Mental health is crucial and integrates a component of health. Mental health includes an individual’s psychological, emotional and social well-being. Proper mental health results in the proper mental functioning that result in being productive in activities, healthy and fulfilling relationships with other people and having the ability to cope and adapt to adversity.
Proper mental health is essential in every stage of life – from childhood and teenage to adulthood. Throughout a lifetime, an individual can experience mental health issue at any point. This affects not only their mood and behaviour but also changes their way of thinking, of looking at life and facing challenges.
Even though mental health is a highly personal thing, what affects one person may or may not affect the other person; however, some significant factors contribute to mental health problems. These factors include life experiences such as trauma or abuse, biological factors such as genes or chemistry of the brain, and even the family history of mental health problems can affect an individual. Poor mental health is also linked with stressful work conditions, rapid social changes, gender discrimination, gender discrimination, social exclusion, physical illness and human rights violation.
Mental health problems are common, but for the longest time, people have avoided the entire concept of it and taken mental health for granted. At one point, mental health was considered taboo, and anyone seeking help was labelled as mentally ill. Mental health and mental illness are not similar things.
For a long time, mental health has been defined as the absence of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. Mental illness typically refers to all the diagnosable mental disorders – health conditions that are characterized by alterations in mood, thinking and behaviour associated with impaired functioning or distress.
Mental health and mental illness together go hand in hand. Individuals having optimal mental health conditions can also face mental illness, where people who have no mental illness can also have poor mental health. In recent times, people have started taking mental health seriously and taking proper steps in dealing with any mental health issues. Help is available out there; people with mental health problems can get better by seeking help.
People suffering from mental health issues show various symptoms such as little or no energy, pushing away people and pulling themselves back from regular activities, loss of sleep or the will to eat, smoking, drinking or doing drugs, feeling helpless, yelling and fighting, losing temper very quickly, harming themselves and many more.
Taking care of mental health not only is getting help from professionals when needed but also connecting with other, getting involved in physical activities, helping others, getting enough sleep and staying positive that there is a way out. Positive mental health allows people to realize their full potential, cope with stress in life, work productively and make meaningful contributions to the community. Various factors in people’s lives such as intrapersonal relations, physical factors, childhood trauma and many other conditions can disrupt mental health conditions. Taking care and looking after one’s mental health preserves an individual’s ability to enjoy life.
