Mental Health Matters
We all have mental health, it affects how we think, feel, and act every day. However, mental health is often ignored until something is going wrong. The best way to prevent that is to pay attention to your mental health even when you’re feeling ok or even good. We all have days when we feel better than others. And just like with our physical health, we can all do things that make us mentally healthier.
Mental health plays a big role in your overall well-being. When you’re mentally healthy, you can enjoy your life and the people in it, feel good about yourself, keep up good relationships, and manage stress. It’s normal for your mental health to shift over time. Creating positive habits is a great way to support your mental health.
A mental health condition, or mental illness, refers to a set of symptoms that have been identified by the mental health community. People with mental health conditions experience change in emotions, thinking, and/or behavior. For some, this means extreme and unexpected changes in mood, like feeling more sad or worried than usual. For others, it means not thinking clearly, pulling away from friends and activities you used to enjoy, or hearing voices that others do not. No matter what kind of mental health condition someone is facing, it is possible to heal.
Having poor mental health is not the same as having a mental health condition. We all have tough days and weeks; struggling with your mental health doesn’t automatically mean you have a mental health condition. To be diagnosed, with a mental health condition, the changes in your thinking and emotions must be seriously hurting your ability to do the things you want to do, and the symptoms are staying around longer than they should, like weeks or months.