There is no adult in perfect physical health, nor is there one in perfect mental health. To claim otherwise is unhealthy. If that were true, there would be no need to take the precautions that we take against infections or even the common cold, and there would be no need to treat any ailment. But we know that any physical ailment can produce some impact on our mental health. Think about this: what happens when one receives a potentially bad health news, or when one catches a cold or gets a slight headache that makes it difficult to attend to a planned task? Don’t we worry? Do we not experience or show concern? Isn’t that part of the human experience that we go through at different times as we live out our daily lives? What is worry if not an unsettling of our emotional equilibrium? Why do we deny what we feel? I submit that when we worry or get anxious over things that we cannot control, which happens even to the best and strongest of us, we are demonstrating the imperfection of our mental health.
Mental health is often spoken about as if it is distinct from what we refer to as health. But how distinct could they be when every human has both physical and mental states in them? It is time to turn that misleading description on its head because mental health is health, and we are all susceptible to varying degrees of mental illness just as we are to physical illness. I could make the argument that even the idea that anyone may have that they have perfect mental health status is in itself an indication of mental illness. In other words, if anyone claims to have a perfect mental health, that claim in itself may be an indication of mental illness.
We tend to think that we can always handle difficult life situations because we are strong humans, or because we are old and wise, or because we lean on powers bigger than ours. All of these may sound good and encouraging, but the state of our mental health has nothing to do with how strong we are or the degree of courage and/or faith that we have. Instead, it depends on several other factors, including how honest we are (or can be) to ourselves and, very often, how much we recognize and acknowledge our stressors, the nature of our environment and the extent to which we can identify and embrace the protective factors in our lives.
If we can just admit that we have moments of sadness that we sometimes cannot just wish away no matter what else we do, that we experience anger that we sometimes cannot explain or control, or that we feel emotional pain from an experience that we either had or are currently going through, then we are acknowledging that we are human and being human means that we do not have perfect mental health. The thought that only those who have been clinically diagnosed with mental illness have mental health issues is a misconception often driven by ignorance and pride, which in itself could arguably be considered a mental health problem.
Since we know better now than we previously did about mental health, we need to save our world by saving ourselves. We can do so by embracing support for others and and seeking help as needed to address our own mental health.
