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otrbristol | 14th May 2016

Stand Together, Stick Together – “Everyone has mental health”

TUESDAY: Part Two of our Stand Together, Stick Together #MHAW16 campaign: “Everyone has mental health”. Written by Mentality…

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Are we still connecting mental health with illness such as depression, OCD and anxiety disorder?

People often believe that the phrase “mental health’’ means having a mental illness. However, this is not the case – in fact, everyone has mental health. Just like physical health, you can struggle with your mental health – or this may not be currently a problem for you.

Just like a physical illness you can also have a mental illness which can affect your everyday life in just the same way! Mental health is a state of mind not a label given to someone who may or may not be struggling with a mental illness.

It’s also important to remember that your mental health can change day to day, some days you may have good mental health and others you may have poor mental health, but this does not define you as a person.

Mental health is a spectrum and it is important to recognise the symptoms of poor mental health early on. This, just like physical health; if you noticed you had hurt your leg you would go to the doctor to prevent things getting worse. This is exactly the same as mental health to stop poor mental health developing into a mental health illness.

There are lots of different things you can do to look after your mental health. Also, while we are comparing physical health with mental health, we should note they are connected to each other.

What do you think? Share your thoughts on Mentality’s Facebook, OTR’s Twitter and OTR’s Facebook!