Understanding Mental Health : Basic Ingredients For Good Mental Health

In another sense, mental health is the capacity to cope with all of life, including its joys and sorrows.

Do you consider yourself a mentally healthy person?

Basic Ingredients For Good Mental Health

To understand mental health, it is important to recognize some of the concepts related to emotional maturity. Below are criteria that describe an emotionally mature person. Check those statements you feel are like you.

An emotionally mature person …

If you were able to check five or more items, you are on your way to emotional maturity. None of us ever achieves total maturity, so don’t be discouraged if you did not check all ten statements. Understand that life is an opportunity to learn and grow.

Emotions And You

Fear, anger, joy, grief, jealousy, love, anxiety and depression are common human emotions.

Mental Health And Emotions

To a great degree, mental health is related to how well you manage your emotions. This includes both feeling good about yourself as well as feeling good about interactions with your family, friends, colleagues and co-workers. The ability to experience and express emotions is uniquely human. Our emotional make-up is that part of us that contributes to the elation of great joy or the depths of profound sorrow. Emotional adjustment also contributes to maintaining an evenness through the ups and downs of life without the demands of experiencing continual extreme highs and/or lows. Emotions also warn us of danger and give us a way to express and receive love and affection as well as anger and sorrow.

Most of us know that when we get physically sick it is usually best to visit a medical doctor. This person can prescribe treatment that usually alleviates the problem. Thus, physical illness has a fairly direct relationship between symptom and cure. The world of emotions is far more complex. For example, many of us have been taught not to show our emotions. Others somehow have learned that we should not even have emotions (feelings) about certain events. Males in particular have frequently received messages from parents and/or society that “real men” should strictly control their emotions. The assumption is that the world is better dealt with on the basis of logic rather than feelings.

Emotions are the feelings associated with all of the events and activities in our lives. For example, most people feel grief when a loved one dies. These feelings are normal, and when experienced fully, they allow the mourner to adapt to the loss. If we do not know how to experience these feelings satisfactorily, despair may overtake us. Instead of healing the sense of loss, it may cause depression that can become chronic and incapacitating.

By way of another example, children who are victimized by physical and/or sexual abuse often carry the scars and stigma of such experiences into adult life. These “scars” affect the capacity both to express feelings to others as well as to receive similar feelings in return. Often a layer of guilt, although unfounded, is part of the complex emotional problems that persist into adulthood.

All of us deal with our emotions either destructively or constructively. For some, bottling up of emotions may result in various physical problems. For others, the expression of emotions may be inappropriate for the time or situation and result in negative feedback.

In summary, understanding your emotions and learning how to express your feelings appropriately are signs of emotional maturity.

Looking At My Mental Health

How Is Your Mental Health?

Everyone has a combination of emotions, attitudes and behaviors which creates a unique personality. You have considerable control over the items that make up your personality.

Below is a “pre-test” that will help you identify several key issues related to mental or emotional health. Circle the answer that best describes you. Please be as honest as possible.

My friends would agree that: