Mental Health

Mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity. Mental health is indispensable to personal well-being, family and interpersonal relationships, and contribution to community or society. It is easy to overlook the value of mental health until problems surface. Yet from early childhood until death, mental health is the springboard of thinking and communication skills, learning, emotional growth, resilience, and self-esteem. These are the ingredients of each individual’s successful contribution to community and society. We are inundated with messages about success—in school, in a profession, in parenting, in relationships—without appreciating that successful performance rests on a foundation of sound mental health.

Mental-illness is the term that refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders. Mental disorders are health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination of all ) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning. Depression reflects a mental disorder largely marked by alterations in mood. Alzheimer’s disease reflects a mental disorder largely marked by alterations in thinking (especially forgetting). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder reflects a mental disorder largely marked by alterations in behavior (over activity) and/or thinking (inability to concentrate). Alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior contribute to a host of problems— distress, impaired functioning, or increased risk of death, disability, or loss of freedom.

Mental health problems are not uncommon. Almost everyone has experienced mental health problems (excess anxiety, depression, sleeplessness) in which the distress one experience reflects some of the symptoms of mental disorders. Mental health problems may warrant active efforts in health promotion, prevention, and treatment. Bereavement symptoms in older adults offer a case in point. Bereavement symptoms of less than 2 months’ duration do not qualify as a mental disorder. Nevertheless, bereavement symptoms can be debilitating if they are left unattended.