To think the term "mental health" has become meaningless

[Floatyboat]

This crisis has lead to an epidemic of concern about "mental health". This new "mental health" is not what people used to refer to by the term. Rather than illnesses such as depression, psychosis or anorexia people are now referring to something closer to "emotional wellbeing" or "feeling good".

The object of concern has also changed. It used to be worried about other people's mental health, particularly people we care about. Now people typically use the term whilst referring to their own "mental wellbeing".

Mental health problems have rightly come some way in being destigmatized. A byproduct of that is that the term has been co-opted by people describing their own desires and emotions as if it gets them a free pass on the responsibilities others face.

People don't tend to say I do x because it's good for my "physical health" , they're more specific, eg to lose weight, reduce chance of cancer, avoid covid19 etc. But people just seem happy to use this ill defined "mental health"in such a way.

It has also become unfashionable to specify the degree of "mental health" problem. As if some mild worry or inner tension is the same as something which destroys your life. We don't often classify viral sore throat and throat cancer together. Why do we lump mental health problems all together in the same boat?

Am I being unreasonable to ask you to think twice about using the term "mental health" and try to avoid the erasure of people with severe and debilitating problems. Being more specific can only be a good thing.

I think people always did this, except that 'mental health' had replaced other terms they might have used.

But people have always said things like "I do it for the sake of my sanity" or "it's to stop me going crazy" or "I feel depressed today" when they weren't talking about serious diagnosed conditions.

I suppose it’s all relative really. Minor anxiety to someone might be a bit of an annoyance but not really cause any major issues, but to the next person it could be quality of life limiting.
I do agree that it’s not ideal all ranges of all conditions being swept up into the one phrase.
@Pumpertrumper makes a very valid point that life can be stressful. These are often normal stresses that absolutely are part of life. There seems to be little resilience around these days. I think it’s good for us to be able to deal with the stresses and strains of life, but theses stresses and strains definitely impact on people to varying amounts.

I guess there is a difference between mental health which tends to relate to our emotions etc and mental illness which tends to refer to a diagnosable condition?

I don't like this fashion either. It signals to me more of a message that everyone around the person with the mental health problem should just have to suck up the shitty or even criminal behaviour. This is probably something that would be lost on some people who haven't experienced it, so please don't think I'm completely devoid of empathy with people who have mental health problems. It should never be okay to say that anyone other than a professional can prevent someone from attempting suicide.

I think the thresholds between people vary so one person may genuinely feel that they are suffering with a mental health problem like Anxiety, another person may subjectively view that individual as not suffering with Anxiety. I know a school gate parent that is quite open with people about their 'issues', even people they barely know. I have heard others say, 'haven't we all'. But it does beg the question over what is genuinely mental health issues and what is a momentary blip- who gets to decide that? Is it only a clinical diagnosis as I knew someone who ended their life and it was a massive shock to everyone - their life was seemingly perfect.

I should add, they were not medically diagnosed with depression or any other mental health issues.

The positive about the conflating of the term is that hopefully more people can start to recognise when their mental health is under pressure and take steps. It might help prevent crisis for some further down the line.

I'm not sure its helpfull to expect those experiencing early/mild symptoms of mental health issues to diagnose themselves and analyse if their issues are 'severe' enough.

I agree with the OP. My father committed suicide after suffering for 3 years with psychosis and depression. Most people can relate to feeling a bit anxious, but that’s no where close to the devastation of serious mental health issues. No amount of fb posts telling your friends that your door is open could have made a difference to my Dad. People are embarrassed and uncomfortable when I talk about what happened to my dad, but quite happy to go on about ‘mental health awareness’ when what they mean is ‘I use this to justify lighting a candle and having some quiet time’.

I think relying on a clinical diagnosis in these times where mental health services are so massively underfunded before allowing someone to say they have a mental health issue is quite naive really. There are also many people out there with mental illnesses that theyre just trying to cope with, because they’re on a waiting list or they’re afraid social services will take their children or their doubter partner has convinced them they’re being a drama queen.

Agree - it's like using 'migraine' for headache or 'flu' for a cold. Of course we need to take care of our wellbeing (physical and emotional).
When I hear 'mental health' I think of depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
Often what people are actually talking about is their mood. It's not unimportant, and it does need to be taken care of, because if your mood is negative for too long it will have an impact.
But mood does not equal mental health.

I think it's often misused eg "I suffer from mental health" (eye roll)
I also actually thing it reinforces stigma to refer to everything as 'mental health'.
People are more specific about physical illnesses - eg I broke my leg, I had my gallbladder out, I suffer from arthritis. I think people would use 'I had some health issues' when they didn't want to share their diagnosis.
So not saying for eg I was sectioned, I suffered from anorexia, I had a psychotic episode and instead saying 'I had mental health issues' I think reinforces the shame and secrecy somehow. It's a lot easier to say because yeah - people don't judge a psychotic episode like they do a stay in ITU after a car crash and it's now a common phrase people are more comfortable with but I think it's still a bit of a shield to hide behind. The fact its easier to say shows there's still a problem with the actual reality if MH issues. I think it would reduce stigma a lot if people could be specific, it would be so refreshing to hear and would normalise the more severe mental health issues. It would help people find others with similar experiences too - if someone describes 'having mental health issues' it's invasive to ask them what sort, but maybe you were a psychiatric inpatient and desperate to talk to someone who would understand but you don't know if someone who uses that phrase could relate to you or whether they had mild depression for a bit.
It's a bit like saying 'womens' issues' too instead of fibroids, menorrhagia, miscarriage. It's important to legitimise and have language to describe people's experiences that doesn't 'other' them.
The truth is if we would like physical and mental health viewed more equally we should ditch the first word altogether and just say health. By splitting them mental health always comes second, like the world cup and the women's world cup, we know what the primary one is there. We don't say people went to a 'physical health unit' but we do say 'mental health unit'. And lots of (especially severe) MH conditions are physical anyway.
I think everything should come under the 'health' umbrella and people should be able to be specific and that would do a lot to reduce shame and stigma. Just my thoughts.

@BackInTime

I agree OP the term 'mental health' has been diluted to include lots of normal life emotions like sadness, fear and worry. It distracts from the serious nature of of mental illnesses. It is similar to the fad of 'food allergies/ intolerance' when these are just mild or some self diagnosis but not actually life threatening or debilitating as those you have actual diagnoses of a food allergies. What happens in both instances is that those who need to be taken seriously are not.

I couldn't agree more! Everyone these days seems to be suffering from anxiety as well.

No amount of fb posts telling your friends that your door is open could have made a difference to my Dad.

I’ve been suicidal and those posts made a literal difference to me. Just because it wouldn’t have worked for your dad doesn’t mean those it did work for weren’t mentally ill.

Just like some medicine cures some people but not others with the same illness.

Umm, I think you are being unreasonable here and a bit of a gate keeper.

You also seem to want to make a general term, 'mental health' specific, when the specific terms like depression, anorexia etc already exist?

Everyone has a state of mental health just as everyone has a state of physical health. Its not as though you are only allowed to say you are unwell if you have cancer, but if you say you have cancer everyone knows its more serious than a sore throat.

Equally if someone said to me 'I'm feeling anxious about sending DD to school at the moment' I wouldn't intepreate that as 'I have long term, medically diagnosed anxiety'.

I agree with a PP who said that talking about mental health issues, mild or large is important. If we discuss the small stuff it could stop someone escalating into something more serious.

I quite often use the phrase "for the sake of my mental health" or similar. I could say something along the lines of "so that I improve my emotional well being and therefore reduce the chance of slipping into a depressive episode, increasing my anxiety, or triggering my ptsd" but it's a bit of a mouthful.

Personally I like that the phrase has become more mainstream. I feel that it has helped reduce the stigma, even if there's still a long way to go on that. It doesn't mean "mental health issues or illness" it's just mental health as opposed to general health. Like someone eating more veg so they can be a "little healthier".

I agree OP.

I sometimes feel the more we obsess over mental health, the less resilient we become, and more prone to over analysing everything.

I think 'anxiety' has now become a self diagnosed condition for life worries in general.

I simply disagree because mental health isn't the same as mental illness.

I have bipolar. It’s still very stigmatised against, so much so, I don’t feel comfortable telling people. Being able to say ‘sorry I have to cancel our plans, I’m having a bad mental health day’ is much easier than saying ‘i can’t see you right now because I’m lying on my bathroom floor having a suicidal meltdown’.

I don’t think we should be gate keeping the term ‘mental health’. It allows people to share that they’re struggling without having to go into great detail, when they don’t want to. Better that than people suffering alone.

Comparing it to physical health, I would happily tell someone I’ve got tonsillitis, but I wouldn’t want to share that I’ve got crabs. So we’re not open about all physical health related issues.

"Am I being unreasonable to ask you to think twice about using the term "mental health" and try to avoid the erasure of people with severe and debilitating problems. Being more specific can only be a good thing."
Yes you are being unreasonable. Everybody has metal health. Some people have good mental health and some people have poor mental health, which is where you might start to distinguish and categorise, such as depression, poor anxiety etc.

I think that, just as with physical health, we distinguish between illness (possibly requiring medical intervention) and wellbeing (can be improved by lifestyle changes), it's helpful to do the same for mental health. Feeling a bit rubbish or grumpy or whatever, may just be a mental wellbeing problem, improved by getting exercise, fresh air, good food, better sleep. That's different from mental illness, which if severe enough, requires medical intervention, but even if it doesn't, can't simply be cured by going for a walk every day, or whatever.

I think that coronavirus has had a big impact on a lot of people's mental wellbeing. I also think that it's likely to have worsened quite a lot of people's mental health.

But I agree, OP, it's not helpful to conflate the two.

Mental health not metal

It's more of a fashion statement these days to have a problem with your mental health.

People seem quick to gain a title; depression, OCD etc like it's some sort of "look at poor me" attitude.
We have become very self indulged and extremely dramatic as a society... Or maybe just bored!
It suprises people somewhat when you're not taking tablets for anything and in fact a lot of people try to look for a problem with your mental health because it unnerves them.
I strongly believe no one is born dangerous or mad, they are moulded this way. Perhaps if we focus on enjoying our time with our children and keeping them safe whilst maintaining a healthy balance of independence and guidance... then we'll all be a lot more well as a society, or at least the next generation will be.

"I think 'anxiety' has now become a self diagnosed condition for life worries in general."
We all get anxiety, no one is immune from it, it's just that there are different levels of anxiety and some people cant manage it aswell as others.

It's more of a fashion statement these days to have a problem with your mental health.

People seem quick to gain a title; depression, OCD etc like it's some sort of "look at poor me" attitude.