What Is The Defination Of Mental Health

Mental health

Mental health is a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of mental illness. It is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment".^[1] From the perspective of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life, and create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others."^[2] The WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is encompassed in the realization of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of life, productive work and contribution to their community.^[3] Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined.^[2] A widely accepted definition of health by mental health specialists is psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's definition: the capacity "to work and to love".^[4]

Mental health and mental illness

According to the U.S. surgeon general (1999), mental health is the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and providing the ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity. The term mental illness refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders—health conditions characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with distress or impaired functioning.^[5]
A person struggling with his or her mental health may experience stress, depression, anxiety, relationship problems, grief, addiction, ADHD or learning disabilities, mood disorders, or other mental illnesses of varying degrees.^[6][7] Therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners or physicians can help manage mental illness with treatments such as therapy, counseling, or medication.

History

In the mid-19th century, William Sweetser was the first to coin the term "mental hygiene", which can be seen as the precursor to contemporary approaches to work on promoting positive mental health.^[8][9] Isaac Ray, one of the thirteen^{[citation needed]} founders of the American Psychiatric Association, further defined mental hygiene as "the art of preserving the mind against all incidents and influences calculated to deteriorate its qualities, impair its energies, or derange its movements."^[9]
Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) was an important figure in the development of "mental hygiene" movement. Dix was a school teacher who endeavored throughout her life to help people with mental disorders, and to bring to light the deplorable conditions into which they were put.^[10] This was known as the "mental hygiene movement".^[10] Before this movement, it was not uncommon that people affected by mental illness in the 19th century would be considerably neglected, often left alone in deplorable conditions, barely even having sufficient clothing.^[10] Dix's efforts were so great that there was a rise in the number of patients in mental health facilities, which sadly resulted in these patients receiving less attention and care, as these institutions were largely understaffed.^[10]
Emil Kraepelin in 1896 developed the taxonomy mental disorders which has dominated the field for nearly 80 years. Later the proposed disease model of abnormality was subjected to analysis and considered normality to be relative to the physical, geographical and cultural aspects of the defining group.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Clifford Beers founded the Mental Health America - National Committee for Mental Hygiene after publication of his accounts from lived experience in lunatic asylums "A mind that found itself" in 1908^[11] and opened the first outpatient mental health clinic in the United States.^[12]
The mental hygiene movement, related to the social hygiene movement, had at times been associated with advocating eugenics and sterilisation of those considered too mentally deficient to be assisted into productive work and contented family life.^[13][14] In the post-WWII years, references to mental hygiene were gradually replaced by the term 'mental health' due to its positive aspect that evolves from the treatment of illness to preventive and promotive areas of healthcare.^[15]

Significance

Mental illnesses are more common than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. Over 26 percent of all Americans over the age of 18 meet the criteria for having a mental illness. Serious mental disorders affect an estimated 6 percent of the adult population, or approximately 1 in 17 people. A little more than half receive treatment.^[16] A WHO report estimates the global cost of mental illness at nearly $2.5 trillion (two-thirds in indirect costs) in 2010, with a projected increase to over $6 trillion by 2030.
Evidence from the World Health Organization suggests that nearly half of the world's population are affected by mental illness with an impact on their self-esteem, relationships and ability to function in everyday life.^[17] An individual's emotional health can also impact physical health and poor mental health can lead to problems such as substance abuse.^[18]
Maintaining good mental health is crucial to living a long and healthy life. Good mental health can enhance one's life, while poor mental health can prevent someone from living an enriching life. According to Richards, Campania, & Muse-Burke, "There is growing evidence that is showing emotional abilities are associated with prosocial behaviors such as stress management and physical health."^[18] Their research also concluded that people who lack emotional expression are inclined to anti-social behaviors (e.g., drug and alcohol abuse, physical fights, vandalism), which are a direct reflection of their mental health and suppress emotions.^[18]

Children and young adults

Mental health and stability is a very important factor in a person’s everyday life. Social skills, behavioural skills, and someone’s way of thinking are just some of the things that the human brain develops at an early age. Learning how to interact with others and how to focus on certain subjects are essential lessons to learn from the time we can talk all the way to when we are so old that we can barely walk. However, there are some people out there who have difficulty with these kind of skills and behaving like an average person. This is a most likely the cause of having a mental illness. A mental illness is a wide range of conditions that affect a person’s mood, thinking, and behavior. About 26% of people in the United States, ages 18 and older, have been diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder. However, not much is said about children with mental illnesses even though there are many that will develop one, even as early as age three.
The most common mental illnesses in children include, but are not limited to, ADHD, autism and anxiety disorder, as well as depression in older children and teens. Having a mental illness at a younger age is much different from having one in your thirties. Children's brains are still developing and will continue to develop until around the age of twenty-five.^[29] When a mental illness is thrown into the mix, it becomes significantly harder for a child to acquire the necessary skills and habits that people use throughout the day. For example, behavioral skills don’t develop as fast as motor or sensory skills do.^[29] So when a child has an anxiety disorder, they begin to lack proper social interaction and associate many ordinary things with intense fear.^[30] This can be scary for the child because they don’t necessarily understand why they act and think the way that they do. Many researchers say that parents should keep an eye on their child if they have any reason to believe that something is slightly off.^[29] If the children are evaluated earlier, they become more acquainted to their disorder and treating it becomes part of their daily routine.^[29] This is opposed to adults who might not recover as quickly because it is more difficult for them to adapt.
Mental illness affects not only the person themselves, but the people around them. Friends and family also play an important role in the child’s mental health stability and treatment. If the child is young, parents are the ones who evaluate their child and decide whether or not they need some form of help.^[31] Friends are a support system for the child and family as a whole. Living with a mental disorder is never easy, so it’s always important to have people around to make the days a little easier. However, there are negative factors that come with the social aspect of mental illness as well. Parents are sometimes held responsible for their child’s own illness.^[31] People also say that the parents raised their children in a certain way or they acquired their behavior from them. Family and friends are sometimes so ashamed of the idea of being close to someone with a disorder that the child feels isolated and thinks that they have to hide their illness from others.^[31] When in reality, hiding it from people prevents the child from getting the right amount of social interaction and treatment in order to thrive in today’s society.