Help others, Help Yourself To Improve Mental Health

In today`s time, mental health is of key importance and needs to be taken care of at an early stage. As per a new study which was conducted in the US, people who help others receive some help in return in the long run. For this study, 1000 Americans were surveyed and checked on their daily activities.

Help others, Help Yourself To Improve Mental Health 

The study also looked into the matter that of these 1000 people could be relied upon during the time of crisis. Baldwin Way who is a professor of psychology and the lead author of this study stated that helping family and friends has its own benefit.

It is said that when you help others who are in need your own depression and anxiety levels go down significantly. 

Tao Jing one of the co-authors of the study stated many people believe that if they help others someone will help them and this keeps them going forward. It has also been observed that women are at the forefront of helping people at all times as compared to men. For any social help or issues, women are the first to respond, but conclusive evidence cannot be generated that women are better as the sample size for this to do needs more people.

The study also took into aspects what people are willing to do and how far they are willing to go to help others. It was found that 80% of the people are willing to go only to a safe limit to help others in such a way that it does not harm them. While there have been few cases wherein people help others expecting them to help the person when he is in need.

A few of the reasons why helping others is a good thing are: –

• Makes your circle strong – By helping others you make new friends or in many cases strengthens the already existing bond between the people. It is also noted that people who help one another tend to be better associates in the long run and are much more comfortable with each other.
• Makes you feel good – When a person helps another person there is some amount of dopamine being released which makes you feel happy. Many people also stated that they help other people because this helps them relax and sleep peacefully at night.
• Helps you relieve your past mistakes – It has been found that many of the people had made some mistakes in the past which they could not correct. So by helping others they are trying to erase their past mistakes as well. 
• It forms a chain – Many a times it has been observed that a person helps other person because he or she was helped in the past by someone. This creates a chain of helping behaviour which can be quite good in today`s time.
• Helps you get away from loneliness – Even though technology has made us connect to people all around the world, it is observed that many of the people are still lonely and single. Helping others gives them a sense of relief and takes their loneliness away. It has been seen that people who has helped each other stayed much better friends for longer period. 
• Helps your confidence – People who do volunteering work have greater confidence and no stage fright. They have been used to talk to many people that this helps them in day to day life as well.

Thus helping others does help oneself in their daily activities. This also helps in the greater good as there are many people who are in need of help and not sure how to get it.