Mental health is good
You might even think that the writer of this piece is weird himself.
The reason people think in this way is caused by the conditioning of the health care system.
We call it health care, but in essence, it is all about sick care. You only can use health care if you have some kind of physical or psychological problem.
So, we use the same kind of reasoning for mental health. They mean mental illness but call it mental health. People even call the growth in mental illnesses, a mental health problem.
Until recently there was a taboo on this topic. You would not publicly admit that you have a mental illness. When I went to school and university, I heard nobody speak about burnout, depression, or worse. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Mental illness was just not discussed publicly.
Now mental illness has become so widespread that it has become more ‘normal’. There are even huge waiting lists for getting professional help. In the United States, almost half of adults (46.4 percent) will experience a mental illness during their lifetime. 5 percent of adults (18 or older) experience a mental illness in any one year, equivalent to 43.8 million people.
Obviously, that is a very serious situation for which there are many causes. Lifestyle, work- stress and population growth (‘more people, smaller cake’) are main influencers. Still, prevention and optimization are much better than intervention.
What is mental health?
Mental health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of well-being in which [an] individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (101). Conceived in this way, mental health encompasses (i) the absence of mental illness and (ii) the presence of psychological well-being.
To decrease the number of mental illnesses, it would be beneficial to focus on mental health (instead of mental illness).
Just like we are actively working on the health of our bodies, it is crucial to work on the health of our brain.
Are you already doing brain fitness?
