WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MENTALLY HEALTHY

Mental health is merely the absence of mental illness. Most people have not had a diagnosable mental illness but some people are generally mentally healthier than others. We all want to be or aspire to be mentally healthy.

What is mental health?

According to the World Health Organization, “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”(1).

So, what does it mean to be mentally healthy?

Some of the factors that can make one feel mentally healthy include:

1. Satisfaction in life – The ability to enjoy life is often associated with being mentally healthy. People with poor self-rated mental health are known to have a particularly low life satisfaction (2). Some of the things that have been found to play a major role in feeling satisfied in life include having healthy and fulfilling relationships, the absence of sickness, having an active work and leisure, feeling hopeful in life, and having a sense belonging and achievement.
2. Social support – Having a healthy social support around you is closely linked to having a good mental health. Various studies have shown that being and feeling lonely can have a number of negative health effects. Loneliness has also been linked to mental health issues such as alcoholism, depression and even drug misuse (3). The quality of such social support is the most important and not just having a lot of social support connections in your life (4). Therefore, having a good social support could have a positive impact on your mental health.
3. Being resilient – Fortunately, research has shown that people who tend to bounce back from the adversities of life are most likely to have a positive view of their ability to cope with the stressors of life (5). They also capable of seeking social support whenever they need encouragement, advise and support.

How to be mentally healthy

Some of the ways that you can maintain your mental health is by:

• Learning new coping skills to manage your stress and stressors
• Engaging in regular physical exercise such as cycling, jogging etc.
• Getting adequate sleep every single night
• Helping others the best way that you can
• Staying connected to people and having a good social support
• Seeking help when you face difficulties in important

Should you have any additions to this article, please leave a comment.

Lots of Love,

Marylyn Ochillo

Article Sources

1. World Health Organization. Mental health: strengthening our response. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
2. Lombardo, P., Jones, W., Wang, L. et al.The fundamental association between mental health and life satisfaction: results from successive waves of a Canadian national survey. BMC Public Health 18, 342 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5235-x. Available from: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5235-x
3. Hämmig O. Health risks associated with social isolation in general and in young, middle and old age [published correction appears in PLoS One. 2019 Aug 29;14(8):e0222124]. PLoS One. 2019;14(7):e0219663. Published 2019 Jul 18. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219663. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222124
4. Umberson D, Montez JK. Social relationships and health: a flashpoint for health policy. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51 Suppl(Suppl):S54–S66. doi:10.1177/0022146510383501. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150158/
5. Walker FR, Pfingst K, Carnevali L, Sgoifo A, Nalivaiko E. In the search for integrative biomarker of resilience to psychological stress. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017;74(Pt B):310-320. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.05.003. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27179452/