Lifestyle and Mental Health

Posted on: June 9, 2025

The theme of this year’s (2025) American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting was the role of lifestyle in mental health. While I have always known that lifestyle contributes to mental health, I was blown away by the amount of new, scientific research on these topics. Generally this information is broken down into five lifestyle “pillars”: Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Stress Management and Social Connection. I think of them as five questions:

What are you eating?

What do you do to move your body?

How much sleep do you get?  Is it restorative?

What do you do to manage stress?

Who can you rely on when times are tough?

In subsequent blog posts I’m going to share what I’ve learned in hopes that it can help you as well. 

Posted in: Fundamentals