Even though mental health problems affect the wellbeing of one in four of us in this country, it’s still common for you to experience stigma and discrimination as a result. Many still buy into the myth that mental illness is somehow related to your “personal weakness”, so how do we actually define mental health?
If you are mentally healthy, it means you can cope with the normal stresses of life and carry out the usual activities you need to in order to look after yourself. You also realise your potential and can make a contribution to your community. However, mental wellness isn’t a box you can tick and never have to worry about it again; your sense of wellbeing doesn’t always stay the same and can fluctuate and change depending on your circumstances and stages of life. Still, that is not to say that going through the common emotional periods in life, such as stages of stress or grief, means that you are mentally ill.
The symptoms of mental illnesses last longer than normal and are often not a reaction to daily events. While no one knows the exact cause of most mental illnesses, a combination of physical, psychological and environmental factors are thought to play a role. You are considered to have a significant psychological or mental illness if your symptoms are so severe that they interfere with your ability to function. For example, if you have clinical depression, your persistent and intense sadness will cause you to become withdrawn and unmotivated over several weeks or months.
The reason why wellness expert define mental health problems is so they can refer you for the right care and treatment. Broadly speaking, mental illness symptoms are grouped in two broad categories; neurotic and psychotic. At any one time, roughly one in 10 people experience a neurotic condition or mood disorder. This means you have an extreme form of usual emotional experiences, such as depression, anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Psychotic symptoms, on the other hand, are far rarer as they only affect approximately one in 100 of us. This includes conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as psychotic symptoms interfere with your perception of reality, which, in turn, impairs your thoughts and judgments.