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Mental Health definition and terminology: What is mental health and mental ill health

Video 38 of 68
1 min 46 sec
English
English
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What is the difference between mental health and mental ill health?

Well, everyone has mental health. Mental ill health is when someone isn't coping with the stresses and strains of life.

And what terms are not helpful when discussing and talking about mental-ill health?

I think things like someone's off their head, someone's going quietly mad, someone's not fully functioning or someone's short of a picnic, all that sort of thing that sometimes meant in a quite jokey way. I think those terms are not helpful at all really.

Why?

People are inhibited from searching for help. They feel labelled, they feel not right in some way and they feel that people will judge them. So I think if you can find a way of describing what you're feeling without using those terms, even yourself, then I think you're on the right road.

What terminology should people use?

I think it's more acceptable to say something like difficulty in coping with things. Things aren't quite right at the moment. I don't feel I'm at my best or anything that you can own personally that you feel you can say. Or, if you're talking to someone about it, it's usually helpful to start with something like, "I noticed that things aren't quite as easy for you as they were." It's opening up so that people feel they can say what they need to say.