the health of the mind
- Joëlle P
- Mar 15
- 2 min read
Lately, I've been hearing the words "mental health" everywhere in the news.
It seems as though those two words stitched together create tension for many people. They are often associated with diagnosed mental health conditions or “mental illnesses”, distressing experiences, and inpatient psychiatric voluntary or involuntary care.
I’m curious though. When did talking about mental health start meaning only “mental illness” or “psychiatric disorder”?
Mental health, at its core, is the simple health of the mind.
What if we started associating those two very powerful words with the ability to navigate and build a healthy relationship with our own thoughts and feelings. What might change then?
Opening the door to addressing mental health has led to a flood of talk on diagnosed conditions such as bipolar disorder (which I live with), schizophrenia (which some folks call “voice-hearing”), substance abuse disorders (which I have also experienced) and many other DSM-5 manual labels.
Shedding light on mental illness (or mental health conditions) has been essential to ensuring accessible care, however we might have missed the boat on normalizing the general health of our minds.
If we continue linking mental health to “mental illness”, I fear we’re only really addressing a percentage of us humans: the ones, like me, who’ve been given a diagnosis.
Statistics say that 30% of the population will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives.
But what about everyone else?
One thing is clear:
Everyone has mental health. Even though not everyone has a mental illness.
Every single human has a mind.
Which means every person has thoughts and feelings to navigate.
So don’t all of us have mental health to tend to, diagnosis or not?
Our communities would benefit from helping our youth understand that the mind is something to befriend and work with, rather than react to. I see hope for us in addressing these essential concepts as mental health for all, not just the ones that are diagnosed.
By learning to navigate our thoughts and feelings, we develop a healthy relationship with our mind. And all of us have the capacity to do that.
Learning to develop a healthy mind — that sounds like mental health to me.
STRUGGLES-2-STRENGTHS BLOG aims to connect with those experiencing Bipolar Disorder (BD) like myself, as well as those who support them, by sharing reflections on personal experiences rather than clinical perspectives. Please share with others and don’t hesitate to comment
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