I hope that in the coming days, months, years and decades, mental health becomes a topic that can be openly discussed as much as having a cold. Mental health is an unavoidable part of the human condition, yet conversations around it are met with shame, stigma, and doubt, or not had at all. I took some time to think back to conversations I have had with friends, family, partners, peers, coworkers, as well as strangers, and found some terms that were common threads throughout these. Sometimes the barrier to a discussion or a changed opinion is either wrong information or no information. Below are some of the terms I have found to be the focal point of conversations around mental health that I have had and that I believe are important to know if mental health is ever going to be able to be openly discussed.
Mental Health: A state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.
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Self-care: The ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider.
Anxiety: An emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
Anxiety disorder: Most common category of mental disorders; characterized by excess fear and anxiety that is out of proportion to a situation or the age of the person and inhibit the ability for someone to function in daily life.
Self-harm: When you hurt yourself as a way of dealing with very difficult feelings, painful memories or overwhelming situations and experiences.
Mindfulness: A technique which can help people manage their mental health or simply gain more enjoyment from life. Mindfulness allows us to approach our thoughts and feelings so that we become more aware of them and react differently to them.
Depression: Most common mental disorder (major depressive disorder) that is characterized by a lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or excessive sleeping, lack of energy, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
Mood disorder: Classification of disorders characterized by severe disturbances in mood and emotions; extreme mood fluctuations that distort outlook and impair one's ability to function.
Eating Disorder: Abnormal eating habits that can threaten your health or even your life.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): Anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations (obsessions) and engage in behaviors or mental acts in response to these thoughts or obsessions (compulsions).
Trauma: An emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster.
Self-esteem: How we value and perceive ourselves
Psychological abuse: Form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting, or exposing, another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma
Shame: Intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging – something we’ve experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection.
