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A lot of people find the term "mental health" scary. The term 'mental health' makes most of us think of 'mental illness'. The images it brings up are of "schizo’s", "psycho’s", "nutters" etc. and makes you think of the ‘men in white coats’. Mental illness brings to mind a range of psychological problems which may make people behave differently. It is surrounded by myths, uncertainty and ignorance. Because of fears, we tend to think of mental illness as something which happens to other people, not to us, to our the families or to our friends. The difference between 'mentally ill' and 'mentally healthy' is not clear cut. Most of us at some time will feel stressed or unhappy. Things which we normally deal with easily can be too much for us. Behaviour might change- we may get angry easily or become very quiet and withdrawn. You may not think this is the same thing as real 'mental illness'. But if feelings of sadness or unhappiness go on for a long time they can interfere with our everyday lives and relationships. What we consider as mental illness is just a more extreme form of what we normally experience in the course of our lives, rather than something completely different and hard to understand.
When you refer to physical health it means the health of your physical being; similarly mental health simply refers to the health of the mind. It’s about how we feel, how we think and make sense of the world. Therefore everyone has mental health, just as everyone has physical health. Having good mental health means more than just the absence of mental illness. It is about physical and emotional well-being. Having the strength and ability to live a full and creative life, the flexibility to deal with its ups and downs and the capacity to learn and develop. No-one has perfect mental health all the time, just like no-one has perfect physical health all the time. But there are things we can do to help us get through difficult times and help us have good mental health.
There are things you can do to make your physical health better or worse – if you exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet etc you are more likely to remain physically healthy. If you sit in front of the TV all day, never doing any exercise, eat junk food, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or take drugs, you wouldn’t expect to be physically healthy. Mental health is the same – you can help yourself remain mentally healthy – see the section on positive steps for feeling good. Problems with mental health are more common than you may think - follow this link to find out more!
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