What is Mental Health?
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million adults in the U.S. will experience mental illness in a given year.Produced by: Emma Rodner-Tims
This video poses the question, “What is mental health?” to a number of professionals involved in mental health. However, their answers prove that defining mental health is not that simple. In fact, it may be nearly impossible.
Do You Know What Mental Health Is?
Mental Health is the combination of an individual’s emotional, psychological and social well-being. The balance and relationship of those three elements play a major role in a person’s thoughts, feelings and actions, as well as their ability to interact with others. No matter a person’s age, their mental health is important.
If an individual starts to experience a change in mental health, which could include a shift in feelings and/or behaviors, it is important that they make their mind a priority and take the steps necessary to seek treatment.
Although taking care of yourself seems like the obvious choice, that is not always what happens when it comes to mental health, which affects more people and areas of life than people believe. From school and work to government and insurance, no area of society is left untouched.
As with other matters of social justice, there are obstacles that members of the mental health community have to hurdle, such as a lack of resources and attitudes held by society.
It is our job to make sure that the mental health community has advocates and is understood. The more we know about mental health, the less likely mental health will seem taboo. If the conversation can grow big enough, mental health will receive the resources and treatment options it deserves.
Then mental health will finally be seen and treated equal to physical health.
Written by: Emma Rodner-Tims
“Mental illness is something a lot of people don’t understand,” Samantha Lomerson, Assistant Director of Mental Health Services at Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.