It’s not mental HEALTH!!! Grrr

[BarbaraVineFan]

AIBU to get so irritated with people using ‘ mental health’ to mean ‘ mental illness’? I saw it in an advert for health insurance or something today, a whole list of complaints including joint pain, Parkinson’s, diabetes etc and then MENTAL HEALTH. Mental health is not an illness!! The clue is in the name! Why do people do it? It’s so odd and only seems to have started in the last couple of years.

Eating 'healthy' is another one. Healthily!!!

No we don’t.

This makes me incandescent with rage too.

In which case “mental health concerns/issues/challenges” or similar would’ve been better wording. Mental health can be good as well as bad.

I'm under the perinatal mental health team (PMHT) previously under the community mental health team (CMHT) and child and adolescent mental health team (CAMH). All "mental health" not mental illness yet you wouldn't get accepted unless mentally unwell

My sick notes say mental health as it's less stigmatising than say bipolar or psychosis. I find that people can relate more when I talk about my mental health rather than my mental health illness.

It should be mental ill health

That's weird, I've never seen one without a reason on, there's a place for it. If it was for work purposes I'd reject that and ask them to have it amended.

There is NO need for detail; just the addition of 'poor' or 'issues'.

It's not mental illness if a relative has died. It's not mental illness if you need a steroid shot because it's the start of an RA flare. It's not mental illness if you're overwhelmed by a load of small things all piling up at once and with a couple of days to sleep, get some laundry done, go for a swim or whatever it is that allows them a breather (and can't be done as holiday because that's all taken up with childcare, hospital appointments or there's no holiday because you get an extra 10p an hour to account for it in advance) to not end up becoming ill, though.

What I’m exploring is that I do think there is a hinterland between mental illness and good mental health that wasn’t formerly talked about, so there isn’t established wording. It’s poor mental health but the novelty of widespread discussion means that poor common usage has been adopted more widely than it should have been.

When I was signed off it was 'work related stress'.

I agree. When someone says ‘they’ve got mental health’ to mean an illness or difficulty. We all have mental health, whether it’s good or bad!!

But it's not 'mental health' either. You could call it stress. I'm not diminishing that feeling I was bullied out at work, I didn't even think it was me it was them - proven by the fact I completely recovered when I had worked out my notice period. I couldn't stop crying when I was first signed off. I wouldn't have told anyone my problem was 'mental health' it was lack of it although not a diagnosable illness.

Mental health is something we all have. Up thread poster used really good analogy of blood pressure. We all have it ( if we are alive!) Some people have generally 'good' mental health, some people unfortunately have ' not so good' mental health, and may get a specific diagnosis ie depression or Bipolar disorder which needs treatment and has a negative impact on their well-being. Mental health is not a diagnosis, it is a variable entity. So saying that you have 'Mental health ' is stating the obvious, like saying you have a nose.

You may not, I can assure you some doctors do.

I was suggesting that all doctors exclusively do this.

Someone up thread has said that her sick notes state this.

So, please don't call people liars.

Obviously these things have mental ramifications so can impact mental health. And I get that sometimes people need to be deliberately vague.

It just sounds breathtakingly stupid when someone says “I have mental health.” As if mental health was something some people have and some people don’t, like a Y chromosome.

There must be a more accurate and articulate shorthand.

I agree on 'She has mental health' as my SIL who works in mental health says 🙄

But actually no, you shouldn't correct your 4yo according to speech therapists - you model it correctly- 'Yes you went to the park!'
This is my pedantic thing lol. No one, not even a tiny 1yo feels good about speaking by and trying things if they're being corrected. It makes a big difference to encouraging talk in the early years. (My bugbear and my Special Interest!) 😃

Sorry, forgot to say am agreeing with you ChipaChirpaCheepCheepaChirp.

This information is written on a note that others see? I´m a bit shocked actually. I´m in Spain and my company is informed of the date I am off work and the date I´m coming back to work (or due for revision), the reason is none of their business as it is my private medical history.

It drives me mad too. Especially when it’s used in the context of someone doing something due to a mental illness and they say “well I’ve got mental health and I don’t do that”… right, because everyone with “mental health” has the same diagnosis/issues/triggers 🙄

The one that sends me over the edge is “fuck mental health!”

Meant to mean like “fuck cancer”

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Haven’t RTFT, may have been mentioned before

Yes!

Seems with the Americanisation of speech, that the adverb has left the building- drive safe is another one that drives me mad!

acctully it can be part of mental health ilness death i mean as part of my CPTSD i havea psycotic fear of death and yes i know people die but mental illness can make you not think logically

You hear 'she's got mental health' all the time now. The kind of people you have to just sit and listen to because it's too hot and exhausting to correct them.

Agree. See also people using ‘ethnic’ to mean ‘anything other than white’. We all have an ethnicity.