Seeking professional help for your mental health can be life-changing, but it can feel like a scary and sometimes bewildering process for those who've never been through the system. Luckily, it's a lot easier than you'd think to get started on the right path. Here's what you need to know.

The unfortunate truth is that we’re all going to deal with hard times, whether it’s reliving trauma, losing a loved one, dealing with a physical illness, suffering from depression, and on and on. So, what are your strategies for dealing with times of high stress or anxiety? It could be things you’re doing this week or methods you’ve used in the past to overcome hard times.

Happiness, it’s been said, is the goal of all human endeavour. Why else do we strive to improve medicine, strengthen economies, raise literacy, lower poverty, or fight prejudice? It all boils down to improving human well-being.

Today is RU OK Day, a mental health initiative aimed at encouraging people to have difficult conversations about mental health. Many people, however, are totally unprepared when the answer to "are you okay" is "no." Here's a guide to talking to the people in your life who are struggling with mental health, especially for anyone who has never been in that headspace themselves.

When you’re depressed, any little thing — from filling a prescription to making yourself a sandwich — can seem impossible. Writer Molly Backes recently tweeted about what she calls “The Impossible Task”, and if you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, you probably know exactly what she’s talking about.

More than 2800 people take their own lives in Australia each year, while as many as 65,000 attempt suicide, and hundreds of thousands more are affected by the ongoing results of these actions. Yet there is little open conversation about suicide, and a lingering stigma makes it hard for those who are struggling to reach out and get help. For the sake of those around you who may be silently suffering, here are five things to know about suicide, and how to help people who struggle with suicidal behaviour.

After his third daughter arrived, Matt Villano was trying to keep his career afloat while helping his wife manage her emotional transition to becoming a mum of three when he suddenly found himself “completely underwater.” For the 42-year-old freelance writer in Sonoma County, California, it felt difficult to even get a full breath. “Everything was upside down,” he says.

There's still a lot we don't know about mental illness, but medical professionals are starting to place more importance on factors like diet and sleep in the treatment of these conditions. A review of the literature has identified some of the best nutrient-rich foods that can aid sufferers of depression and anxiety.

I tend to have very vivid dreams. I recently dreamed that I hit a home run at Wrigley Field as a member of my favourite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, for example. But I also dreamed the clown from It came to haunt me at the top of every hour as I roamed a crowded casino.

Antidepressants are important, often lifesaving drugs, but there is a cost for their effectiveness. The medications are dispensed with a fact sheet listing a whole host of potential side effects, many of which will probably be experienced at some point.

But sometimes more concerning are the weirder side effects that don't get mentioned in any of the documentation. While these are generally common and known to both patients and doctors, you often don't hear about them until you experience them the first time yourself.

Even before you download an app to help you meditate, or to manage your depression, it's speaking to you. Apps' marketing often implies that everyday stresses should be seen as mental health issues, and that you're on your own (with the help of the app, of course) to fix whatever is wrong with you.

The world can be a pretty terrible place. Even when things are going good, there's always a grim news headline waiting to completely spoil your day. If you're finding that life has lost some of its colour, you probably need to reboot and focus on the things that make you happy. This infographic suggests 37 ways to to tweak your everyday life for a happier existence.

Winter has finally arrived: This morning in Melbourne, the temperature was 6°C. It's cold! For some people, the first freezing winds of winter are doubly depressing — we're closing in on the shortest day of the year (June 21), which means we're not getting a good dose of sunlight and it's too cold to go outside and get some exercise and fresh air.

If you've ever been in the hospital recovering from a surgery, you know the health care providers will ask you to "rate" your pain on a scale of one to ten, so they can administer pain relief if you need it. But assessing mental-health distress doesn't have a simple scale, because mental health isn't as straightforward as physical pain.

Postnatal depression affects one in seven women, but it doesn't always manifest itself as sadness. It's true that many experience sorrow and bouts of crying for reasons they often can't explain, but there's actually a spectrum of symptoms and illnesses that fall under the umbrella of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

The human body is not designed to stay awake for long periods of time. We've evolved a system that works in a rhythm - an internal clock that drives biological processes to work at different times throughout a 24 hour period. Disrupting this rhythm can have stark consequences, but it also may be key in helping to treat depression.

An extremely nasty feature of depression is an overwhelming indifference to the concept of staying alive. Eating is a prerequisite for life, so it makes perverse sense that, for many people, it's among the first victims of a depressive episode.

iOS/Android: The urge to self-harm, the Calm Harm app tells us, is like a wave. It's strongest at the beginning, but if you ride the wave, it will soon be over. Apps are no substitute for a good therapist, but people who struggle with these moments of crisis say the right app really helps.

Over the past decade, hordes of innocent people have bought the idea that the third Monday of January is the most depressing day of the year – despite there being no scientific evidence to support it. While originally conceived by a PR company, mental health professionals have despaired. That’s because, to many people, the Monday blues is a reality.

This may in part be due to the power of self-fulfilling prophecy. When we hold some expectations about an event, people, or ourselves, we start behaving in a way that matches our expectations.