| Are Mental Health and Mental Illness the same? |
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Mental health and mental illness are related, but they are not the same thing.
- Mental health refers to your overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how you think, feel, handle stress, relate to others, and make decisions. Everyone has mental health, just like everyone has physical health.
- Mental illness refers to diagnosable conditions that significantly affect a person’s thinking, mood, behavior, or functioning. Examples include Depression, Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Schizophrenia.
A Simple way to think about it: |
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| Mental Health |
Mental Illness |
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- A medical condition/disorder
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- Can be good, fair, or poor
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- Can vary from mild to severe
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- Influenced by sleep, stress, relationships, lifestyle, etc.
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- Often requires treatment, support, or therapy
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Someone can:
- Have good mental health without mental illness.
- Have poor mental health temporarily due to stress or grief.
- Live with a mental illness and still maintain good mental health through treatment, support, and coping skills.
An analogy:
- Mental health is like physical fitness.
- Mental illness is like a physical disease or injury.
Both are important, and both can improve with care and support. Through the CORE services provided by Venture Forthe we support our communities to live better lives by supporting them to manage their mental health and recovery from their mental illness.
