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

YADDDDDNBU OP! Mental health seems to be something people now suffer from, while I grit my teeth to avoid saying ‘Congratulations’!

It really annoys me! It's said on TV a lot.

Love this!!

It's just people being thick, as usual.

I have noticed this too OP and it bemuses me.
People use the phrase to mean poor mental health but this makes no sense.
We all have mental health - it might be good, healthy & robust or might be problematic. For the state of one's mental health to be described, at least one more word needs to be added!

I haven’t read it but (what’s worse) I have heard it used in real life! Agree it makes no sense and IMO it makes the speaker sound a bit thick.

It's not really any different to saying "I have a temperature ". It's not strictly informative but in context we all know what it means.
OTOH I frequently assume it is shorthand for feeling bad, low, sad, anxious etc. rather than having a diagnosed psychological or psychiatric disorder.

It's a bit of a pointless saying because we all have mental health, whether that be good or bad, like we all have physical health, whether it's healthy or unhealthy. When people say 'I have mental health' I just think '... okay? We all do? Congrats on not having had a full frontal lobotomy I guess?'

Logically it makes no sense, but colloquially it means I have non specific mental health issues. It has just become a catch all phrase that is constantly being used whether or not any conditions have been diagnosed. Drives me mad. It’s used as an excuse for everything from bunking off school to taking drugs and worse. It diminishes those who have actual mental health issues……..but this is sadly the case for tons of things now.

🤣

YABU, almost everyone (apart from MN) say it. Some MN are nosy & want to know what MH issues people have, that’s why they say that it doesn’t make sense as it just won’t be acceptable in their nosy little world 🐱

Yes! It drives me insane.

Customers in work say to me “I have mental health” and I think yeah okay I have mental health too, what’s the matter with your mental health?

Saying you have mental health is saying you are mentally healthy, surely? If I said I have physical health, then I'm inferring I'm physically healthy. Although, everyone has 'health' but it could be great, poor, middling...

I don't have mental health.

I suffer from depression with psychosis and cPTSD.

I have mental Ill health!

But it doesn't make any sense?

Yep- drives me mental. It would really mean your mental state was healthy surely. I.E I have physical health= I am healthy. I have physical health problems= there are problems with my physical health

Everyone knows what it means though.

Annoys me no end . I want to scream yes we all have mental health doh

Genuinely don’t know if this is good or bad. It sounds good - really high mental health. But nobody would say that would they? I guess they mean really poor mental health?

Actually, your mental health IS impacted. By every single little thing you do. Mental health 'issues' occur when the impacts are no longer manageable or bearable.

Mental health is a spectrum.

Some MN are nosy & want to know what MH issues people have, that’s why they say that it doesn’t make sense as it just won’t be acceptable in their nosy little world

Nonsense. It's because it doesn't make sense. People are saying it should be 'I have bad MH' or 'I have MH problems'. They aren't saying everyone should state 'I have depression' etc.

Anyway, no it doesn't properly make sense, but it would be very disingenuous to claim you don't understand what they mean.

I mean you're right, it doesn't make any sense, but then most posters seem to know what it means when said in context.
People have the right to be annoyed by it, but in all honesty when I was in the middle of poor mental health a few times in my teens and twenties and struggling to do anything, feeling worthless, truly in my own head and backed up by other people's obvious annoyance at my existence (how I saw it then anyway) reading something like this about the phrasing of my mental state at the time would have just completely confirmed what a complete waste of space I was and would be yet another way I annoyed people and how I couldn't even get reaching out for help right because I said it wrong and quite frankly deserve to be the butt of everyone's jokes and ridicule.

I mean now in a better place, I have to ask - what exactly is the impact of reading or hearing that, especially when as this thread shows, it's generally understood what the person saying it means? The person may be reaching out, admitting there's a problem yet they deserve derision and ridicule because they said it the wrong way.
Haven't really come as far as we'd like to tell ourselves where dealing with any type of mental health is concerned as society I don't think.

I worked in an allied field 15 years ago, and used to fulminate about it to friends.

If you've got mental health then you're lucky. It's the people who have a mental illness that I feel sorry for!

I’ve not seen that one yet thankfully. ‘Through the floor’ would be a reasonable metaphor!