Modern psychiatry has done wonders for changing the mental health treatment landscape. With an abundance of evidence-based medication options available to treat common mental health challenges, more people than ever can find simple and effective treatment methods to achieve lasting recovery.

At the same time, this has led many people to believe that medication is the only intervention required to restore their mental health. While most people will experience dramatic mental health improvements with medication alone, you may still be missing out on the full experience of mental health recovery if you don’t seek out further treatment options.

Lifestyle changes are just one of the many ways you can enhance your progress after starting medication treatment and effectively support your holistic recovery if medication alone isn’t enough.

How Medication Can Help With Common Mental Health Challenges

Psychiatric intervention can treat an ever-increasing number of mental health challenges. Some of the most common mental health concerns medications can address include:

  • Depression
  • Substance use disorders
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Bipolar disorder

Many of these disorders have several different medication options available, all of which can serve to improve your mental health symptoms in different ways.

This means that working with a psychiatrist can help identify what your specific symptoms are, which medications may work best for you, and the appropriate dosage and timing to help you get the best results.

Depression

A number of different medication options can treat depression. Common types include:

  • Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
  • Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
  • Atypical antidepressants
  • Tricyclic antidepressants
  • Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

Each of these medications treats depression in a unique way. Some target serotonin, which is thought to play a key role in mood regulation, while others target norepinephrine and dopamine — two vital neurotransmitters for energy and motivation.

Starting these antidepressants can quickly resolve some of your most significant symptoms and may even lead to you no longer feeling depressed at all. Yet frequently, people will find that certain symptoms improve while others remain unchanged. Lifestyle changes can fill in these gaps, supporting a holistic recovery.

Anxiety

Anxiety medications come in two main varieties: fast-acting benzodiazepines that provide relief from anxiety within minutes, and long-acting medications that can reduce the likelihood that you experience anxiety to begin with.

People who are experiencing anxiety can find immense relief from just a single dose of a fast-acting medication. Yet these medications typically aren’t meant to be used on a daily basis, as they can quickly become habit-forming and not address the underlying cause of anxiety.

Long-acting medications can be a more sustainable treatment option, but they still cannot guarantee total relief from your anxiety symptoms. If you’re continuing to experience anxiety after starting medication management, lifestyle changes may play a crucial role in preventing these situations and finding relief.

Bipolar Disorder

Medications for bipolar disorder are known as mood stabilizers. These medications can prevent the swings between severe depression and manic states, as well as help people to maintain a more consistent sense of emotional and mental health.

Mood stabilizers are by no means a cure, however. People with bipolar disorder can still experience intermittent symptoms of depression or mild mania, even if their medication has been carefully supervised and monitored to ensure the best possible results.

Medication as Part of a Whole-Person Treatment Program

The gold standard of mental health treatment is almost never just a medication prescription. Even in psychiatry, medication management is considered a more effective approach, as your psychiatrist can closely track your progress and make adjustments to your medication as needed.

Typically, mental health disorders are treated with a combination of several interventions. This could mean participating in treatment options such as:

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Group therapy
  • Neurofeedback
  • Lifestyle psychiatry

While psychiatric medications help balance neurotransmitters in the brain, these additional treatment options can help people develop healthier coping mechanisms, understand the root cause of their mental health challenges, and modify behavioral patterns that contribute to their mental health symptoms.

Using psychiatry as just one component of the treatment plan helps ensure that clients receive mental health treatment that accounts for each and every challenge they may face and learn specific skills to sustain their recovery for years to come.

Incorporating Lifestyle Changes After Starting Medication

Lifestyle changes can lead to dramatic improvements in physical and mental health, but these changes may not be addressed until after you start medication. If you look at the symptoms of some of the most common mental health disorders, it becomes clear why lifestyle changes are often the last intervention discussed:

  • In depression, people can experience severe challenges with motivation and energy
  • In anxiety disorders, people can experience intense fear in social or public situations or an extreme fear of failure or embarrassment
  • People with post-traumatic stress disorder will often avoid certain people, places, or things because they remind them of a traumatic event

Essentially, some of the key symptoms of mental health disorders include not being able to simply change a lifestyle. The mental health condition itself actually blocks people from engaging in these changes, even though the evidence shows that their symptoms would improve if they started exercising, got outdoors more, made more social connections, or changed their eating and sleeping habits.

This is why combining effective psychiatric medication and lifestyle changes makes such a compelling holistic approach to mental health recovery. Take depression as an example, where people often struggle with motivation and chronic fatigue.

Starting a medication regimen may be able to drastically reduce the intensity of these symptoms. As a result, clients can find the energy for new activities and the motivation to continue them, despite their ongoing mental health condition.

Antidepressant medication may not cure depression altogether, but for many people, it can remove enough of the burden of their mental health symptoms so that they can make lasting life changes that can inspire a full recovery from the disorder.

Lifestyle Changes to Incorporate After Starting Medication

So how exactly can different lifestyle changes work with medications to support your journey toward recovery? Take a closer look at some of the most effective lifestyle changes you can make for your mental health.

Starting an Exercise Routine

Physical exercise isn’t just good for your body; it can do wonders for your mental health as well. Exercise has been linked to substantial improvements in mental health conditions, such as:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Substance use disorder

In one study, scientists discovered that exercise alone was more effective at reducing depression symptoms than combined therapy and medication treatment. While the study was relatively small, it shows the positive impact that a regular exercise routine can have on your mental health — and why it is one of the most important lifestyle changes after starting medication.

If your medication has helped you find the motivation to start exercise, there are a number of different options for physical activity you can choose from. For example, you can try joining a gym to lift weights, heading out for a jog on the weekends, hiking your local trails, or even just walking around your neighborhood a few times a week.

You don’t need to go all-out to enjoy the benefits of exercise on your mental health. Even small changes in your level of activity in the course of a week can quickly add up and help you improve your mental health symptoms dramatically.

Socializing With Friends and Family Members

Humans are inherently social creatures, and having a healthy social life is an important part of overall health. Yet many common mental health challenges lead to people isolating themselves from friends and family, feeling anxious in social situations, or avoiding people completely due to ongoing symptoms that would interfere with their ability to socialize.

Medication can help you break through that initial barrier, but to reap the benefits of a strong social support network, you need to make an effort to start seeing the people that matter the most.

After starting medication, consider reaching out to friends you haven’t talked to in a while or family members you haven’t seen recently to see if they’d like to spend some time together. It can be as simple as going out for a coffee and catching up or as elaborate as hosting a costume party — the choice is up to you.

Applying Mindfulness Practices

Mindfulness practices are techniques that help you to connect to the present moment, get into your body and out of your head, and find a sense of peace and relaxation in even the most difficult of times. There are a number of different practices you can start incorporating into your daily routine to start seeing these benefits, including:

  • A formal meditation practice
  • Yoga
  • Breathing exercises
  • Mindful eating
  • Each one of these practices is designed to help you become more comfortable in achieving a mindful state of mind. When you tap into mindfulness throughout your daily life, you can experience a well of calm and presence that helps prevent symptoms of anxiety, worry, sadness, or fear.

Participating in Therapy

Many people with mental health disorders struggle with the idea of meeting with a therapist or therapy group. The symptoms of mental health disorders can lead to people feeling uncomfortable sharing their challenges with others or fearful that they’ll embarrass themselves.

But when medication starts to kick in, the prospect of going to therapy may seem much easier and more achievable. Working with an in-person or virtual therapist can help you develop new coping mechanisms for your mental health symptoms, dive deep into the underlying causes of your mental health condition, and start building goals and a sense of purpose in your daily life.

With therapy, you have an abundance of different options to choose from, such as:

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy, which can be highly effective in helping people with disorders such as depression or anxiety
  • EMDR, which is often used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Dialectical behavior therapy, which emphasizes skills like emotional regulation, mindfulness and acceptance, interpersonal skills, and distress tolerance.

You can choose to enter one-on-one therapy with an individual therapist or find peer-to-peer support with group therapy options.

Reach Out to Plus by APN for Professional Support Today

If you’re struggling to make lifestyle changes to move forward in your recovery journey, or if you’re ready to start medication or therapy for the first time, reach out to the experts at Plus by APN.

Our team can help you decide which treatment options in our comprehensive mental health programs will work best for you and support you every step of the way. Contact us at 424.644.6486 or complete our online contact form to get started today.

References

  • Carmody, J., Baer, R.A. Relationships between mindfulness practice and levels of mindfulness, medical and psychological symptoms and well-being in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program. J Behav Med 31, 23–33 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-007-9130-7
  • Gourgouvelis, Joanne, et al. “Exercise Leads to Better Clinical Outcomes in Those Receiving Medication Plus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 9, 2018, p. 323403, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00037. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.