Men•tal Health (Noun)
So what is mental health, really? The WHO defines it as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.” MentalHealth.gov and the CDC say that “mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, [affecting] how we think, feel, and act.” The Dictionary of Charity posits mental health as an intricately woven web of intersections between all the critical factors in one’s life, including but not limited to physical, emotional, spiritual, social, psychological, sexual, and creative health/well-being. This web is influenced by the person’s values, beliefs, and cultural practices, and it exists on a continuum that can change as the seasons do. In simpler terms, mental health is just another part of the human condition.
I previously viewed mental health as the thing to “fix;” once I’d done so, all the different facets of my life would fall into place. This proved problematic for me, however, because the problem felt too big and too broad to do anything about. I was overwhelmed at the thought of getting my entire mental state in check, struggling to know where I would even begin in the arduous process. I was also disheartened by the fact that there was no middle ground, only good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, on top of the world or about to jump off a cliff.
Chalk it up to my optimistic spirit, my graduate school education, my therapist (*****, if you’re reading this, see you on Wednesday), or the development of my prefrontal cortex, but somewhere along the way, my view of mental health changed. Instead of seeing my mental state in black and white, I began to view it as a mental state of “being” that’s reacting accordingly to different things in my life (stress, breakups, family drama = bad; concerts with friends, Tex-Mex, post-workout endorphins = good; etc.).
1 + 1 = 3
I was reallyyyy cool in high school; I’m talking upper echelon of the social hierarchy. And by really cool, I mean I was an officer in Mu Alpha Theta (Math Club). Equations and formulas just made so much sense to me because of the input-output model they followed. I’m not implying that mental health can be reduced to a simple plug-and-chug deal, but maybe it will help to see it explained differently.
I believe it was Kimberly Noel Kardashian West who first said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” She was really onto something because this principle can also be applied to mental health. So let’s say:
- The “whole” = mental health
- The “parts” = the factors that make up one’s mental health
When you’re solving an equation, and it’s not adding up, you don’t try to fix the sum (unless you’re stupid) – you fix the variables! So with your mental state of “being,” what if instead of trying to fix/change your mental health as a whole entity, you re-assessed the factors that comprise your mental state and manipulated those until the equation was balanced?
I’ve Got the Power
I know, I know, I’ve already lost most of you because y’all probably had social lives in high school, but it’s like this. So much of the talk surrounding mental health is that if we can control it as a whole, all areas of our lives will change for the better. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s also not that empowering. If we’re viewing mental health from a strength-based lens that allocates power to the places where it can best be used for improvement’s sake, our focus should shift to the variables in our lives that make us who we are when we’re our best selves, the variables we have control over. Some things, like brain chemistry, a traumatic upbringing, or systemic racism, can’t be easily tackled and are not in our direct control. However, what we put into our bodies is. How we spend our free time is. Who we’re intimate with is. What place of worship we go to is. The emphasis is on ourselves and what is important to us.
Everyone’s place on the mental health spectrum differs. Likewise, the factors most important to you will differ vastly from those of your best friend, partner, or crotchety Grandma Mildred. The key is to do a deep dive into yourself and identify those things that matter to you, be it the cultural groups you’re a part of, the religious practices you ascribe to, the values you hold in high esteem, or the things your inner child always wanted to do but never got the chance to. Once identified, then begins the work of adding/keeping them in your life and removing/striking a compromise with the extraneous stuff that keeps you from engaging in the life-giving stuff. These are the factors that we can control, and in doing so, we have the possibility of slowly but surely nudging ourselves higher up on the mental health continuum.
Next week, we’ll hop into mental illness/mental health disorders! Well, maybe we’ll slink into them reverently. See you then!
From my chair to your screen, Charity
