What is mental health, exactly? Well, mental health is making sure your IQ is at least 100 or higher.
I am kidding of course.
Mentalhealth.gov suggests that “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act.” (https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health)
That seems like a pretty good definition.
The World Health Organization says, “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.” (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response)
That seems like a damn good definition too.
Goodanuff guy says, “maybe the bare necessities of mental health are a handful of categories listed in the table below.”
Quite frankly, this definition of mental health just seems groundbreaking. The best part is that it’s not even a definition. It’s just 4 lines and 6 words listed in a column of a table. Anyway, I believe these 4 line items may be the simple, key ingredients to mental health. Let’s chat about each one individually and why each is critical to health.