“Mental health…is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.”
–Noam Shpancer, PhD
What is Mental health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Your mental health can be influenced by a variety of factors, including life events or even your genetics.
Why is mental health important?
Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Mental and physical health are equally important components of overall health. Mental illness, especially depression, increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long-lasting conditions like stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Similarly, the presence of chronic conditions can increase the risk for mental illness.
More than 450 million people suffer from mental disorders. According to WHO, by the year 2020, depression will constitute the second largest disease burden worldwide (Murray & Lopez, 1996). Global burden of mental health will be well beyond the treatment capacities of developed and developing countries. The social and economic costs associated with the growing burden of mental ill health focused on the possibilities for promoting mental health as well as preventing and treating mental illness.
Physical health and mental health are closely associated and it is proved beyond doubt that depression leads to heart and vascular diseases
Mental disorders also affect persons health behaviour like eating sensibly, regular exercise, adequate sleep, engaging in safe sexual practices, alcohol and tobacco use, adhering to medical therapies thus increasing the risk of physical illness.
Mental illness also leads to social problems like unemployment, broken families, poverty, drug abuse and related crime.
Poor mental health plays a significant role in diminished immune functioning.
Medically ill patients with depression have worse outcome than those without.
And as Dwayne ‘The Rock' Johnson said
"I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it."
-Dinav Anand