I have mental health

[Makeitmakesensetoday]

Not a goady thread at all, genuinely do not understand the terminology but I see it on mumsnet and elsewhere a lot.

People say 'I have mental health' but to me this seems like an unfinished sentence.... should end with 'issues/problems/conditions' etc.

We'd never say 'I have physical health' we would say I have physical health conditions and then maybe discuss them if relevant.

Where did this phrase come from? I'm quite an open person so I'd probably say 'I have depression' but for those that just say 'I have mental health' why do you say it? It makes no sense. Health is something we all have - health problems or conditions we may not all have?!

YABU 'I have mental health' makes sense
YANBU you're right it makes no sense

i agree. You can say you’ve got bad mental health or mental health issues, but not just ‘mental health’

I'm a therapist and that phrase bugs me too. I have heard so many people say they've "got mental health"!
Agree it is an incomplete sentence and useless information on its own.

I think the people who say this are probably the very last group of people who need a thread made pointing out their error. If someone has poor mental health or mental health issues (whichever you prefer) you should give them a bloody break.

I have only seen that very few times, from people with poor literacy in general. The complete sentence is "I have poor mental health" or "I have mental health problems". I think people use it as an incomplete sentence missing the last thing.

"My mental health is through the roof" quoted upthread is interesting because there is nothing literally wrong with that, it's just that metaphors in our culture tend to be up = good / lots, down = bad / not much. So "my mental health is on the floor", "my mental health is at rock bottom" make sense metaphorically in this context.

If someone said to me they had "mental health" or "physical health" I would assume they meant "good" mental or physical health unless they explained further!

I find the phrase extremely irritating.

Surely the correct phrase is to say 'I am mentally ill'.

Saying 'I have mental health' enables some people to equate the normal range of human emotion to being ill.

I have had enduring and at times severe mental illness since I was 14 with first signs starting much earlier than that.

I hear the term a lot in reference to wellbeing and mental health awareness. I generally find the term very othering as it doesn't reflect a mental health experience that matches mine. It's often associated with statements like "mental health doesn't mean you can't work or can't look after your children or pets or pot plants" well actually my experience of mental health absolutely does at times me I can't work and rely on my partner to look after both me and our child.

I also find people that use the term to often suggest diet, supplements and exercise as an appropriate treatment for my mental illness and well I tried that and I got acutely unwell without appropriate medication I could have lost my life.

For me it can be used by people who are seeking solidarity about their cold from someone with COPD and not realising that there day to day and month to month experiences differ significantly

Oh actually this does remind me, a friend once sent me a screenshot of a man's tinder profile in which he wrote some absurd and very offensive list of criteria, things like "no lip filler, no gold diggers, no sluts" and right at the end "no mental health". It made us smile, as you would indeed have to have no mental health to swipe on someone like that.

This.

I can't find the thread now but I asked years ago, under a different user name, what the term mental health meant to people because I was realising that people were using it as a whole thing rather than saying there was an issue with their mental health.

To me mental is an indicator of where or what the health problem is, like physical would be.

You're right OP. I hear this all the time and it really irks me. It should be 'I have mental heath issues' or 'I have a mental illness', not 'I have mental health'. It makes ZERO sense.

But that's just it. Anyone with a genuine mental health disorder/condition/illness will know to say it the correct way. Not 'I have mental health'. This alone would make me question how genuine this person's illness is...

It's more the media than on here. But you are right op, it's like saying I have a head and expecting people to work out you've a fractured skull.

I've seen it phrased like this on social media a few times. Like someone else said, we ALL have mental health. Could be good mental health, problematic mental health issues, a mental illness...so it's like an unfinished sentence. It's pretty clear what the person is trying to state though, it's just a misunderstanding like a spelling mistake.

This phrase makes my teeth itch with rage, and needs to be on the post a few days ago about words/phrases that make you feel crazy 🤪

I do notice this. “I’ve got mental health” sounds positive. There needs a be a “bad” or “issues” in there somewhere.

I work in the nhs and I see it in formal papers and presentations eg “patients with mental health” end of sentence. I always correct it or send it for revisions with the note that it is an unfinished sentence. I’m waging a one-woman war in my own department.

I think it's just a poor grasp of the English language. I'm sure we can all think of examples we may do ourselves which don't quite make sense when you dig down into it.

Along similar lines, my mum and her friends like to claim "I have blood pressure". I always want to say good - if you had no blood pressure you probably wouldn't be feeling all that great.

@Jumpingthruhoops

But that's just it. Anyone with a genuine mental health disorder/condition/illness will know to say it the correct way

Come on now.

People get things wrong. People don't know things. People with mental health problems do not always know the right way, in fact they may have learning disabilities too, or maybe they haven't been basic educated. Not all people with medical problems of any description know the correct terminology.

I think this thread is in bad taste, imagine sitting in your darkest place and going online to see a group of people ripping apart the fact that you done say 'problems, issues or bad' when you say mental health.

In days gone by we just said that a person was mental 🤣

I hear this a lot, and it annoys me. Physical and mental health are either good or bad. However we do use the phrase ‘Your health is your wealth’ so I think of the word ‘health’ on its own as being good/positive.

Oh it bugs me too. And the Ariana grande song that says 'right now I'm in a state of mind' what state of mind??!!

I'd guess that, yes, people are entitled to use this phrase as shorthand for 'poor mental health.'

But, equally, people are entitled to find it incredibly irritating and meaningless.

But that's like anything in life, some people don't know things. However, most of the people you will hear saying this are in the media, so presumably are fairly well educated. So there's no harm pointing out the correct way. Otherwise, how on earth do people learn anything?

@Makeitmakesensetoday you’re right, it means nothing to say that one has ‘mental health’ as we all have it whether good, bad of indifferent.

There is a push to talk about mental ‘fitness’ rather than mental ‘health’ in counselling circles but that would still need to be quantified as in “I have poor mental fitness/good mental fitness” so not sure it would help much.