willow also offers group therapy, couples therapy, and individual therapy to help people cope with life’s stressors. Therapy combined with other self-care items can be a great way to find what items you need to improve your mental state.

Those who have not struggled with alcohol addiction or suffered withdrawal symptoms may ask why is alcohol addictive. Many addictive substances affect people in similar ways, but addiction can occur for almost any substance or action. Suffering from addiction can be dark and cause you to lose people close to you. Recovery from addictive substances should not be done alone, especially with something as social and accepted as alcohol. This blog will discuss what alcohol does to the brain, how these effects make a person become addicted, and how people can overcome addiction.

The Addiction Cycle

The addiction cycle includes three stages:

• Binge/Intoxication
• Negative affect/Withdrawl
• Preoccupation/Anticipation

The brain starts to depend on the feeling and effects of alcohol to survive. It starts to affect the physical and psychological actions of the user which may help them in awkward or stressful situations. 

Alcohol Use Disorder has different stages including alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, and alcoholism. Once the person loses the ability to control their usage or stop using alcohol because of health concerns, their AUD becomes more severe. The severity will also depend on how the alcohol is affecting the person’s brain and organs. 

Flooding Your System With Dopamine

During the reward stage or Binge/Intoxication stage, the body and brain feel some euphoria and reduction of anxiety. Alcohol affects the basal ganglia whose role in the brain is to form habits and routine behaviors. 

The chemical reaction in the brain from alcohol floods your nervous system with dopamine, and that flood of high levels and emotion can make your body crave that feeling when your body is at a more maintained level (during the work day, or at extremely low points like depressive episodes). When your body doesn’t have alcohol and starts to shut down or your thinking slows, this is called withdrawal. 

Psychological And Physical Factors That Contribute To Addiction

When it comes to the physical factors that make alcohol addictive, it is as simple as the changes it makes to your brain. This is why drinking at a young age is even more dangerous because the brain is not fully developed and will not know how to survive stress or problems without the assistance of alcohol. Over time the brain starts to prioritize alcohol consumption over or equal to normal rewards like sleep, sex, connection, or eating. 

Relying on alcohol for dopamine will affect your psychological factors like memory, mood, and motivation. Those who become addicted will be unable to do normal tasks without the “assistance” of alcohol. So why is alcohol addictive? Because it makes your body crave an unnatural equilibrium. 

Why Are Some People More Easily Addicted Than Others?

Many adults can drink socially and never become dependent on alcohol. There are environmental, social, and biological factors that can make alcohol addiction more of a risk for some individuals. 

For example, those who have been around alcoholism as a child or are pressured into drinking as a teenager, their risk for addiction is higher. Mental health disorders have a direct link to alcohol addiction, especially diagnoses of anxiety, PTSD, or bipolar. Alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism for many different stressors. 

Certain gene groups are at higher risk for alcohol addiction because of other relatives with alcohol addiction and susceptibility. Genetic predisposition does not automatically mean you will become addicted though. 

Alcohol Recovery With Red Willow Counseling And Recovery

Recovering from addiction can be a dark and lonely road. Red Willow wants to help improve your mental state while also helping you see that there are better-coping mechanisms than alcohol. We offer Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Programs, Addiction Intervention, and Drug and Alcohol Consultations to help you have well-rounded care. 

Our therapists and counselors have knowledge and experience working with different types of people who are experiencing mental health issues and AUD at the same time. We want to help you manage your symptoms and learn more coping skills that you can use after you leave our office. If our healing and non-judgmental therapy sounds like the right fit for you, book an appointment with us in Salt Lake or Park City.

For patients who are struggling with addiction or other mental issues, having accountability partners can help keep them motivated and on the right path. Working with a trusted partner can help those who are struggling to find support and have someone to help them set attainable goals. Accountability partners can help their partners find better purpose and resources they need to overcome their addiction. 

Benefits Of An Accountability Partners

When you choose the right accountability partner, you will be able to see multiple benefits. Choosing someone who can give you a little bit of tough love will set you up for success. 

One major benefit of working with an accountability partner is being able to better measure your progress. A partner can help you focus on the goal without having to keep track of milestones, meetings, and more. They can also report to your sponsor or other healthcare providers. 

Accountability partners need to show some tough love and hold you accountable. These partners react and correct your actions when you step off the path. Doing this requires some skill, so it is best to find an accountability partner that isn’t afraid to use strong reactions. 

Other benefits that you can get from a good accountability partner include:

• Gain honest feedback
• Keep your problems in perspective
• Learn from others’ mistakes and perspectives
• Improve your performance at work, relationships, and more
• Stay grounded 

How To Choose The Right Accountability Partner?

Now that you know the benefits of an accountability partner, how do you choose an effective one? The first step is to avoid choosing a family member. While it may be easy to choose a family member, they may not be able to call you out when you misstep or be unable to separate their feelings from your goals. 

While family members love you, an accountability partner should be able to keep an open mind and disregard other personal feelings. Finding someone from a support group or a co-worker can be another place to look. Your accountability partner should be able to adapt quickly and have different strengths than your own. 

If you have found someone who you think will be a good accountability partner, you should ask them some tough questions and be open about your current situation. They should have the skills and understanding to help you make a growth plan, develop smart goals, and stick to a timeline.

Set Calendar Milestones

A partner needs to be reliable, but they also need to be able to rely on you. You will need to set calendar milestones, show up to meetings, and keep them updated on your progress. Setting milestone dates will help keep you accountable and make your goals more within reach. Setting clear dates helps us to work harder and see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

How To Be A Good Accountability Partner For Others

Are you looking to be a partner for someone who is struggling or who is working toward a big goal? There are some skills and qualities you should work on developing before taking on the job. 

One of the major things that accountability partners do for their partners is to offer support in stressful situations. Stressful situations come when you are working to overcome a bad habit, take on a new project, or deal with a loss. Partners will need to be able to listen and offer clear advice. 

A good partner will help you remember important deadlines, reach milestones, call out negative behaviors, work with you to know what is important, and share progress with those that need it. They need to be organized and detail-oriented. 

Being a partner to someone in any situation will also need a variety of other skills. Some of these can include:

• Meet with you consistently 
• Increase your motivation and is self-motivated
• Provide new perspectives 
• Offer ideas for a project
• Have a positive attitude
• Good communication skills
• Honesty

Additional Help From Red Willow Counseling And Recovery

Losing control can be hard to come back from. There are a variety of situations that can make life difficult to deal with and lead us to turn to substances or bad habits to cope. Our therapists and counselors can help you recover and have a healthier life. 
We offer different kinds of therapy, IOP programs, and a page with online resources. Anything you may need can be found here at Red Willow Counseling and Recovery. We use skillful therapy, competence, compassion, and collaboration to help patients with different severity of problems. Let us help you improve your quality of life, contact us to schedule an appointment.