Navigating Mental Heath: Basic Self Care Strategies

Q: Other than therapy, what other sorts of activities have you felt make an impact on veterans who are struggling with their mental health?

A: There are many ways for veterans to improve their mental health beyond what many people consider standard ‘mental health treatment.’

Having a sense of purpose in life (or a cause to work for) can be extraordinarily helpful to everyone, but to veterans in particular. It's great if it can be combined with a career, but admittedly, not all work falls into what one may define as “meaningful” activities. 

Many civilians and veterans with religious backgrounds and affiliations find connecting with their religious communities and practices to be pathway to that sense of connection and purpose.

One important thing is to develop and maintain at least one close relationship––someone you can trust, confide in, and hang out with. While a close relationship isn’t a substitute for therapy, it certainly can make a big difference in reducing isolation and improving mental health. 

Exercise is an extremely useful tool for mental health. I would advise connecting with a physician before any committing to a new major physical fitness regimen, but activities like weightlifting, yoga, walking, running and hiking, and meditation can make a big difference.

There has also been an interest for the past number of years in the use of support animals, like dogs, or horseback riding, as a therapeutic activity.

Probably the best advice is to try out a few of these activities and see which ones appear to make the difference in your own mental health. 

More importantly though, is determining how to successfully incorporate what is known to be good for you into your life. This may involve making a commitment to yourself to try out new activities, as well as having someone in your life, a friend, partner or therapist, who can remind you of your commitment to trying activities to which you’ve committed. 

Changing behaviors even for positive ends is not easy and will take a bit of a “village” mentality to be successful, especially if these activities have never previously been a part of your life.

Keith Armstrong LCSW is a retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who worked with veterans for 38 years, and served as a mentor and contributor to the Heart and Armor team since 2013. He is the co-author of the acclaimed book “Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their Families.”