More and more as a society, as we begin to accept, understand, and adequately care for our mental health, we realize just how vital mental health coaching and the help of mental health professionals can be for ourselves and those around us. Just last year, the World Health Organization released a brief that claimed a gargantuan 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression across the globe just within the first year of the COVID pandemic. With alarming statistics like that, it’s no wonder why people have sought out professional help from mental health coaching professionals like those available on Wellavi.
Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or some other mental health issues, Wellavi provides a platform that connects highly-trained and compassionate coaches with those looking to holistically improve their mental health—all from the comfort of home. We know that social anxiety can make it difficult to seek out in-person assistance, and depression can make keeping and making it to appointments a struggle. That’s why we designed Wellavi the way we did—to offer those in need a safe, online platform for mental health coaching to work towards the betterment of their mental health.
In this blog, we’re going to discuss in further detail the struggles of anxiety and depression and how they relate to and interact with what we call the Six Dimensions of Wellness.
What Are the Six Dimensions of Wellness?
Everything that we do here at Wellavi is based on our proprietary and holistic approach to wellness called the Six Dimensions of Wellness. These dimensions are what we believe to be the most important aspects and contributors to one’s overall wellness. When your dimensions are all in order and thriving, your wellness and mental health will also thrive.
The Six Dimensions of Wellness are as follows:
- Professional Wellness — When your work-life is meaningful and in balance, managing all the other dimensions is easier.
- Mental Wellness — Mental wellness involves the state of your overall psychological and emotional well-being.
- Social Wellness — Quality interpersonal relationships are vital to this dimension of wellness, as they create a strong sense of connection that is important to overall wellness.
- Financial Wellness — When your bank account is full, and your financial future is optimistic and secure, your mental health is free to flourish unencumbered with the stress of financial insecurity.
- Intellectual Wellness — Keeping the brain active, engaged, and creatively satisfied can do wonders for your overall mental health.
- Physical Wellness — You’ve certainly heard it many times before, but it still rings true: a healthy body makes a healthy mind!
Every individual’s dimensions will be in a state of flux and flow throughout any given week, month, or year. And the more you’re able to strike a healthy balance in maintaining each of your six dimensions, the more you’ll find your mental health improving. That’s why mental health coaching has been so sought-after in recent years.
When you are paired with mental health coaching professionals on Wellavi, they’ll have a deep and empathetic conversation with you to get a better picture of where each of your dimensions of wellness is. And through a series of 1-on-1 and optional group sessions, they’ll offer you advice on a variety of ways that you can improve in each of your six dimensions of wellness.
But the question you may be wondering now is: How can depression and anxiety negatively affect the six dimensions of wellness? Well—we have some answers that will help both coaches and learners alike.
How Anxiety Affects Each Dimension of Wellness
According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue in the United States. More than 40 million adults over the age of 18—or 19.1% of the general population—every year report that they struggle with some form of anxiety disorder. From panic attacks and social anxiety to intense phobias and stress, anxiety symptoms manifest and affect each individual in their own personal way.
With these symptoms of anxiety comes a struggle to keep the various dimensions of your well-being healthy and well-balanced.
Anxiety and Professional Wellness
Anxiety can affect your professional wellness in a variety of ways. Performance and social anxiety can make it difficult to successfully deliver speeches, speak up during important meetings, and make the job of performance artists impossible. Meanwhile, general anxiety and stress within the workplace can negatively impact work output and happiness while on the clock and can even lead to joblessness due to poor performance or judgment when deciding to quit.
Anxiety and Mental Wellness
As a mental illness, anxiety, of course, affects your mental wellness the most. Not only can anxiety make it difficult to even get through the day, but it can make the most simple tasks feel like an immense pain to complete. This dimension of wellness, more than any other, is heavily impacted by the state of the other dimensions. And that’s why mental health coaching is so essential to balanced well-being. Without the proper habits or help, one aspect of wellness that you struggle with can easily cause a cascade of issues throughout the other dimensions of wellness.
Anxiety and Social Wellness
Social wellness can be deeply tied to your overall wellness, especially when it comes to anxiety. Issues such as anxiety in social settings and general anxiety can make keeping and maintaining friendships, and acquaintances feel like a burden. And the stress that follows only worsens the problem at hand if it leads to choosing to disconnect completely to reduce those levels of stress.
Anxiety and Financial Wellness
Your financial wellness’s effect on anxiety and stress is fairly obvious—the more financial insecurity you face, the more you will find yourself stressed throughout your day-to-day life. And vice versa, the better your financial security, the more likely you are to have minimal anxiety caused by your monetary situation.
However, anxiety’s impact on your financial wellness is more indirect, typically through the use of poor coping mechanisms. Those suffering from strong general anxiety often cope by spending money or investing as a means of distraction or delusion. Bad coping mechanics like binge shopping can wrack up debts and max out credit cards. Some may even make poor investment choices in an attempt to ease their financial worries.
But, through mental health coaching, as we offer here at Wellavi, you’ll be able to learn healthy coping mechanics and practice responsible financial decisions.
Anxiety and Intellectual Wellness
Keeping your mind intellectually stimulated can be hard enough on its own with today’s unending amount of ways to keep yourself distracted and ever-entertained. But, it can be even harder when struggling with anxiety as it only makes it more difficult to engage in new and meaningful intellectual challenges like learning new things, practicing hobbies, and finding a healthy creative outlet.
Anxiety and Physical Wellness
Whether it’s fear of the social pressure involved in going to the gym or self-destructive anxiety that can come from a negative body image, anxiety can immensely disrupt your physical wellness. From a lack of proper self-care and healthy eating to complete physical inactivity and self-harm, any and all of these issues can make maintaining even your best dimensions of wellness feel impossible.
How Depression Affects Each Dimension of Wellness
Anxiety and depression are deeply intertwined with one another—one can greatly exacerbate the other in a variety of ways. This makes perfect sense, especially when it has been reported that nearly 10% of all Americans suffer from depression as of 2022—with teens and young adults being the fastest-growing demographic.
And looking at the ways that depression can affect your dimensions of wellness below, you’ll find that anxiety and depression here, too, have a lot in common.
Depression and Professional Wellness
The negative effects on professional wellness typically manifest due to a lack of motivation or an increasing apathy toward the work being done. A lack of motivation can mean missed deadlines and late arrivals, while an apathetic attitude can create a confrontational attitude in the workplace and can even lead to skipping out on days of work.
This, of course, is not the best way to stay in your employer’s good graces and can quickly leave one suffering from depression without a job. Plus, a growing disdain for the work can also cause one to quit without good reason or proper planning ahead.
Depression and Mental Wellness
Much like anxiety’s effects on your mental wellness, depression can weigh exceedingly heavy on this dimension of wellness. One suffering from depression often experiences intense feelings of guilt, hopelessness, discontent, and sadness—all of which can shatter any balance of mental wellness.
For chronic and chemical-imbalance-related bouts of depression, medication is typically encouraged to promote your mental wellness. However, non-clinical solutions that you can learn through mental health coaching can also provide a life-changing shift in your mental health.
Depression and Social Wellness
Depression can wreak havoc on one’s social life. If you experience apathy as a symptom of your depression, it can cause you to come off as cold, callous, or rude in social interactions. Furthermore, the general sadness and lack of motivation you may experience hinder your ability to maintain communication with loved ones and even makes the simple act of getting outside and socializing a monumental task.
Depression and Financial Wellness
Your financial wellness and experience of depression are linked in the same way as your anxiety’s connection to your financial wellness—when one falters, the other can easily follow. In an attempt to cope—however unhealthily—with their symptoms of depression, some people will overspend or make reckless investments. This can be anything from excessive spending on unnecessary luxury items and constant comfort foods to reckless spending on self-medication via drugs and alcohol. Moreover, if apathy, disdain, and lack of motivation cause the individual suffering from depression to lose their job, this obviously greatly increases the financial stress they may experience.
Depression and Intellectual Wellness
A lack of motivation due to depression is one of the greatest enemies to one’s overall intellectual wellness. Without the motivation to learn, create, and upkeep whatever hobbies you may enjoy, it becomes more and more challenging to get back into an intellectually proactive schedule. This, in turn, only worsens the symptoms of depression. However, if you find that you are still productive, depression can leave you dissatisfied with the results of your effort.
Depression and Physical Wellness
It is well documented that depression can have significant and physique-altering consequences on your physical wellness. Those who suffer from depression experience these issues in a variety of ways.
Some folks use overeating as an unhealthy coping mechanism to quell their feelings of sadness and pain. This leads to weight gain and a loss of healthy muscle when also paired with an inability to make it to the gym or exercise in some form. Furthermore, others often resort to forms of substance abuse, whether through drugs or alcohol, which not only can result in weight gain or loss but can also result in long-term addiction, physical and mental health issues, and damaged organs.
Thankfully, as we mentioned above, there are plenty of clinical treatments to combat anxiety and depression, as well as a variety of sources—like our mental health coaching at Wellavi—that help to combat anxiety and depression in a healthy way.
Stay on the Right Path With Wellavi
The road to better mental health can’t always be walked alone. That’s why we are proud of the platform that we’ve created here at Wellavi. Through individualized and friendly mental health coaching, you’ll find that a whole new world is opened up to you in terms of personal wellness.
Our first-rate and thoroughly-vetted coaches will work with you closely on forming better habits, cultivating healthier thought processes and outlooks, and reaching your desired mental health goals. And at Wellavi, we make mental health coaching easier than ever before. Through a schedule that works best for your needs and a series of 1-on-1s, group conversations, and activities, we’ll find the right path forward for your unique needs.
So if you’re ready to bring your Six Dimensions of Wellness into alignment to help combat your anxiety or depression, a coach right here at Wellavi is waiting for you. Once you’ve signed up, our advanced AI algorithm through Wellavi TrueSelf will customize a personal experience just for you and work to find you the best coach to suit your end goals.
Don’t wait any longer—start your mental health coaching with Wellavi today!
