Staying on top of your mental wellbeing is one of the most important things you can do throughout your life, so taking the time to work on physical and mental health whenever possible can go a long way to improving your overall health for years to come. Introducing mental stimulation where possible has a significant amount of benefits apart from keeping your mind active – it can enable more creative thinking, increase alertness and problem-solving, and it can also help manage some of the issues that are caused by multiple sclerosis. In this article, we take a look at a few ways you can stay on top of your mental health to prevent the degradation of your mental health with MS.
How multiple sclerosis affects cognition
Although there are certainly different types of multiple sclerosis, maintaining high cognitive function can help considerably in helping manage all of them in the same way. Multiple sclerosis can impair human cognitive function in a few different ways, with the majority of people with the disease experiencing some form of unexpected cognitive change. This might be represented as things like a change in the speed of information processing, a gradual loss of memory and a loss of attention. If you do find that these changes in mental capacity are occurring with your multiple sclerosis, it’s important that you let a health professional know so that they can assess your condition and help you with a management plan. These changes in brain chemistry occur due to it being a neurological disease, and it particularly affects those that have experienced limited engagement with activities that promote the stimulation of cognitive pathways. Although it is fair to say that you can’t go back in time and rectify a lack of cognitive engagement, there are actually a lot of ways to stimulate your mind now to help prevent further decline in the future.
Ways you can exercise your mind
There are a huge assortment of activities that you can engage with to keep your mind active and have fun while you’re at it. Depending on your interests, you might want to consider things like writing (whether it be creative writing or some journaling), regular reading, arts and crafts, board and card games, sudokus and crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. Learning new skills is also a rally great way to keep your mind active, so learning to play an instrument or a new language can be a great way for you to surprise not only yourself, but others around you! For some people, doing these as solitary activities can be a bit difficult, particularly as there is little support and encouragement, which is why joining a group of like-minded people can be so beneficial. Whether it be book or games club, a local church group or a writer’s club meetup, having a support network can make all the difference.
Take the time to improve your mental faculties
Spending time working on your cognitive health is absolutely worth the investment – to ensure that you don’t experience further degradation in the future, engaging with fun and rewarding activities designed to stimulate your brain can mean you don’t have to endure the neurological downsides that can occur in people with multiple sclerosis.