The second.

So it turns out that making a habit of writing  is much harder than I thought. It's already been close to a month since my first post. Whoops!

This week in Australia is Mental Health Week, the aim is to raise community awareness about mental health issues. In Australia each year, approximately one in every five Australians will experience a mental illness. One is five, that's crazy right? Yet there's still such a stigma surrounding mental health, depression and seeking help. I've been fortunate to spend the majority of my twenties in good mental health, but recently I've really struggled with anxiety and depression. This is something I've not spoken about up until recently, it's taken a long time to learn that asking for help is OK.

Today's post I thought I'd explore some natural remedies and therapies to help support mental health. I want to point out that I am in no way against western medicine, or don't believe people should take conventional drug therapies for diseases like depression, but for me right now that's not the path I'm choosing. I'm choosing an integrated approach including lifestyle modification and counselling.

I present to you, my plan. It's not an exhaustive list of the things I'm planning to try but it's a start. Wish me luck.

Nutrition
- Increase dietary intake of tryptophan to support serotonin pathways.
- Curb intake of processed food, particularly bread, as I know these types of foods make me feel a bit blah. The less of that the better right now.
- As I'm not taking any antidepressant drugs I will be adding a SAMe supplement to my diet temporarily. With any dietary supplements it's important to research potential drug interactions with any other medications or supplements you're taking. For example, taking BOTH antidepressants and SAMe can increase anxiety levels, this is the last thing I'd want right now.

Lifestyle
- Daily exercise. I'll admit I'm not great at creating lasting habits when it comes to exercise, right now I'm aiming for a daily walk, or some yoga to help calm and relax myself.
- Develop a healthy night time routine. NO ELECTRONICS IN BED. Man I'm bad at that one, I keep a phone and tablet on my bedside table. That needs to stop, the light these devices emit make falling asleep really difficult. Instead I'm going to wind down with a cup of chamomile tea (or this tea) and a good book.
- Meditate daily. That one is self explanatory.

Failing all of the above, I head to Thailand in two weeks and hope that sipping cocktails on a beach will help.

xx