The realm of mental health is a broad spectrum that covers multiple areas of one’s physical and psychological health. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act every single day. The choices we make are determined by the way that our brain is firing at any particular moment. There is an important differentiation to make, regarding mental health and mental illness. A person can have poor/fluctuating mental health without being diagnosed with a mental illness. Although both are defined separately and with altering factors, each should be treated with the same level of seriousness. Mental health is the ebb and flow of the emotions that someone experiences throughout a day. Mental illness is a hormonal/chemical imbalance that affect someone’s ability to function over long periods of time. Experiencing dips in mental health or a surge in mental illness affects not only mental state but your physical well-being as well: stomach pains, digestive issues, fatigue, headaches, sleep issues and disorders, migraines etc. Depression and personality disorders have even been known to trigger autoimmune disorders when left untreated for too long.
The stigmatism surrounding mental health and mental illnesses is harmful to those that seriously deal with them. Without allowing people to deal with their mental health, the pattern of absences and burnout can become serious. It cannot be forgotten or overlooked that these illnesses are, in fact, ILLNESSES! This is not something that people can help or change about themselves. The same way that people become too weak to rise out of bed due to a sickness like the flu applies to mental ailments. This is a two-way street. Illnesses of this kind physically affect the bodies and minds of the people experiencing them to the extent that they cannot do anything about it. Allowing people to take time off to deal with their mental health and possibly seek help for it, positively affects their ability to work in the long run. Some ways to help people with issues of this kind is by offering mental health days, or excusing absence due to mental health complications.“Depression alone is estimated to cause 200 million lost workdays each year– costing U.S. employers anywhere from 17 to 44 billion dollars. Plus, employees who stay at work when they’re not fully productive, cost you nearly double what they would if they had simply let them stay home.”
Nothing is more important than taking care of your mind. Letting it rest is just as important as working it out. At the end of the day, your brain is the one you’re stuck with day in and day out, so tend to it.