MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health has always been a vital aspect of our existence however over the past decade the question “Why is mental health important?” has been repeatedly asked considering the growing demands of our society and the level of competition draining and exhausting us, leaving a little time for our own selves. Before answering this question let us first understand what actually health comprises of? So, when we talk about the term health our focus straight away goes to physical component of health that points out towards a healthy functioning of our physical bodies and absence of illness at a give point of time. Now if we imagine a healthy physical body but with a questionable mental health then can we call that individual as maintaining a complete well-being, well we cannot. Therefore both physical and mental component of health are mutually inclusive and both demand equal attention and care. There are various ways through which we can work on improving our mental health.
World Health Organization states “Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make contribution to his or her community”. This definition lays emphasis on a complete state of well being and not mere absence of illness per se.
Components of Mental Health
Mental health can broadly comprise of psychological, emotional and social aspects of every individual’s life and they can also mediate each other. Now let us understand a in detail about the components of mental health.
| PSYCHOLOGICAL | EMOTIONAL | SOCIAL |
Psychological health
When people are consciously aware of their own thoughts, worth, traits, capabilities and flaws and yet are able to accept themselves, then they are in true sense mindful, and will be able to modulate themselves when required. An individual’s confidence and esteem about their own selves is also an important facet, this when combined with self awareness not only encourages them to achieve but also helps them towards acceptance and take accountability when desired goal is not achieved. Psychological health helps people in achieving autonomy; they become intrinsically influenced towards a holistic growth rather than being affected by pressure or external control.
Emotional Health
Emotions are usually patterned reactions to events and subjective interpretations of those events. We are all born with emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, fear, shame to name a few. When we are able to manage its intensity, fluctuation and frequency as per the demand of the environment then we tend to have regulated emotions, for example being happy and displaying it through just smiling in the presence of a formal group or simply dancing around in joy with your loved ones. However, there can be circumstances or factors which can disrupt our emotional health like presence of a trauma or a conflict. This can lead to dysregulated emotions. Emotion dysregulation can appear like a person drowning in one’s own emotions or feeling emotions with extreme intensity. This can also affect the way we interpret or perhaps misinterpret the meanings associated with events. We then project secondary emotions like “being angry about, being angry”.
An emotionally healthy mind teaches us:
- Emotions are like waves they will come and go and we can achieve surfing over them by patiently observing their transition.
- It also suggests that we can rewire the interpretation of events and thoughts in order to regulate the emotions.
- For example A person is feeling “sad” after being rejected by someone, he then interprets it as “I am worthless” and has extreme emotional feelings of “despair” here in this example the emotions are intensified with its interpretation in a particular erroneous manner, it can be rewired as “One rejection does not contribute to my worth as a person” this interpretation will then regulate the emotion thereby promoting emotional health.
Social Health
We humans are social creatures, we need love and belongingness to be validated internally, and to feel connected. A good social health and well-being helps in keeping our overall mental health balanced. This can be best explained through, the way we take part in our relations with others, how well we are able to put forward our opinions and also respect the other person’s opinions, how well we understand their emotions and react to it, and most importantly how well we are able to co-exist. Social life fulfills our need for love which is placed over basic physiological and safety needs, so once the individual is able to achieve basic living prerequisites, he would feel the need of human interaction and developing attachments. In today’s world which is a fast moving and ever changing, people are left with limited time for maintaining social interactions which usually in a longer run hampers ones social health. People often then develop attachment issues, leading to insecurities and non effective communication which ultimately can hamper other components of our mental health.
People should take out time from their busy schedules to maintain their social groups by indulging in conversations, keeping forth opinions, having a healthy discussion or simply catching up with friends and relatives. Family quality time is also a healthy way to sustain our bonds. However, there can be times when one can feel disconnected or would intentionally become withdrawn, this is something as a family member or a part of social group one should be aware and should be available to provide help when required.
Why we fail to take care of our mental health unlike our physical health?
It is surprising, that the amount of mental abilities we use in each and every activity like currently reading, and still we often neglect our mental health as well as avoid explicit discussions around the same. We are lucky that our mind has sufficient ability to bounce back after so much exertion and so we should take care of it.
There are various factors that mediate the way we look at our mental health:
Lack of Awareness
It is said that fear of unknown is always higher so the basic lack of knowledge of mental health also contributes to its negligence and is associated with apprehensions. Lack of awareness is due to the dearth of people coming forward and advocating it and gradually it becomes a process. Evolving over time we have some knowledge about physical health and how to take care of it through exercise, nutrition, life style etc. Similarly it is necessary that we take the same path for mental health.
Stigma
There has been a sense of stigma attached to the words “mental health” or “mental illness” and this is seen to prevail to an extent in all cultures and communities irrespective of their educational backgrounds. For example people are not seen hiding the fact that they are physically tired or having aches and want to take a leave from work. This isn’t the same for mental health, we seldom come across people owning upto their mental health or taking a break for reasons like overwhelmed emotions, and here we are only talking about mental health, what if it is actually about a mental illness? The situation is much more difficult. In our country we see people suffering and hesitating in taking professional help primarily due to lack of awareness and secondly due to attached stigma.
Role of early exposure
The amount of exposure we have for our physical health through early teaching at formal level or home level is not the same for mental health. Unintentionally, we often lay more emphasis on things that we are able to see and we abandon that we can only feel.
As family or as parents we time and again become concerned for physical ailments in our children and we surpass emotional pains or traumas. These traumas have the similar magnitude and significance in a child’s development. By doing so the child can learn to let go mental health issues and consider them unimportant. This can impact their overall temperament and the way they will deal with crisis in future.