Mental Health Unmasked

Mental Health

“A person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.”

That’s the definition for the most important component in all of our lives.  Mental health.

Some might say that physical health is more important.  Depending on our circumstances and our perspective, it can seem that way.  After all, we live in a physical world doing physical things.  And we are made up of physical body parts that help us survive.  So physical health is clearly important.

But what good is physical health if we can’t enjoy it?  What good is anything without a balanced mind?  Well, that’s what mental health is all about.  Now that we know the definition, let’s find out why mental health is so important, how the definition relates to us, and what this all means for our future.

Relevance

In the scope of human existence, the recognition of mental health is a recent development.  One could say that we are finally intelligent enough to realize its importance.  These days, it’s not just more recognized in society but also more acknowledged and cared for, on an individual level.

And this is a good thing, as our mental health provides the foundation for every single thing that we think about, interact with, and participate in.  That’s as important as things can get.  Because, mental health is not only essential for everything in life but it’s also one thing that can completely ruin it.

Unfortunately, reading the definition of mental health alone isn’t enough to connect the relevance of it to our circumstances.  That requires self-reflection, awareness of our thoughts and behaviors, and holding ourselves accountable for them.

Awareness

It’s one thing to recognize the importance of mental health in our society, and another to recognize it within our own lives.  Because it’s difficult to do if we don’t know what to look for, and if we don’t know what the signs of poor mental health are.

These are the difficulties the general population is facing regarding their mental health.

• Mental health is difficult to gauge because it requires specific knowledge.
• We lack that specific knowledge to understand the status of our own mental health.
• We don’t fully realize the application of mental health.
• We don’t fully realize the consequences of mental health.
• We are not introspective enough to examine our own mental health.
• We don’t go out of our way to understand and improve ourselves.
• We don’t fully realize that mental health can be improved.
• We don’t know how mental health can be improved.
• We don’t want to accept that our mental health may need improving.
• We don’t always ask for help even when we need it.
• We are too busy or distracted to realize that our mental health may be suffering.
• We have developed coping-skills that mask poor mental health.
• We have learned to conceal mental weaknesses because evolution doesn’t support it.
• We are not consciously aware of our mental health because it’s on autopilot.

As you can see, there are many factors for why mental health awareness has been eluding us.  But learning more about it is the only way to gauge where our mental health currently is and to understand why we should always try to improve it.

The Gauge

The range of mental health is about as broad as there are people.  But, to get a reasonable distinction, we can group ourselves into just a few categories.

Mentally strong

A person whose mental health is strong.

Balanced

A person whose mental health is good.

Unbalanced

A person whose mental health is poor.

Mentally ill

A person whose mental health is unstable.

These categories should be enough to sort out where our mental health is, but we are still back to not knowing how to actually measure it.  To do that, we need to observe and have a deep understanding of the effects.

The Effects

Mental

This is the effect of the way that we think about things.  Our thoughts make up our psychology and they extend to our behaviors.  Unhelpful thoughts create unhelpful behaviors.  Not always immediately but eventually. This effect also applies to the way that we feel, mentally.

Emotional

This is the effect of the way that we react to things.  Our reactions are a window to our emotions.  When we feel out of control, we will act out of control.  If we have control over our emotions, it also means we are able to control our thoughts.  The effects of mental health are well-hidden in all of us but we can still notice them by how we react to the unexpected.

Behavioral

This is the effect of the way that we carry out an intention and take action.  All behavior is a reflection of how we think.  Since good mental health provides balance, any extreme or irrational behavior is due to a mind that is out of balance.  A mind out of balance will create behaviors that are out of balance too.

“Spiritual”

This is the effect of the way that we carry ourselves and project our energy.  Our energy projection is the result of our emotional state and our attitude being projected through our body language.  It’s the reason that moods (good and bad) are contagious and that intentions become results.  A person’s energy projection represents their mental health, in physical form.

Physical

This is the effect of the way that we feel, physically.  Our mental health affects our bodies in many ways.  Anxiety is probably the best example of how mental health manifests itself in a physical form.  Obesity is another. This effect also applies to the way that we look. Our physical appearance reflects how we feel, mentally, and how we see ourselves.

Environmental

This is the effect of the way that we control our surroundings.  Our physical space reflects our mental space.  If our physical space is disorganized, our minds are out of balance.  Hoarders are a good example of this because they are not well enough to let go of things, psychologically speaking.  Which then extends to the behavior of not being able to let go of physical things.

Social

This is the effect of the way that we participate in social situations.  There are some less-obvious effects that are harder to notice because they only surface in intimate environments.  Relationships reveal many hidden things about a person.  And because people don’t understand the effects of mental health, they are unable to control their behaviors and are unable to correct them.

Coping

This is the effect of the way that we compensate for our mental health.  Our mental health provides us a way of navigating life.  But sometimes we get pushed beyond our limits and our minds have to find ways to compensate for being pushed too far.  Coping allows our minds to deal with our reality when we don’t understand it and when it overwhelms us.  Coping helps us when we are unable to help ourselves.  Unfortunately, having to cope is evidence of poor mental health.  Because coping is in place of where balance should be.  All mental health disorders are coping mechanisms.

Control

This is the effect of the way that we cope.  Needing control is a result of coping.  If coping is needed, the extent of control can be observed in each of the above categories.  Mostly because each one affects the other, starting with the mental effect.  Coping and control are mental effects that trickle down to the others and can become various disorders, if unchecked.


On their own, each of these effects can reveal signs of mental health issues in any of us.  But an easier way that we can observe our mental health is by how we behave while driving, when we’re alone.  There are multiple factors as to why people behave worse in their cars than they would in person.  And it’s actually so interesting that I will write another post about it.

In the meantime, let’s remember that the car is an extension of our bodies in the same way that other things are, while we are handling them.  And what we do with any of them tells the story of how we think.

So, between these effects, we can find evidence of good or poor mental health.  Having this information, we can look at our past and check our history.  Thoughts are likely forgotten, but reactions and behaviors from the past should help us understand where we might still be today, mentally.  And whether or not our life is going to improve or stay the same.

The Source

Mental health takes place in the brain but as the mind.  Our mind is created out of the combination of two sources, our genes and our development from the environment.  Research indicates that, regardless of what genes we have, our environment determines whether any mental health disorders are triggered or not.  This means that our mental health development is mostly environmental, and that we have the ability to condition our mental health.

Thoughts

Thoughts can serve several purposes.  But, when it comes to mental health, they are our interpretation of the information that reaches our brain.  It is a way for us to make sense of that information.  And we form assumptions and eventually a conclusion based on our interpretation.

The problem is that sometimes we draw conclusions on assumptions without verifying the information.  This is how poor beliefs develop, beliefs that are more harmful than useful.  Even if we get our beliefs from a good source, it still requires the involvement of our own thoughts and our own interpretations.  And, depending on our way of thinking, we can still get it wrong.

Another problem is that we got a lot of our information from our parents, which includes their beliefs.  And their beliefs can be wrong.  What’s more, their mental health might be poor, which drives what they believe.  So, unintentionally, they can pass on their way of thinking to us and their poor mental health through their words and behaviors.

And lastly, children don’t know how to think about things in a healthy way.  Which means that if they learn to think about things in an unhealthy way, they will continue until they learn to change it.  Because, change requires the condition that the mind learns something different.  Who would have thought that there is a right way and a wrong way to think.  But there is.

I don’t know at what age children learn that they can decide what their thoughts should mean, if they learn it at all.  But, chances are, by the time they do learn it, they’ve already been thinking the wrong way up until then.  And changing it will be harder and will take longer later in life.  This is why the effects of mental health feel so permanent.  But they don’t have to become permanent.

State of Mind

A state of mind is how we are feeling, mentally.  It’s an emotional state, a mental state caused by an emotion.

Emotions come in many forms but end up generating only two relevant states of mind, weak or strong.  Our state of mind is then related to the emotion affecting it.  If we are sad, our state of mind will be sad or weak.  Negative states of mind translate to a weak state, a state that is unable to move forward.

This is cause and effect and there is no avoiding it.  But, if we change the way that we assign meaning to negative events, the effect will also change.  And, next time, we will not be so sad or for as long.  Negative states are ok in small doses but, unfortunately, they don’t actually help us overcome the negative state.  Only a positive state will.

Frame of Mind

Our frame of mind determines the way that we think about things.  It becomes our outlook, our attitude, our mindset.  Our mindset then shapes our future thoughts and what we do with them.    And, as you know, there are two ways to think about anything.  Positively or negatively.

Since thoughts occur before we can form an outlook, they shape the way that we define our perspective.  This is how negative thoughts become a poor mindset and an inability to form a positive attitude.  It always comes back to our thoughts.  If you’re unsure about the way that you think, just review your results.

In a simplified form, if you’re getting the results that you want, your mindset is positive.  If not, it’s negative.  Additionally, our state of mind (the way that we feel emotionally) can also affect our frame of mind (the way that we think), and what we do after feeling the emotion.  This is why it’s important to develop our emotional intelligence so that we can think clearly at all times.  That is how we make better choices.

Mind over Matter

They say happiness comes from an external source and is fleeting, while joy comes from an internal source and is lasting.  That’s the actual difference between feeling good from an elevated mood vs feeling good from mental health.  Because feeling good is not just about feeling good.  It’s about feeling good the right way.

Understanding how our mental health developed is a big step toward improving it.  But it’s only the first step.  The process that rewires our brains still has to take place.  That is how learning is done.  And learning to change creates a better brain that produces better results.  But all results start in the mind.  When the mind opens, it gives a new possibility the chance to be born. And a new possibility is what allows for the rewiring of the brain.

If you’ve ever wanted the chance to restart your life, or to take what you know and pass it onto your younger self, here is that chance.  While you can’t become younger, you can age with a better mind.  The only alternative.  And, day by day, you’ll age out of who you were, and into who you could have been.  It’s the only opportunity available toward remastering your life.  The only opportunity available toward shaping your children’s lives.  By using your mind in your favor and becoming a source of mental strength.