Mental Illness, Mental Wellbeing and Mental Health

Three things that I talk about a lot, personally and professionally and as always during Mental Health Awareness week conversations around mental health increase, which is great!

I know this is certainly the case within my own family and work. As an example Chloe Bacon and I have been having more regular conversations about mental health, mental wellbeing and mental illness in relation to all sorts of topics.

I'd like to mention at this point that I am not a healthcare professional my level of knowledge is based on personal experience and professional experience of training and delivering mental health awareness and mental health first aid.

Chloe and I have been recording some of the conversations we have been having, so that we can share and keep the conversations going. While recording these conversations it quickly became apparent that some additional context and explanation was needed and that it would be useful for me to explain what we're referring to when using the terms; Mental Illness, Mental Wellbeing and Mental Health.

Mental illness is a diagnosable disease or disorder that when managed ineffectively affects people’s ability to function on a daily basis, often requiring professional intervention and treatment.

Mental wellbeing refers to how well we are psychologically and emotionally. How well are we dealing with stresses such as; environmental, illness, emotional, physical, financial, survival and lifestyle. It’s important to note that people may be living with a serious mental illness yet still have a high level of mental wellbeing. There will also be people who are not living with any diagnosable mental illness but who have very low mental wellbeing. I’ll explain more in a moment.

Mental Health refers to our individual condition in regards to our psychological and emotional wellbeing. Unfortunately the term mental health often brings about negative thoughts and feelings. We tend to talk about mental health issues and challenges not necessarily how brilliant our mental health may be. If someone said physical health to you, you may have more positive images of fitness and strength. So let’s start also thinking about how great having our mental health is as well as our physical health. Having mental health means being free from mental illness and having a high level of mental wellbeing.

It’s the mental wellbeing bit that’s important. Whether you have a mental illness, don’t have a mental illness or you don’t know, having mental wellbeing is what we can focus on.

As we’ve mentioned before equipped2succeed is all about wellbeing. Managing stress, maintaining positivity, maximising energy, managing relationships, building confidence, building resilience, learning and understanding and using our amazing winning brains. We are not mental health experts and we don’t work specifically to support people to improve mental wellbeing. What we do is work with whole people living whole lives in whole communities, enabling people to equip themselves with the tools to thrive and in order to thrive we need to be mentally well.

The best way I’ve found to describe mental illness, wellbeing and health is by using the mental health continuum.

What’s important is being somewhere along the top.

Having a high level of mental wellbeing.

Wherever we are from right to left we can all work towards, with the support of professionals when needed, having a good level of mental wellbeing.

Thank you for taking the time to develop your understanding of mental health, illness and wellbeing. Please get in touch with any questions or comments - harriet@equipped2succeed.co.uk

If you are currently facing challenges with maintaining your mental wellbeing and need to seek additional support and advice please call the Samaritans on 116 123

If you are in need of urgent professional medical attention call 999

Additional reading and resources;

https://www.samaritans.org/

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/

www.mind.org.uk/need-urgent-help/using-this-tool/

www.trentpts.co.uk/