To struggle to believe people who say they’ve “never thought about their mental health”?

[HeartyCyanEagle]

I recently read an interview with Joan Collins where she said “I never have thought about my mental health, ever. My mental health is perfect.”

I find statements like that fascinating more than anything. Not because I think everyone must be mentally ill, be traumatised or constantly analyse themselves. But because being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc at some point.
I also sometimes wonder whether older celebrities/public figures from certain generations define “mental health” very differently altogether.

For example, Joan Collins has obviously lived an extraordinarily dramatic/public/emotionally eventful life across decades - multiple marriages, fame, pressure, heartbreak, public scrutiny etc, which is partly why I find the idea of someone never having reflected on their mental health genuinely fascinating.

So when people say they’ve literally never thought about their mental health, I sometimes wonder whether it reflects generational attitudes, repression/stoicism, different definitions of mental health, image management or genuinely just a very psychologically resilient temperament.

AIBU?

I take this to mean that they experience emotions and peaks and troughs of mental wellness but don't treat it as a medical, internal 'health' issue, more of a passing circumstantial one.

I am 53. I have felt down at times, but have also had good times, contented times, traumatic times... in other words, just life. I have never really thought about my mental health.

FWIW, I am not worried about the potential stigma of a mental health diagnosis. I've just been fortunate enough never to have needed help in this way.

Yes agree with @Watercooler
I've obviously been sad or stressed by life events sometimes very much so but I'd see it as a normal reaction to life I don't think of it as a 'mental health event' or 'episode' that needs examining.

"But because being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc"

Because these are all just normal human emotions. Having a negative feeling doesn't necessarily mean they have a mental health problem.

Everyone gets anxious, but not everyone has a diagnosable anxiety disorder, for instance.

Agree with the first post. I worry about things, get anxious, am happy…. I just get on with it. I don’t think about it as mental health? And I don’t say this flippantly - my father tried to take his own life. I can’t really explain it, I deal with things and move on.

Agree with pp - Joan Collins has definitely been through tough times in her life that she has spoken about openly but she didn’t seem to perceive them as being a MH issue

Realistically most from her era would be similar and probably not frame mental hurdles in the way we do these days

Yes, agree with pp. “Mental Health” has morphed into an umbrella term for “how I’m feeling today”. Most people don’t go about their lives thinking about how they’re feeling. They just go about their lives.

As above.
She's never considered her emotional/mental experiences in life to be outside the 'normal' and hasn't felt the need to access specific, medical or professional support.

being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc at some point.

Of course it does. As you said, it's part of being human.

But these are things that we all experience in life and to me personally, I wouldn't consider I had a 'mental health issue' when I do experience them.

”…But because being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc at some point.”

An interesting list. I do think what people think as mental health has changed, and perhaps it’s become more ‘medicalised’ in some instants.

For example, fifty years ago, you went to uni and you knew you could feel lonely until you’ve made friends and settled in. You accepted this as part of life. Now, that loneliness woukd be called anxiety, and people would seek help from the doctors for it.

Also, with grief, you know you would be feeling upset, and so are prepared for that feeling.

So in many ways, what people associate as ‘poor mental health’ would be considered everyday feelings in the past.

However, I do think there is a greater awareness of severe mental health, which is good. For example, pstd was only officially recognised in 1980, after the Vietnam war, although earlier terms (‘she’ll shock’) had been used.

Experiencing emotions, even negative emotions, isn't the same as having bad mental health or mental health issues which is presumably what Joan Collins meant.

I've never had bad mental health so I haven't had to think about it in that way.
I've at times been sad, angry, frustrated etc in response to things happening in life though.

She’s just not a navel-gazer.

It’s laughable coming from someone with an ego as fragile as hers!

Hand on heart I have never thought about, not once.

I don’t think it is that unusual.
Some people are resilient and accept painful emotions as they come without any longterm emotional or pain to their mental health.
When Joan was growing up, it would have to common to just get on with things.

I only had mh issues in the last few years and am astonished at how easy life was before. I now analyse everything wrt mh, I read into things, I overthink etc etc etc. I look at my friends who say they’re lucky and then back it up by saying something I wouldn’t see as a blip is so stressful and am genuinely gobsmacked that people go through life without what I’ve experienced. God I wish I could go back!!!

Just about to say exactly this. My view is that these days, all too often, normal human emotions, which can be extraordinarily painful and difficult eg grief, are treated as if they are some kind of mental health problem, whereas they are not. They are painful awful feelings which in time, and it can be a long time, will diminish.
The human condition is not to be happy and fulfilled all the time. Much of life can be quite mediocre and that's normal.

I have experienced some dreadful and painful times as a result of events and circumstances, but I would say I've never thought of my mental health per se( I'm early sixties).

I think some people are very in tune with their feelings and that can really dominate how they approach things and feel about life. Whereas others (like me) are kind of the opposite, I have to say I very rarely think about how I'm feeling. I'm very resilient though so when something negative happens my natural inclination is to work out what to do to fix it / get past it, whereas others might be more preoccupied by their feelings about the event and not be able to focus on the solution. For this reason I can't say that mental health is something I ever consider personally.

I’ve never thought about my own mental state in terms of ‘health’. To me, a ‘mental health condition’ is a health condition that affects the brain like PTSD. Inside my own mind, I experience a normal range of human emotions but that seems entirely separate to ‘health’.

The most resilient people I know are the ones that do have mental illness but keep going through the ups and downs .

When Joan Collins was growing up the words mental health weren’t thrown around as much. Now everything is mental health! I’ve been through the ups and downs and emotions life brings but I’ve never sat and thought about my mental health.

I find statements like that fascinating more than anything. Not because I think everyone must be mentally ill, be traumatised or constantly analyse themselves. But because being human inevitably involves stress, grief, insecurity, anxiety, emotional conflict, disappointment, loss, fear etc at some point.

Yes, but many of us regard those as normal, temporary emotions, and not a sign of problematic mental health. Eg grief following a bereavement is an utterly normal, non concerning emotion & not something I'd consider as a mental health issue.

I think you're confusing mental health issues with perfectly normal human emotions.

Mental Health to me was always for other people who had anxiety,.eating disorders, OCD, depression. I've never experienced any of those so I've never thought about MY mental health. Sure I've been down, upset,.worried, anxious.....but just see them as normal human emotions and just got on with it. Now I have a daughter who has had an eating disorder and OCD I do see mental health differently but I do think too many normal emotions are labelled as "mental health issues"

That said, the rhetoric that older generations (including mine) just got on with things and were much more resilient isn't necessary true. A lad in my year took his own life at school (about 36 years ago) and my mother lost her best friend to suicide 40 years ago. Who knows had there been more awareness would the outcomes have been different? The lad in my year was the "naughty lad" and always in trouble.... today he would have had a lot more support.

By the way I saw a night with Joan Collins in London 2 years ago and she was absolutely magnificent!

I’ll never forget a teacher telling dd1 she “had anxiety”! She was an anxious child so would be cautious and observe others on big slides before doing it etc but the world needs anxious people. It’s a normal emotion and frankly I don’t want a cocky so and so building my aeroplane etc. no one wants a world of Donald trumps! Learning that anxiety is a normal emotion is important and now, after 18, she’s pretty chilled. But I could have taken her and got her medicated stating mental health issues. (Dmil does have anxiety - the kind that prevents her living a normal life so I’m not dismissing serious mh issues).

I was devastated when my job changed - all out of my hands and it did make me feel physically unwell but I didn’t feel like I had mh issues as I knew it was a case of cause and effect. Essentially I think there’s two ways people look at it and one side thinks any emotion is a sign of mh problems rather than normal human feelings.