Sometimes, I see and hear people use mental health and mental illness interchangeably. I especially see it when people equate poor mental health with mental illness. I can see why a lot of people often think poor mental health and mental illness are the same thing based on the broad definitions we find online, but poor mental health is not the same as mental illness.
According to the CDC, mental health is simply defined as "our emotional, psychological, and social well-being." Everyone has mental health that varies from great to poor from time to time, just like everyone has physical health that varies in the same ways from time to time. Also, just like with physical health we need to do certain things to make sure we're doing everything we can to maintain good mental health like getting adequate sleep, taking time to rest and de-stress, getting appropriate exercise, having meaningful social interaction and connection, making sure we have time for fun in our lives, and making sure we have healthy coping strategies for the ups and downs that come with life.
Just like everyone experiences periods of poor physical health, everyone will also likely experience periods of poor mental health. Too much stress can contribute to poor mental health. Not enough time to rest and relax can contribute to poor mental health. Spending too much time or not enough time having meaningful interactions with other humans, depending on whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, can contribute to poor mental health. Being in a career or working at a job that doesn't give you enjoyment and fulfillment can contribute to poor mental health. Not having adequate coping skills to deal with things like the death of a loved one, a relationship breakup, prolonged conflict and stress within a family unit, having to live or behave in a way that feels contrary to who we are, or any other negative life experience can contribute to poor mental health. Basically, any prolonged period in life in which your social, emotional, and psychological needs aren't being met can lead to poor mental health, just like not meeting your body's physical needs leads to poor physical health.
When someone has poor mental health that does not mean that they have a mental illness. Poor mental health is not always a clinical condition, unless a person has a stress-related or exhaustion-related breakdown of some kind that requires hospitalization. (Although, seeing a therapist to help sort out the things related to your poor mental health is GREAT. Grief counseling...stress management...family therapy...all are good options to help you find ways to meet your specific needs.) Poor mental health can be improved by regularly checking in with yourself to make sure you're doing everything you can to meet your body's needs as well as your social, emotional, and psychological needs. Sometimes, to "cure" a period of poor mental health you may only need to slightly adjust the pieces of your life so that you're able to put more energy into different pieces.
Mental illness is a different thing altogether from poor mental health. Mental health is a fluid state of being. A mental illness is a clinically diagnosed condition that has a specific set of symptoms that severely and negatively affect a person's life. Mental illness, unlike poor mental health, can't be "fixed" or cured. It can only be treated and managed, most often with a combination of therapy and medication. Living with mental illness isn't just about making sure you're meeting your social, emotional, and psychological needs; it's about actually correcting issues with how your brain works, like issues related to the chemicals that the brain produces, reactions in certain areas of the brain, and actual pathways that have formed in the brain.
The causes of poor mental health and mental illness are also different. Poor mental health can often be caused by major life events, things in a person's environment, and/or the way they're living their life at the time their mental health becomes poor. Mental illness, on the other hand, has an internal cause related to how the brain actually functions and may have a genetic component that predisposes a person to develop a certain mental illness. A person with a mental illness may not have even had poor mental health prior to the onset of the symptoms of their mental illness.
I'll end with this: Mental health is a state of being, like physical health, that can and does change from time to time depending on how well our needs are being met and how well we're coping with our life experiences. Mental illness is a clinically diagnosed condition that has a specific set of symptoms that severely and negatively affect a person's life and is usually treated in a specific way with therapy and medication. Being in a state of poor mental health and having a mental illness are not the same thing. A state of being can be changed and remedied, but a mental illness can only be treated and managed for the rest of someone's life.
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