Most of us have experienced being unwell.
A physical illness can be due to an accident or an infection, such as food poisoning or having a common cold.
Mental illness is different to physical illness. Mental health is about the state of a person’s mind.
Mental illness or mental ill-health relates to a disorder affecting a person’s thoughts, emotions and behavour.
In this course we use the terms illness, disease and sickness.
They do have slightly different meanings. Flip the cards below to see the English Oxford Dictionary definitions…
ILLNESS-a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind.
DISEASE-a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that has a distinctive group of symptoms, signs, or anatomical changes and often a known cause.
SICKNESS-the state of being ill.
So let’s look a bit deeper into what we mean by mental health.
Some of these statements could be signs of physical or mental health. For example, high blood pressure can be due to stress or due to clogged arteries.
A very important point to consider throughout this course is…
Mental and physical health are interrelated. They are not separate things.
Our mental health is an essential part of who we are, from when we are born to when we die.
Mental health is part of how we consider and prepare for our death. Some people also believe we need to consider the mental health of unborn babies. We know from research that mental ill-health during pregnancy can affect unborn babies.
Here is another very important point…
A person’s mental health can be positive or negative.
The Mental Health Foundation define positive mental health as a person’s ability to fulfil a number of key functions and activities. Click on the + symbols below to see what they are…
Positive mental health means feeling in control of yourself and your life so that you can lead the life you want to.
Watch this short video (1:58) made by MIND, an important UK mental health charity, which summarises the points we have made in this first lesson and leads us into the second one.
With all our videos, you can use the subtitles or transcript if you need to see the words. You can also use Google Translate to help you if you need support to understand any of the words.
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