Mental health

Part of a series on
Public health
Outline
Subfields Community health Dental public health Environmental health Epidemiology Health economics Health education Health promotion Health policy Health politics Mental health Occupational safety Rehabilitation (penology) Sexual and reproductive health Sanitation World health (Global health - International health)
Prevention Disease surveillance Harm reduction Health promotion (Behavior change) Health indicators Human right to water and sanitation Right to health Supervised injection site Universal health care
Lists and categories Terminology Journals National public health agencies
Medicine portal Society portal
v t e

Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how they cope with stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental illness, on the other hand, refers to diagnosable conditions—such as depression, anxiety disorders, or schizophrenia—that disrupt a person's thoughts, mood, behavior, or functioning. It is possible for individuals with mental illness to experience periods of good mental health, just as people without a mental illness may struggle with poor mental well-being at times.^[1][2][1] Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. Mental health plays a crucial role in an individuals daily life when managing stress, engaging with others, and contributing to life overall. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to his or her community".^[2] It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making.^[3] Mental health includes subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others.^[4]

From the perspectives of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience.^[5] Cultural differences, personal philosophy, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health".^[6] Some early signs related to mental health difficulties are sleep irritation, lack of energy, lack of appetite, thinking of harming oneself or others, self-isolating (though introversion and isolation are not necessarily unhealthy), and frequently zoning out.^[6]