What is Mental Health?
Mental health reflects “our emotional, psychological, & social well-being.”
Mental health can affect, how we think, feel, & act.
For example, if we are having a day where our mental health is bad, it can have an impact on our self talk, how we interact with others, handle problems, & make decisions.
You can have both good or bad mental health.
What is Mental Illness?
Mental illness affects a person’s ability to function over a long period of time.
Mental illness includes a range of conditions where there are a certain criteria that is used to diagnose them. Many of these mental illnesses come with their own symptoms & types of treatment.
The main groups of mental disorders are:
* Anxiety disorders
* Eating disorders ex. anorexia or bulimia
*Mood disorders ex. depression or bipolar
*Personality disorders ex. borderline personality disorder
* Psychotic disorders ex. schizophrenia
* Substance abuse disorders ex. drug addictions
*Trauma-related disorders ex. PTSD
How does Mental Health & Mental Illness Intersect?
You can have good mental health & still have a mental illness. You can also have bad mental health & not have a mental illness.
It is important to know the difference between the two & also how these both intersect.
While we can try do things to improve our mental health such as exercising, mindfulness, stress management, meditation, etc. Mental illness can’t always be fixed by these.
Sources:
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Bipolar Bandit (Michelle Clark) 
I once came across a group on Twitter claiming they were “combatting mental health.” I don’t think that means what they thought it did…
I never thought of the good mental health and have mental illness versus having not great mental health and not have an illness. I guess I always assumed bad mental health meant illness. Hmmm got me thinking
Basically, mental health is on a spectrum, from poor to good mental health, whereas mental illness is an umbrella term for all the mental health conditions