Introduction to Mental Health

In this lesson, we are going to talk about mental health. So, What is Mental Health? And how to understand it will be our primary concern in this video. As the interest and curiosity about mental health have increased in among people these days, we are about to share some information on the topic. 

Firstly, what comes to your mind when you think of Mental Health? Let’s ponder upon it. When presented with the question, many people tend to relate it to depression, anxiety, stress, tension and worry, and you may have understood mental health from such terms. But is this interpretation correct? 

This understanding is undoubtedly incomplete because mental health does not just mean illness or disorder; mental health is, in many ways is related to our wellbeing. Let’s think of it this way: When we think of overall physical health, it not only relates to physical illness; physical health also encompasses elements of exercise, a balanced diet, clean air and water. 

Similarly, mental health is not only about diseases but also about mental wellbeing. Furthermore, to understand what a mental being is and what it consists of; WHO has outlined five ways that constitute to mental wellbeing: 

Whether we are aware of realizing our own potential or not and whether we are aware of our strengths or weaknesses and what we are interested in doing or what makes us feel good. Being aware of our ability can reduce the dilemma of life and helps us to focus on our work. This allows us to answer questions about who I am and why was I born? This could potentially have a positive effect on our mental health.

The ability to cope and manage stressful situations in life: everyone has to deal with stressful situations in life, but the ability to deal with them varies from person to person. A person who can cope with such stresses well is more likely able to maintain sound mental wellbeing, and if they cannot cope with such situations well, they are more likely to be exposed to other mental health issues. 

Productivity: in terms of how productive we are in our work and how it affects our mental health. This suggests how happy we are with our work, how interested we are in our work, and whether we are good at it. Eventually, these answers are directly linked to our mental health.

Social Contribution: It informs us about the progress we are making towards the welfare of society by engaging in social activities in our society. As human beings, we need to have a sense of community. It gives us a distinct identity, value, respect and prestige in our community linked to our mental health. 

Social Relations: We interact with different people in society based on our relationships. There is a different kind of interaction with your family members and different interaction with your friends. Interaction on social media has equally been added in the dynamics of social relations. The question of how much these interactions and relationships mean in our lives is essential. 

Whether we have people available to express our feelings when we are in a difficult situation, whether we have relationships to help us when we are in pain, whether we have people available to share our joys and pleasures, informs us about how meaningful our relationships are. Good and meaningful social relationships have a positive effect on our mental health, while abusive and insulting relationships have a negative effect on mental health.

Therefore, mental health is not a completely black or white concept. This means that mental health should not be understood as a disorder or illness as a whole, neither as illness or the absence of any disorder. In particular, mental health needs to be understood in a continuum. To understand it thoroughly, mental health could be understood on a scale or measure where there is mental illness on one side and complete mental health on the other side. And so, in reality, many people find themselves at the junction of these two sides or in the middle or between. Thus, only a few people find themselves on these opposite sides in this measure of mental health. 

If someone asks to rate our feelings from 1 to 10, where one is very frustrating and deceptive, and ten is very happy and joyful, most of us will rate 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc. and only a handful of people rate 1 or 10. So this feeling of average relates to Mental Health