Posted: Feb 17, 2017 7:10 am
I'm not sure what to make of this.
I'm of the opinion that in many ways mental health is analogous to physical health, specifically in the sense that nobody really has perfect health, either mental or physical.
At the moment my physical health is not perfect in the following ways: A fungal infection on the soul of my left foot, a cut on the middle finger of my right hand, remnants of a sinus infection, mild pain in my ankles from running 10 km yesterday, myopia requiring contact lenses to correct.
These conditions are caused by a variety of different factors, are of different levels of seriousness and duration and require different treatments. The cut on my finger will heal on its own, as will the sinus infection. The ankle pain will gradually diminish until I go running next time. The fungal infection needs a short period of treatment with a cream, the shortsightedness is not going anywhere and can only really be fixed by surgery, but I'm gonna stick with contact lenses and glasses.
But all in all nothing too serious. No broken bones, no debilitating conditions that stop me from working or eating or walking etc, no diagnoses of life-threatening illnesses.
My mental health is pretty much the same. Nothing too serious, nothing that interferes with my ability to function in my job or in my social life, nothing to cause me to seek help, diagnosis or treatment from a doctor. Not all plain sailing, I might add, but mostly on the same level as the physical ailments described above.
Perhaps the stigma that has traditionally surrounded mental illness and the difficulty of diagnosis compared to physical illness, (especially self-diagnosis) has led to difficulty in distinguishing between the normative ups and downs of one's mental state and the occurrence of conditions requiring treatment.
The old school approach of 'just pull yourself together' for mental problems may be the equivalent of 'just run it under a cold tap' for physical injuries. Sometimes you do just need to run it under a cold tap. Sometimes you need to go to hospital and get stitches and antibiotics.
The findings of the survey quoted in the OP notwithstanding, I think the notion that anyone enjoys long periods of perfect physical or mental health is not realistic.
I'm of the opinion that in many ways mental health is analogous to physical health, specifically in the sense that nobody really has perfect health, either mental or physical.
At the moment my physical health is not perfect in the following ways: A fungal infection on the soul of my left foot, a cut on the middle finger of my right hand, remnants of a sinus infection, mild pain in my ankles from running 10 km yesterday, myopia requiring contact lenses to correct.
These conditions are caused by a variety of different factors, are of different levels of seriousness and duration and require different treatments. The cut on my finger will heal on its own, as will the sinus infection. The ankle pain will gradually diminish until I go running next time. The fungal infection needs a short period of treatment with a cream, the shortsightedness is not going anywhere and can only really be fixed by surgery, but I'm gonna stick with contact lenses and glasses.
But all in all nothing too serious. No broken bones, no debilitating conditions that stop me from working or eating or walking etc, no diagnoses of life-threatening illnesses.
My mental health is pretty much the same. Nothing too serious, nothing that interferes with my ability to function in my job or in my social life, nothing to cause me to seek help, diagnosis or treatment from a doctor. Not all plain sailing, I might add, but mostly on the same level as the physical ailments described above.
Perhaps the stigma that has traditionally surrounded mental illness and the difficulty of diagnosis compared to physical illness, (especially self-diagnosis) has led to difficulty in distinguishing between the normative ups and downs of one's mental state and the occurrence of conditions requiring treatment.
The old school approach of 'just pull yourself together' for mental problems may be the equivalent of 'just run it under a cold tap' for physical injuries. Sometimes you do just need to run it under a cold tap. Sometimes you need to go to hospital and get stitches and antibiotics.
The findings of the survey quoted in the OP notwithstanding, I think the notion that anyone enjoys long periods of perfect physical or mental health is not realistic.