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

Totally agree. It doesnt make sense. I have mental ill health, I'm mentally unwell, or I have mental health issues seems appropriate to me however if I hear someone ranting 'It's my mental health' it's pretty obvious what they mean and I'd not bother correcting them. I might though intervene in a calm conversation where someone says 'I've got mental health'...maybe say "oh that's good, lm glad you're feeling well.....oh you mean mental ILL heath! Oh sorry to hear that "

This drives me mad too.

I agree. I usually see it on social media and tend to assume that the writer is not particularly articulate.

I work in Mental Health and have never heard anyone say this.

I’ve heard ‘poor mental health’, ‘mental ill health’, ‘good mental health’ etc.

I've heard it in real life and read it on here multiple times. I always itch to say "do you mean 'poor mental health'? But of course I don't, because it would be a shitty thing to do to someone who's struggling.

But yes, it's one of those things that irritates, along with people calling every school holiday 'half term'.

I read a post yesterday or the day before that used it (but used 'I have MH' rather than the full words. But I'm not going to search it and link it because that would be an awful thing to do to the person who posted it.

People say it a lot. On a recent thread someone said it about themselves while (somewhat ironically) complaining that the self description of being 'registered' disabled was 'meaningless'. It doesn't bother me. I know what they mean and that's the important part of communication surely?

I think some people now use "mental health" as a synonym for "stress" or "anxiety", in the way we use "a temperature" to mean "a fever". In that context "my mental health was through the roof" would make perfect sense to the writer as they mean it in an "I was stressed to the eyeballs" way.

I agree with you OP.

But I'm equally irritated by the prevalence of people ending statements with question marks these days.

"But it doesn't make any sense?"

I hope this was a typo!

Haha you got me!

Makes no sense. But I've never seen this on MN?

People usually say 'I have poor MH' or 'I have MH problems'

@Makeitmakesensetoday you have read my mind- the number of times people on here say they have mental health when they mean the exact opposite. Every time I think if you have mental health that's lovely but it's never what they mean

Plenty do, but I think your brain has been subconsciously filling in the missing word in quite a few other posts. Because I've definitely seen it here multiple times.

I’ve heard it loads, it rings a bell from the Tyson Fury thing I saw clips of, too (not 100% sure). It’s as annoying as when people say “I’m OCD” which I’ve heard lots over the years and really grates.

I have heard many people say this. It really annoys me.

I've heard people say it in real life. I would never criticise the person saying it as they've presumably got mental health problems - and not very good language skills. It bugs me more when journalists do it. My local paper once had a headline saying something like "Councillor X vows to fight mental health." Unless he's actually proposing to drive everyone mad, that's not a well constructed headline.

The other one that gets me is ‘I’ve got blood pressure’, I would hope so! High blood pressure though not so good..

The other one that gets me is ‘I’ve got blood pressure’, I would hope so! High blood pressure though not so good..

Contrary to the majority of comments here I've seen this so many times and I completely agree, it drives me mad. Although saying you'd never say 'i have physical health', my partner's mum said the other day 'i have blood pressure', so maybe it is a thing!

Never heard anyone say this ever.

I suspect that it's one of those things that if you find irritating, you notice it whenever or occurs. But if you doesn't bother you, it passes you by.

When I saw the OP title, I thought 'thank goodness it's not just me!'.

Yep, it drives me crazy! There's a self styled mental health support worker in our ....I won't say as I don't want the person to be recognised! She says this; it drives me mad. I wasn't to say to her 'yes, we all have mental health. Mental health what? I'm glad you made this post op. It's been annoying me for ages and it's nice to have a little vent!

It does feel grammatically incorrect to me. I have mental health issues and wouldn't say I have mental health. It doesn't feel like it makes sense to me. But I know what people mean by it and if the are experiencing mental health issues the last thing they need is calling out on their grammar!

I agree, it's nonsensical and grating. I've also heard fellow parents of kids with special needs use the phrase "for kids with needs" or "when your child has needs" instead of saying special or additional needs 😬 It sounds so odd to my ears, but I wonder if like the MH one it's connected to unease/wish to destigmatise somehow?!

"How is your mental health?"