Certain mental illnesses are chronic and persistent. This can wear you out! Managing symptoms, medical appointments, and all the other aspects of life can get overwhelming and actually exacerbate symptoms. Stress is a major contributor to the elevation of mental health symptoms and can make your mental illness feel like it’s just too much.

There are things you can do when things feel like they are getting out of hand. Here’s a checklist of things you might consider if you feel like things are too much.

• See your general practitioner: Your G.P. is the primary member of your mental health team. Sometimes a medication adjustment or the introduction of a new medication or service can make a big difference in your mental health. If you start to feel like things are too much, make an appointment with your G.P. right away.

• Take a nap: Sleep plays a significant role in mental illness. Many mental health issues include sleep disorders. Getting too little or too much sleep can make things feel worse than they need to. If you are feeling like things are too much, take a look at how you’ve been sleeping.

• Change your diet: What we eat affects us whether or not we have a mental illness. If you are feeling like things are too much lately, check to see what you’ve been eating. If people are experiencing poor mental health, they often overeat or miss meals. You might find keeping a food diary helps you plan meals.

• Check in with someone: While your doctor is a primary care provider for your mental health, you should have other people on your team for support. Check in with your groups, family, friends, or other support to let them know things feel worse than usual. Sometimes sharing how you feel can open up a new pathway for feeling better.

• Go for a walk: Getting fresh air always does a body good. Some mental illnesses have symptoms like anxiety or depressive moods that make getting out hard to do. Ask someone you trust to go with you for a walk or to do an activity outside the home that you enjoy. Interrupting the pattern of depression or feeling low can help remind you that there are fun things out there that you enjoy.

• Laugh: There’s no better medicine than laughter. Whether it’s playing games with a toddler or watching a comedy show, laughing can help alleviate some symptoms of mental illness and help decrease their magnitude. Engaging in laughter gets good chemicals flowing in your brain and helps restore some of the happiness of life.

All chronic illness comes with a price tag. Depression, anxiety, pain, and mood swings are common – whether you have a mental illness or a broken hip. It’s to be expected. There are times when things seem amplified and just harder than they need to be. If things start to feel too much, go to your checklist and start looking for some relief.