People nowadays are more aware of the importance of talking about mental health and mental illness. You may be hearing those terms frequently or wondering what they mean and what’s the difference between mental health and mental illness.
Are feelings like sadness or unhappiness a sign of mental illness? How can you look after your mental health? These are a few good questions that might come to your mind.
Discussing mental health and mental illness is a great way to lessen the shame or awkwardness that many people feel due to the prevailing mental health stigma
Having a proper understanding of those subjects can assist you in speaking more about mental health and provide support to people who might be struggling as they are afraid of reaching out. This is the reason there are so many mental health treatment centers such as residential mental health treatment in Southern California.
What is mental health?
Mental health is everything about mental well-being. As per the World Health Organization, somebody who is mentally ill can recognize their potential, cope with normal stressors, and contribute to the community in the best way. Mental health includes physical, mental, and social wellness. Good mental health helps a person to live a fulfilling, and satisfying life while dealing with daily challenges.
Factors such as traumatic events can have an impact on mental health, no matter whether someone has a mental illness or not. Things such as discrimination, exclusions and poor physical health also have an impact on the mental well-being of a person. You can encourage the mental health of a community through the following ways:
- Offering children a stable, cherishing, and caring environments
- Empowering and encouraging demoted groups
- Enhancing communities and prohibiting violence
- Providing mental health interventions and programs
- Offering treatment for mental illness with therapies, medicines, and other such methods.
People can enhance their mental wellness by making positive lifestyle adjustments and following a sense of purpose in life. A person’s mental health varies throughout their life, based on outside factors. Mental illness does not prevent somebody from attaining good mental health. With the required support, anybody can enhance their mental wellness.
When you are mentally healthy, then it helps in feeling, thinking and behaving in ways that can assist you in enjoying life and coping with life’s difficulties. However dealing with mental illness can lead to feelings of unhappiness, issues in thinking about something, and feeling overwhelmed by stressful situations.
Resilience, the inner strength you can use to cope with stressful situations, is also a major part of mental health. To be resilient means you can cope efficiently with the ups and downs of life. Building up resilience can assist you in avoiding getting overwhelmed by any stressful situations. This in turn builds up more resilience that offers you the confidence to realize that you can easily overcome difficult times when they come up again. It is vital to offer your mental health the required care and attention. There are certain things that you can do to maintain good mental health and certain factors that influence mental health to know about to assist you in building your understanding.
What is mental illness?
Mental health is always there and that can be positive or negative, but mental illness has an impact on an individual’s ability to function for a longer duration. Mental health is not the same thing as feeling sadness, unhappiness, or stress during any difficult situation. People who have mental illness might get distressed feeling regularly and feel like they do not have control over their lives. Mental illness affects how we see ourselves, the world around us, and how we interact with the world. It is vital to know that it is possible to have good mental health even after having a mental illness. Similar to other conditions, a lot of people with mental illness have to deal with tough times but they can also have periods of better mental health. Taking good care of mental health is vital for all.
Mental illness often includes changes in behavior, thinking, or mood. Symptoms vary and most commonly a person will experience substantial distress or inability to function normally for an extended period. Anybody can get mental illness and some of the risk factors that enhance the chance of getting mental illness are:
- A family history of mental illness
- Unsolved traumatic experience
- Stressful events in life such as the death of loved ones, divorce, or financial issues
- Environmental influences on the fetus, like exposure to drugs or alcohol
- Social factors like discrimination, hurdles to opportunities, or poverty.
Different kinds of mental illness are
- Depression: Major depressive disorder has several forms that have an impact on how a person thinks, feels, or functions. It is more about feeling sad once in a while, which is persistent and involves symptoms such as extremely low moods, difficulty in focusing, anxiety, social withdrawal, and exhaustion.
- Anxiety: while anybody can experience anxiety, those who have anxiety disorders get persistent and excessive worry. Symptoms include restlessness, trouble focusing, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep issues.
- Bipolar disorder: It includes severe changes in mood, concentration, and energy. Somebody who is suffering from bipolar disorder might feel energized one week and apathetic the next. These mood swings are known as manic and depressive episodes.
Mental health vs mental disorder
Mental health and mental illness are not the same. Mental health affects all people, but few experience mental illness. It is useful to realize that mental illness does not always result in poor mental health and that is not always because of mental illness. Life events and several other factors can have an impact on mental health, whether or not mental illness is there.
Experiencing mental illness is challenging, but there are supports and treatments available at many centers such as residential mental health treatment in Southern California. It is important to keep in mind that mental illness is a kind of health condition and each mental health condition has its criteria for getting diagnosed.
