Mental Health vs Mental Illness: The Fine Line
Mental Health vs Mental Illness
The Fine Line
Ever since the COVID-19 shennanigans happened and all the lockdowns in Victoria began, the buzzwords words surrounding mental health, mental illness and mental well being have become more prevalent. Sure it’s great to encourage people to learn about mental wellbeing and how to assess their own mental states, but the growing widespread use of these terms have brought up their own issues.
Often, mental health and mental illness can be confused by members of society and thus be used interchangeably as synonyms or substitutes. However, these are two different concepts and two separate things. Although related, they are still not the same thing. Any human being (or even pet) has mental wellbeing and needs to look after their mental health. On the other hand, not everyone has mental illness. Someone can have poor mental health, yet not suffer from any mental illnesses. Conversely, someone can have a mental illness but have great mental health.
We should not lump these key terms into one word or meaning. It is important to recognise the difference between mental illness and mental health. The dictionary definitions for these terms are the following:
“Mental health: according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) mental health is defined as “a state of wellbeing in which the individual recognises his or her own capabilities, can cope with the regular stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
Mental wellbeing: can often be used interchangeably with mental health, but has a more positive meaning or connotation. Indicates positive and good mental health.
Mental illness: according to the Australian Department of Health, mental illness is defined as “a health problem that significantly affects how a person feels, behaves, thinks and interacts with other people. It is diagnosed by a relevant professional (e.g. psychologist) according to standardised criteria. It is an umbrella term covering many types of mental disorder or illness.
Although we might not think too much of the interchanging use of these terms or intentionally create such damage, it is very important to realise the impact of overutilization of these terms specific to mental illnesses. It stigmatises mental health and mental illness, as these people claiming to have ‘depression’ or ‘anxiety’ may in reality not have these conditions when in reference to the standardised criteria (e.g. Australian Psychology Association, APA).
When people use these terms without understanding them or conducting proper, sufficient use it leads to these terms connotative meanings which are often negative and harmful to those actually suffering from real mental illnesses. This can anger, irritate, worry or trigger traumatic, harmful memories or feelings within an individual. When people use terms they don’t understand, they tend to associate their own meaning with the word. When hundreds and thousands of people do this, oftentimes the meaning commonly held by society can be very different from the definition of these terms in reality.
A good example of this that is quite similar in nature is the representation of people on the autism spectrum through Sia’s controversial new movie set to be released to cinemas, Music. Many criticisms brought up the fact that none of the story writers actually had autism, none of the actors or main character had autism and that the behavioral techniques used by those with autism (coping strategies) were carcitiased in the film. The over utilisation of mental illness jargon can also have the same effect. So why shouldn’t we take the same approach to mental illness and mental health?
In the world of modern free media that can be produced by anybody, we should also recognise the high stigmatization and stereotyping of those suffering from mental illness. Whenever extreme events such as shootings occur, media outlets are quick to highlight potential mental health or illness struggles. This is a cheap and irresponsible way to justify and explain these rare occurrences. These terrible media outlets tend to associate these horrific events with mental illness to provide a solution or explanation that makes sense for their simple minds and to disassociate these risks or chances for potential occurrences within the population without mental illness. They are just trying to appeal to readers to gain more reads or views as well as reassuring themselves and their readers that no one like them could ever do something as evil as that.
Recently, we have seen reforms in the way that society has viewed the use of terms such as the ‘r-word’, ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’, so why shouldn’t we have that societal shift for terms under mental illness? Perhaps we don’t need to completely remove the use of these words in our own ‘vocabulary bank’ but we just need to be more mindful when using these terms and making sure that we are using them in the correct manner. Just like if the ‘r-word’ was used now, it would be highly triggering, disrespectful and offensive to those suffering from mental illness. It undermines their struggles.