Mental Health Literacy
When people think of the term “mental health” they often have very different understandings and perspectives. Unfortunately, the term mental health is used by some to describe individuals who “can’t deal with life” or “are crazy.”
Others use the term in a more supportive manner and highlight that mental health is important during times of increased stress or traumatic life experiences, including a relationship break up, divorce, health problem, or death of a family or friend. While these events certainly impact a person’s life, it is important to understand that everyone has mental health and mental health is important all the time.
Although we all have a different flavor of mental health, the specific concerns we face are different and how we manage those concerns is also different. A useful way of understanding the range of mental health concerns is to use a mental health continuum. As shown below, the continuum would include severe and persistent mental disorders (Schizophrenia) on one end of the range, less severe mental disorders and mental problems of everyday living in the middle range, and periods of relative stability on the other end of the range.
Mental Health Continuum
The following continuum can be used to understand the range of mental health concerns. Note that everyone has mental health, and that an individual’s mental health can move along the spectrum in either direction.
| Mental Health Continuum | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Period of Stability | Elevated Stress | Less Severe Disorders | Severe/Persistent Disorders |
Do the Terms “Mental Health”, “Mental Illness”, and “Mental Disorders” Mean the Same Thing?
The term “mental illness” is sometimes used interchangeably with mental health; however, mental illness is more of a medical term and refers to specific mental disorders that have been assigned a diagnosis in the DSM-IV-TR. Additionally, when you hear the word mental illness it might bring up an image of someone being “sick” or possibly “contagious”, which contributes to stigma induction vs. stigma reduction of mental health concerns. Since everyone falls at a different point of the mental health continuum, which also changes at different times of one’s life, the term mental illness is also not inclusive to all individuals. The term mental health is a more inclusive term than mental illness and thus:
FHF peer educators are strongly suggested to use the term mental health when talking with others.
Making a distinction between the notion of “mental health problems” and “mental disorders” is also important. The simple way of looking at this is that everyone in the world experiences periods of mental health problems while a smaller segment of the population have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. When thinking about mental health problems vs. mental disorders it is also helpful to understand that these terms differ in relationship to the severity, duration, and intensity of the individuals mental health concerns. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, 1999) defines these terms in the following way:
Definitions
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, 1999) makes the following distinction between “mental health problems” and “mental disorders”:
- Mental Health Problems
- “Mental health problems are signs and symptoms of insufficient intensity and duration to meet criteria for any mental disorder” (DHHS, 1999, p.38).
- Mental Disorders
- “Mental disorders are characterized by abnormalities in cognition, emotion or mood, or the highest integrative aspects of behavior, such as social interactions or planning of future activities” (DHHS, 1999, p.38).
The Importance of Terminology
Finally, terminology is important when we consider how to describe someone who manages mental health problems or a mental disorder. It is not uncommon to hear someone state, “they are depressed” or “she has issues”. You may even hear an individual self identify as “I got issues” or “I’m bipolar.” When considering the act of labeling others with mental health problems of mental disorders it is critical to remember that people are not their mental health problem or mental disorder. For example, when we refer to people who are managing a physical health concern, such as diabetes or AIDS, we would never say, “She is diabetes” and might feel uncomfortable if the person self-identified as “I’m AIDS”.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
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