Mental health and mental wellness appear to be correlated and interchangeable terms. However, there are a few distinct differences that keep both mental health and mental wellness slightly apart. Mental health incorporates most of our brain health and emotional stability issues. Mental wellness on the other hand is a broader term including overall aspects and positive functioning. Let’s dive deep into what both terms mean and how they are interconnected alongside how we can improve them.
Table of Contents
What is Mental Health and How it Affects Your Overall Health?
Mental health includes the overall state and every aspect of your mental functioning. When you are mentally healthy it means you are capable of handling the demands of daily routine. It also defines how effective you are functioning in society and how well you are emotionally resilient. Hence mental health incorporates our social, psychological, and social state. It affects our way of thinking and acting specifically under stressful circumstances.
Mental health also helps define your overall health status as it has the potential to cause related issues. For example, if someone has depression – he can develop the habit of isolation. He can also become less physically active and have unhealthy eating patterns. If any of these changes persist for a long time – they can lead to diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
What is Mental Wellness and How Does it Benefit Your Mental Health?
Mental wellness is about achieving a holistic state of mind where you positively handle everything. It represents healthy emotional and psychological functioning as well as stability. Hence, mental wellness incorporates everything rather than just the absence of mental illness. It is a process that provides assistance in building growth, and resilience and helps to flourish.
Prominent Signs of Mental Wellness:
- Being aware of your abilities and strengths
- Being able to cope with challenges in life
- Being emotionally stable and resilient
- You are able to show productivity at work
- You are able to construct and stay in healthy relationships
Some Healthy Activities to Boost Your Mental Wellness:
- Artistic Activities like signing and drawing
- Physical activities like exercising and hiking
- Volunteer yourself sometimes to feel at peace
- Eat good food to boost a healthy mood
- Complete the list of your personal goals
- Enjoy your time with family members and close friends
What is Wellness?
If you want to understand the term wellness and its every aspect you can do it by giving a thorough reading to the article. Here you can also find the difference between wellness and complete wellbeing state which is crucial to understand for everyone. Hence, our mental wellness and all other dimensions of wellness are interconnected and one cannot progress if the other one is not fine. But there is no need to overwork yourself by trying hard to be well. Only small changes can make effective results if you keep a healthy lifestyle going.
What Is the Difference Between Mental Health and Mental Wellness?
Have you ever come across the question – what is the difference between mental health and mental wellness? Or is there any difference between mental health and mental wellness terms? The answer is very simple but requires a moment of attention for better understanding. Because both mental health and mental wellness terms are interrelated.
For a moment consider your mental health similar to your physical health. We all will fall on a specific spectrum. On one side, we have our regular health such as nutrition and sleep. While on the other side, we have versatile diagnosable conditions. This situation is similar to our mental health. On one side, we have regular mental health like stress and mood swings. While on the other side, we have various mental health conditions like bipolarity and depression.
Mental wellness is generally associated with our everyday or daily sense of mental health. To better understand its concept – let’s consider it as routine work such as workplace stress. Rather than the collective spectrum of mental health which also includes mental conditions in addition to routine stress.
Are you still not clear about the difference between mental health and mental wellness? Let’s have a look at the statements below to better understand how both terms work:
- When your mental wellbeing state declines with the passage of time then more likely it develop a mental health problem.
- If this mental health issue prevails for a long time, it can decline your overall mental state. This situation can further decline your mental wellness if left unresolved for a long period.
Key Elements That You Should Know About Mental Wellness
Your Mental Wellness Incorporates Much More than the absence of all Mental Illnesses
People often consider mental wellness as a simple continuum. The term is often defined as the absence of chronic mental disorders. However, it incorporates much more like flourishing happiness and coping with emotional disturbances. A lack of all mental illnesses does not ensure complete mental wellness. When you talk about an illness-free mind it reflects a part of mental health and mental wellness.
Around 15 percent population in the world is suffering from a mental disorder. However, it does not reflect that the remaining 85 percent population is leading a productive and mentally well life. There are numerous people around, who do not have mental illness but still do not feel healthy and functionally well. If a person with a mental disorder keeps working on his mental state – can lead a mentally stable life as mental wellness can coexist with mental illness.
Mental Wellness is a Gradual and Active Process – Starting from Languishing, proceeding towards Resilience, and Finalizing with the State of Flourishing
Mental wellness cannot be described as a static state of being. It is a proactive strategy and a lifelong process to strengthen our various resources including:
- Emotional
- Mental
- Psychological
- Social
At one level, mental wellness is about being resilient while facing loneliness, stress, and anger. At another level, it keeps up toward a more meaningful and deeper human experience called flourishing. Mental health and mental wellness have numerous ways and people attain wellness through distinct approaches. For some people, mental wellness is about functioning at the top of routine tasks and achieving their life vision and goals. For others, the concept of flourishing is different – having a high purpose and going beyond the self and personal life.
Mental Wellness Converts Perspective from Stigma to Shared Responsibility and Shared Humanity
Mental health however has worked a lot to mitigate the stigma revolving around mental illness. Mental wellness can assist in shifting the focus towards an empowering and more positive approach. For instance, how we can think and function better alongside our way of making connections with our surroundings. Mental wellness focuses on our capacity to establish resilience – helps to find inner fulfillment while reducing the level of suffering.
When you walk on the path of mental wellness you are more likely to find the meaning and purpose of living. It is all about how happy and satisfied you are in life and how you are connected with others. The approach does not neglect the immense need for better methods to treat mental illness. Instead, it promotes and emphasizes all the aspects that can keep a person mentally well. Both mental health and mental wellness work together to keep a person well going.
Mental Wellness Reduces the Risks of Developing Different Mental Illness at All Stages of Life
It is a global need to address mental illness and help people facing mental distress in any way. Our healthcare system does not have the capacity to address the spiraling number of individuals who are regularly going through emotional challenges. Every third person around is facing mental challenges like loneliness or burnout. Mental wellness in this response has heightened out of the grassroots. This consumer-led movement seeks alternative self-directed solutions outside of established fields of psychiatry, psychology, and medicine.
Mental Wellness is Multi-Dimensional – Personal, and Holistic
The term recognizes the holistic and integrated nature of our overall wellbeing. Our mental state surely affects our physical and other dimensions of wellness. Our mental wellness also includes our values and beliefs towards nature and other people. Even it includes every aspect of spirituality and realms of consciousness. That’s why approaches to improve mental wellness are inclusive and diverse and are enriched by religious and traditional contexts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary connection between mental health and mental wellness?
Both terms are interconnected and contribute a lot to establishing your role and productivity in life. You can boost your mental wellbeing by identifying the true concept that works for your happiness. It helps in structuring the purpose of living and boosts your overall wellbeing state including both mental and physical health.
Why wellness is important for your mental strength and health?
Being mentally well means attaining a lifestyle where you have the ability to manage your emotions and are constantly flourishing. Wellness is a primary need of every person to live a meaningful life specifically in this era when numerous people have different mental issues from minor to major. For more details, you can have a look at the difference between mental health and mental wellness explained above.
