Experiencing certain types of pain is personal.
Your loved ones might hold your hand and support you in the journey, but sometimes, even they fail to understand your circumstances. So, in the end, it’s solely on you to cross the road yourself.
It feels like nobody really understands how you feel, so it’s hard to get the appropriate help.
Unfortunately, this is precisely how those suffering from mental health issues feel. While most remain oblivious to their situation, some are aware and want to seek help but fail because they cannot comprehend and communicate what’s happening in their minds.
People are left searching for the appropriate words to describe their condition when it comes to expressing their mental health symptoms or feelings experienced.
Once you know the right words to describe the emotions and pain you’re feeling, you can get the best type of support and care you need.
In the early stages of many mental health conditions, the symptoms are new and may transform your understanding of the world. Hence, it’s common for patients to struggle with finding relevant words that better describe their symptoms.
Hopefully learning more descriptive, profound words can help.
26 words that make it easier for to convey your feelings in your mental health journey
1. Rejected
A great word to use when you feel unwanted, alone and not accepted
“It’s the activated anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) raising my yearning to experience belonging-ness and connectedness.”
2. Desperation
A mental health condition convinces us that a circumstance is so dire that it can never change for the good. This leads to desperation.
“My brain is craving serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine and asking me to arrange them immediately.”
3. Doubtful
When you’re feeling like things may never get better and possibly suspicious of everything around you.
“The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is pushing to the limit to keep me safe by compelling me to analyze situations and the environment.”
4. Hopeless
“My dopamine, serotonin, and testosterone levels are going out of whack, causing me to think negatively about my chores, dreams, and long-term goals.”
5. Malaise
Malaise is not a disease but a symptom of other health conditions. It is a persistent state of tiredness, restlessness, distress, and being disinterested in doing regular chores and the things you once enjoyed without knowing the actual reason until it’s diagnosed.
“I’m not sure what’s causing me to not be in my best health, but it’s probably the peripheral nervous system acting up.”
6. Exhaustion
Feeling something beyond tired, as if you cannot go on as you were.
“The homeostatic maintenance system is working around the clock, and the pituitary gland has not been in my favor provoking imbalanced secretion of melatonin, making me feel drained throughout the day.”
7. Overwhelm
“Over-navigating life’s challenges makes my prefrontal cortex run out of battery. It needs rapid recharging to manage minor day-to-day tasks conveniently.”
8. Terror
Terror is a state of extreme fear. When an individual experiences fear, their brain can prepare a course of action to come safely out of the situation. However, when a person is terrorized, they almost “freeze” due to being overwhelmed.
“Lately, the amygdala has been on its high, keeping me on my toes with a sense of irrational danger.”
9. Numb
Your emotions feel muted, nothing thrills or even really upsets you very much.
“It’s the excessive cortisol production asking me to ignore my emotions and things happening in the background.”
10. Achiness
A physical symptom that can be indicative of a problem in the body, but can also be related to mental health.
“My dorsal posterior insula is acting up too much and intensifying the intensity of my muscles to feel a constant dull pain.”
11. Withdrawn
When socializing and even basic interactions are unappealing or feel like too much work.
“It’s the anterior cingulate circuit. A change in it has influenced my will to socialize and work on my goals.”
12. Baffled
A state of confusion or bewilderment that leaves you feeling unrooted.
“A slight decline in my estrogen levels has led me to make more efforts in analyzing situations and circumstances.”
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13. Debilitating
Used as an adjective to further describe a sensation, this word can more accurately express the severity of your experiences — that you’re no longer able to do life like you normally would. IE: not just fatigue, but debilitating fatigue. Not just sadness, but debilitating sadness.
“My cortisol levels are so spiked up that now it’s strenuous to feel refreshed, depending on whether I had a good night’s sleep.”
14. Dejection
A state of feeling sad or hopeless. When you feel like you’ve lost your spirit or spark.
“Feeling down because not much activity has been happening in my hippocampus lately.”
15. Embarrassment
“High action in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex tells me to fear being judged and ridiculed.”
16. Melancholy
Melancholy is a persistent state of guilt, hopelessness, and sadness.
“Due to the imbalanced functioning of the amygdala and hippocampus, I’ve been temporarily feeling low.”
17. Edginess
Feeling reactive, jumpy, uncomfortable or like you’re crawling out of your skin.
“Extreme excitatory signaling in the hippocampus and amygdala lead to intense emotional reactions to trigger stimuli.”
18. Grumpiness
“The brain is a bit crusty today. It’s the low levels of neurotransmitters (serotonin and dopamine) to blame.”
19. Angst
A sense of dread or angst that’s general, rather than focused on just one thing.
“Right now, my amygdala is hyperactive in alarming me of possible threats preparing me for an instant aggressive reaction, along with the catecholamines releasing a burst of energy to take a fight.”
20. Lost
When you don’t know where to turn or where to go next.
“The prefrontal cortex has accessed and processed much in the last few days. As it’s overworked, it’s not on its best performance and demands some rest now.”
21. Self-pity
“Neuro adrenaline silently convinces me to put myself down and attack my sense of self.”
22. Emptiness
“I’ve to put more effort into appreciating the things I once cared for. It appears the reduced functioning in the striatum is responsible for it.
23. Irritable
Not just grumpy, but experiencing an overall feeling of being bothered or uncomfortable, and often reacting toward other people unkindly.
“Seems like the fight or flight response of the amygdala is having a blast keeping me snapping over little things.”
24. Sorrow
Not just sadness, but grief.
“All my strong dejected emotions are being made powerful as the right occipital lobe, the left insula, and the left thalamus have joined hands with the hippocampus resurfacing memories.”
25. Vengeful
When you’re preoccupied with revenge, either at someone specific or in a general sense.
“The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can either suppress my urge to retaliate or shrink it, relying on which path I guide my thoughts.”
26. Dissociation
There are many different types of dissociation, but as The Cleveland Clinic explains, “This involves feelings of unreality or of being detached from your mind, body or self. It feels as if you’re observing your life and the events from afar rather than being an active participant.” This can also be the case with places or things you encounter.
“I feel as if I’m looking at myself from the outside and at my body and mind due to the nerve cells in the brain’s posteromedial cortex firing too much.”
Hopefully these words are helpful to you.
Positively framing your symptoms with meaningful words protects you from the fear and stigma attached to mental health conditions and offers a fresh and logical perspective that mental illness is not related to the inefficient character but has biological causes, taking away the burden from the individual.
Sidhharrth Kumaar is an astro-numerologist and Founder of NumroVani. He couples his knowledge in occult and modern sciences together to solve real-world problems in the areas of mental wellbeing and relationship growth.
