8 Scientifically Proven Ways to Improve Mental Health Without Medication

Some people do not want, or can’t afford, to take medication for mental health issues. If you’re reading this article, this is probably you.

As a mental health counselor in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, I value people’s autonomy and right to make their own informed decisions about what is best for their own mental health - whether that involves the use of pharmaceuticals or not. 

If after your own consultation with your health care providers you feel like mental health medication is not the best course of action for you, here are 8 scientifically proven ways to improve overall mental health.

1. Gut health/Changes in Diet

In Emeran Mayer’s book The Mind-Gut Connection, Mayer tells a story of an older woman (Lucy) with various digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome, as well as recurring severe panic attacks. 

Lucy was given antibiotics for her IBS (to treat unhealthy microbes in her gut), and then probiotics for several weeks to restore her gut to optimum health. In addition, Mayer recommended that she eat fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and yogurt. 

“The goal”, Mayer writes, “was to increase the diversity of her gut microbiota in the hope to reestablish her original microbial architecture”(139, Mayer).  Lucy also learned mindfulness and relaxation techniques (see #6 in this article).  Eventually, Lucy was able to progress from having recurring severe panic attacks, to only having a single mild panic attack since the last time she saw Dr. Mayer.

This story is not unusual. Changing the overall gut health and make-up of microbes can have big impacts on our emotions.  For example, and this is actually true: 

Simply transferring the gut microbia of an ‘extroverted’ mouse to a ‘timid’ mouse, can make the timid mouse act extroverted (26, Mayer).  

This is a new area of research, so there’s a lot that’s currently not known, but there is research about the connection between fermented foods and anxiety reduction in animals, as well as research about a connection between fermented foods and a reduction in social anxiety in humans. It seems very plausible that fermented foods can effect the gut microbia to reduce anxiety and improve mental health. 

Here’s a list of commonly suggested fermented foods to try if you’re interested in incorporating fermented foods in your diet:

• Sauerkraut

• Kimchi

• Kefir

• Kombucha 

• Miso

• Tempeh

• Yogurt 

• Apple Cider Vinegar 

The idea that eating certain foods will make you feel better isn’t just some old wives tale. There’s a lot of research specifically exploring the link between diet and mental health.

For a while researchers thought they could isolate single foods or vitamins that would be the silver bullet against depression and other mental illnesses, but the field seems to have largely moved on from that idea, and focused instead on the effects of overall healthy diet on mental helath. This 2014 journal article reviewed six different databases of depression and diet studies to try to get an overall picture of what was happening.  They found that a ‘healthy diet’, one consisting of fruits, vegetables, fish, and whole grains is associated with reduced risk of depression. Another study focusing on women found that women who ate ‘traditional’ diets (fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, whole grains) as opposed to ‘western’ diets (fried foods, refined grains {white bread, white rice, and white flour}, sugary foods and beer) had lower levels of depression. These studies (and others) showed these links between diet and depression even when they took into account other factors like income level and education. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about possible dietary changes, I totally get it. It really can be overwhelming. Every year or so there’s a new trendy diet that being marketed to us. This MayoClinic article gives advice that we probably all know intellectually, but have trouble following through on in a practical way: eat balanced meals with fresh fruit and vegetables.  When we hear it put like that, it may seem much more doable. 

Just to give you one more resource if you’re interested in learning more about basic healthy eating (a lot of us may default to the recipes our mom used to make when we think about what healthy eating is, when in actuality our moms cooking may not be as healthy as we think), my own doctor recommended the book The Blue Zone, which is about overall health not mental health in particular, but does have a section on the diets that people eat in the parts of the world where people are the healthiest.

I’ll just close with this necessary word of wisdom from Ellen Vora in her book The Anatomy of Anxiety:

When we get too attached to a particular style of eating, we walk a delicate tightrope between paying attention to what we eat and falling prey to obsessive thinking about food, which is not only conducive to anxiety but can also lay the groundwork for eating disorders.

Ellen Vora, p. 78.

2. Exercise and Movement

Physical exercise is associated with a positive effect on mental health.

We all know that exercise is in some way good for us, but for many of us, that kind of vague knowledge isn’t enough to get us to actually exercise.  

There are lots of things that we know are good for us that we probably don’t do. Until you really see the benefit of something, you’re just not going to do it.  That makes total sense. But, once you see and experience the benefits of exercise for yourself, you’re much more likely to continue to exercise in the future.

In this article I wrote here, I share five ways that exercise specifically improves anxiety. Here’s a quick summary of the article - the 5 ways that exercise reduces anxiety:

1. Exercise Reduces Anxiety Sensitivity - You’re ability to feel physical symptoms associated with anxiety like shortness of breath and pounding heart, and still remain calm and grounded

2. Exercise Reduces State Anxiety - Exercising when anxious has immediate short-term benefits of decreasing anxiety.

3. Exercise Reduces Trait Anxiety - Regular exercise doesn’t just help you in the moment, it’s also linked to long-term reduction of anxiety even when you are not exercising.

4. Healthy Chemicals - Exercise helps release healthy chemicals like GABA, BDNF, serotonin, and endocannabinoids. 

5. (Re)Processing Stored Trauma - Exercise helps released stored trauma in our system, and helps our bodies complete their natural fight/flight cycle.

If reading this is peaking your interest in exercise and you’re wondering where to start, here’s what I tell clients: do the body movement that you actually enjoy and are likely to do again. Some people really enjoy ways of moving their bodies traditionally associated with exercise. I’m talking about things like team sports, weight lifting, fitness classes, circuit training, etc. But, for a lot of people, they would rather pull their own teeth out with rusty pliers then sign up for a kettle bell class. 

If traditional exercise is not your thing, that’s okay. 

The important thing is to find creative ways to move your body that can elevate your heart rate, but also bring you a sense of joy. Here are 9 ways of moving your body that people often don’t consider, but that definitely count:

1. Dancing

2. Jumping Rope

3. Stair Climbing

4. Playing with Children

5. Cleaning your House Vigorously 

6. Washing your Car

7. Mowing the Lawn

8. Working in the Garden

9. Brisk Walks 

3. Nature and Outdoor Time

Increased urban living has brought us increased prosperity and education, but, has also decreased the amount of access that most of us have to nature. 

Researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the mental health benefits that being in natural environments has on humans.

Natural sights and sounds, for example, have been shown to have psychological and stress-decreasing benefits. Here are just some of the recent mental health benefits being attributed to time spent in nature:

• Positive affect

• SubjectiveW ell-being

• Positive social-interactions

• Meaning and purpose

• Ability to manage life tasks

• Decrease in mental distress

• Reduction in stress

• Lower levels of anxiety and depression

If you’re wondering how much time exactly you should be spending in nature - the number that gets thrown around a lot online is about 2 hours a week. If you don’t have the opportunity to do more immersive experiences like weekend camping, there are lots of ways you can get the benefits of being around nature that can be incorporated into your urban lifestyle. Short walks around your neighborhood or a nearby park before or after work or picnics in a park when weather permits are all relatively easy ways to spent time in nature.

4. Healthy Relationship to Social Media

The full picture around social media and mental health is complex and rapidly changing. 

Human connection and meaningful relationships are at the heart of being a healthy and thriving human.  We are social beings that need social support in our lives (see #7 in this article). This has led some researchers to take a positive view on social media, with one study showing how using social media can help us to better maintain offline relationships, which can help with higher self-esteem and life satisfaction for example.  Another study found that higher Facebook use resulted in increased life satisfaction. 

However, a third study found that the more someone clicked ‘like’ on social media, clicked on a link posted on social media, or posted on social media, the lower their mental health scores were.  

With confusing and often contradictory information, it can be difficult to make research-based concrete statements about social media use for people. However, one of the best articles I’ve read on social media use broke up social media use into three distinct ways of using/consuming social media:

1. Active vs Passive Use - Engaging in social media where you are actively posting and participated in conversations with others seems better for our mental health than when we are passively and mindlessly consuming without any meaningful interaction with others.

2. Social Support vs Social Comparison - Using social media to feel connected and support by others has much more positive mental health benefits than when our social media use is primary about negative social comparisons (e.g., why other people are more successful, beautiful, rich, etc.).

3. Positive vs Negative Interaction - If you view your interactions on social media as positive, social media use is going to affect your mental health in a much different way than if you view most of your interactions as negative. Cyberbullying is the most prominent form of negative social media interaction, but, you might ask yourself during and after social media use, what am I experiencing here? Am I having positive or negative interactions? And, if I’m having negative interactions, what needs to change?

5. Adequate Sleep

There are some circles where a lack of sleep is celebrated like a badge of honor:

“I’m working so hard for the company, I only got 5 hours of sleep last night!”

“I had to pull an all-nighter to finish this paper, I only slept for 90 minutes!”

But, a lack of sleep does have negative effects on our mental health. It decreases concentration and mental clarity, increases irritability, mood swings, and depression, and can come with negative physical effects as well. 

Sometimes getting adequate sleep is as easy as making it a priority. But sometimes, even when we try to get sleep, it can still feel as if it eludes us. In this article I share the research-supported best-practices to increase your ability to sleep at night and decrease insomnia. Your night time routine in the build up to sleeping can have a large effect on your ability to sleep better throughout the night. Here are some best practices:

• Exercise 2 hours before bed

• Don’t eat too much or too little

• Limit caffeine 6-8 hours before bed

• Limit alcohol and nicotine before bed

• Take a warm shower or bath

• Sleeping pills can be used occasionally, but lose effectiveness over time

Furthermore, here are best practices for creating a bedroom environment that supports sleep:

• Put your thermostat at a moderate temperature

• Reduce light by using curtains or blinds

• Don’t try to sleep with the tv on 

• Do not have clocks somewhere where you can see them in the middle of the night

6. Meditation/Mindfulness

The benefits of mindfulness practices have been known for centuries. It’s only recently that modern scientific research has caught up, and more and more studies are showing the benefits of the practices. 

Mindfulness has been shown through peer-reviewed scientific literature to have the following benefits:

• Stress reduction

• Self-control

• Objectivity

• Increased flexibility

• Increased concentration

• Emotional regulation

• Decreased anxiety

• Decreased depression

• Increased relationship satisfaction

So what is mindfulness? One of the great definitions that gets shared a lot is that mindfulness is simply non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. When we find ourselves in the present moment with a sense of openness, suddenly we begin to receive all those mental health benefits listed above.

If you’re interested in trying some mindfulness meditation, here’s what I usually recommend. Set a timer for 5-20 minutes, sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and simply focus on your breath. As your mind begins to pull you away from your breath towards other things (random thoughts, criticisms, judgments, things you notice about your body, things you notice about the world outside your body), gently and compassionately return your focus back to your breath. That’s really it. The practice of simply noticing what’s happening inside and around us and returning gently back to the breath helps us learn to notice things inside and around us, and rather than reacting with judgment or frustration or tension, simply allowing them to be with compassion. I recommend committing to practicing a couple times a day, and slowly increasing the timer to about 20 minutes each time.

As you practice and gain experience existing in the present moment in that controlled setting, you can begin to bring that mindful awareness naturally into other areas of your life. Here’s an article I wrote about 7 daily mindfulness practices you can engage in on a daily basis. They include:

1. Mindful driving

2. Mindful cooking

3. Mindful cleaning

4. Mindful dish washing

5. Mindful showering

6. Mindful coffee/tea drinking

7. Mindful eating

Again, the practice of being mindful involves opening to the present moment as is, and allowing it to be what it is.  

7. Community

One of the unfortunate and destructive myths that gets passed around in our culture is the idea that people, and men in particular, should be completely self-sufficient. If you need other people, the myth goes, you must be weak - there must be something wrong with you.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Community is an incredibly important part of mental health.

Finding a sense of community can look like support, intimacy, and connection with individual family members and friends. It can also look like finding larger communities to be a part of where you are known, and where you are working together towards a common goal. 

Spiritual or religious groups that you align with, or political /non-profit organizations that share your values can be great places to meet others and find a sense of shared purpose in life.

It can be a little scary to put yourself out there initially and ask someone to do something together or to check out a new organization. I totally get that. But if you can allow yourself to be with the discomfort for a little while, you can soon find yourself with a sense of community that greatly increases your mental health.

8. Mental Health Counseling

I remember the first time I went to counseling, I asked my therapist how often clients actually benefit from therapy. Without skipping a beat, my therapist replied, “100%. Basically 100% improve”.

Now, research shows that it’s not 100%, but I think the overall sentiment she was expressing is that mental health counseling really is effective and really can help people. As a therapist that works with men, I can confidently say that most people really do experience change from counseling. 

While each person’s needs are different, here are a few ways people can benefit from counseling:

• Learn how to regulate themselves when they become emotionally activated.

• Gain new insights and understanding about themselves and others.

• Heal from the past and discover how to live in the present.

• Experience acceptance and compassion from the therapist, and eventually learn to accept and offer compassion for yourself.

• Discern what you want in life moving forward, and gain the tools to get it.

• Learn healthy communication.

• Find your inner sense of calm, courage, and connection.

Conclusion

Improving our mental health is a holistic process. Whether you choose to use medication or not, it involves a multifaceted approach that really encompases all aspects of our lives. The stories and scientific evidence presented throughout this article underscore the interconnectedness of our physical, emotional, and social well-being. From the intriguing links between gut health and mental states to the transformative power of exercise, nature, and mindfulness, it's evident that all of our micro decisions play a significant role in shaping our mental health.

By making conscious choices in diet, exercise, nature engagement, social media use, sleep, mindfulness, and seeking support, we can embark on a journey toward enhanced well-being, emotional resilience, and a more fulfilling life. Remember, your mental health is an ongoing journey, and these scientifically proven strategies offer a path to support and nurture your mind.

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Wishing you the best on your mental health journey.

Hi, I’m Travis.

My clients describe me as calm, compassionate, and curious…

You have these qualities inside you at your core too. You just need a little help uncovering them.

If you’re dominated by anger, anxiety, shame, or self-criticism, I can help you re-connect with who you really are: confident, calm, courageous, compassionate, and connected to yourself and others.

Travis Jeffords - LCMHCA | MDiv. | Male Counselor

In-person counselor: Greensboro & Winston-Salem

Virtual counselor: North Carolina

Licensed Counselor

Please note: The information provided in this blog is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional counseling or therapy. The content presented here is based on my professional knowledge, personal experiences and research, but it should not be considered as a replacement for individualized mental health advice.

Every individual is unique, and the content provided may not be applicable to everyone's specific circumstances. It is important to consult with a licensed mental health professional regarding your specific concerns and to receive personalized guidance tailored to your needs.