What Is Mental Health?
By LAMSA
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1 minute
“Mental health is a state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with people and the ability to change and cope with adversity.”
– Surgeon General, USA (1999)
We all face challenges, life not being a straight forward road leading us to our goals.
Since our birth, our brain is learning how to deal with these challenges, which can be either positive or negative. It is an adaptive process which will develop over time, and it applies to our capacities to deal with:
- Emotions
- Cognition (thinking process)
- Signaling
- Behaviours
Negative emotions like crying, feeling sad or angry or even yelling at somebody, are a part of good mental health
Feeling stressed doesn’t mean we do not have good mental health, but to keep good mental health, we should be able to identify the source of our stress and learn how to cope with, like:
- Exercise
- Meditate
- Team’s activities
- Volunteering
- Talk to someone you trust…
Otherwise, stress may lead to negative behaviours, like abusing alcohol or using drugs to “forget” about it.
LAMSA’s note: It is important for each of us to have a strategy to release our mind and body from stress, in order to prevent insane and unhealthy behaviors.
