What is Mental Health?

What is Mental Health? Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. According to MentalHealth.gov, “our mental health affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices”. When talking about mental health its important to know everyone has mental health.

There has been some confusion that mental health and mental illness mean the same thing when they do not. A mental illness is an illness and it affects the way people think, feel, behave, or interact with others. There are many different mental illnesses, they have different symptoms, and they impact people differently. Not everyone will experience a mental illness but in the course of a lifetime but “everyone will struggle or have a challenge with their mental well-being (i.e., their mental health) just like we all have challenges with our physical well-being from time to time”, as indicated by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

When there are pressures in our lives it is normal for people to sometimes feel worried, anxious or upset. However, if your mood, thinking, or behavior has changed to the extent they are seriously interfering with your everyday life and lasting for a few weeks or more then you may be experiencing a mental health problem.

Mental health problems can be treated and getting help early can prevent difficulties from getting more serious. According to Rethink Mental Illness, “being mentally healthy is about having the strength to overcome the difficulties and challenges we can all face in our lives and to have confidence and self-esteem to be able to make decisions and to believe in ourselves”.

Mental Health Facts (according to National Alliance on Mental Illness):

• 1 in 5 adults in the United States lives with a mental health condition.
• 1 in 25 (10 million) adults in the United States lives with a serious mental illness.
• 60 million people in the United States face the day-to-day reality of living with a mental illness.
• Half of all lifetime mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24, but early intervention programs can help.
• African Americans and Hispanic Americans used mental health services at about half the rate of whites in the past year, and Asian Americans at about one-third the rate.
• 90% of those who die by suicide have an underlying mental illness. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, but suicide is preventable.
• The best treatments for serious mental illnesses today are highly effective; between 70 and 90% of individuals have significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life with the right treatments and supports.

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A collaboration of the Vermont Care Partners’ statewide network of sixteen non-profit community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability services and support.

To Find an Agency Near you visit: https://vermontcarepartners.org/agencies/

Suicide  Prevention  Lifeline: 800-273-8255, www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org, Text VT to 741741

Vermont 211: Dial 2-1-1 anywhere in Vermont or visit www.Vermont211.org to get live referral help.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and well-being. All Americans face challenges in life that can impact their mental health.

Prevention is an effective way to reduce the burden of mental health conditions, and there are practical tools that all people can use to improve their mental health and increase resiliency. Each business, school, government agency, healthcare provider, organization and citizen shares the burden of mental health problems and has a responsibility to promote mental wellness and support prevention efforts.

You will find a few tools here, that might help all of us in our journeys to thrive and live a better, healthier life!