Mental Vs Emotional Health: How Are They Related?

Mental vs emotional health- these two have a very important role in how a person processes and expresses information. The relationship between our mental and emotional health typically reflects on how we release our emotions according to how our mind perceives and understands details and experiences. The psychologist at this medical centre in Southbank explains that being mentally healthy doesn’t necessarily equate to good emotional health and vice versa.

Difference Between Mental And Emotional Health

Many of us think that our mental health and emotional health are exactly the same things that affect our feelings, actions, and emotions. While that may be true, mental, and emotional health differs by definition. Mental health refers to the ability of our mind to perceive, understand, and process knowledge and experiences. Whilst emotional health is described as our capacity to express and handle the emotions that emerge in reliance on our mind’s perception of the details.

Mental health can affect several parts of our life. It has a direct impact on our mood, behavior, personality, and for others, poor mental health lead to a certain mental illness.

On the other hand, there are plenty of ways to improve our emotional health and manage how we react to different situations.

Some of the differences between mental and emotional health include:

• One can manage and the other one might find it difficult to cope with stress. For instance, you can suffer from a mental illness without compromising your emotional health, or vice versa. This simply means that your ability to manage your emotions and feelings is strong and reliable.
• Mental health does not solely rely on how well you understand and perceive information. It also refers to your ability to reason out, comprehend, and deeply make sense of the details you received. As result, you will express your personal understanding through your emotional health.

Factors That Affect Our Mental Health

Mental health problems and mental illness arise due to specific reason which includes the following:

1. Brain or genes chemistry. i.e. biological factors
2. Trauma or abuse caused by past experiences
3. Family history of having a mental illness

But there is nothing to worry about because any mental illness is manageable. Anyone who is suffering from mental health problems can recover with the right help.

Additionally, if the poor mental health starts to manifest itself in an individual’s emotional health, they will most probably act-up on it by showing mental illness signs such as:

• Not getting enough sleep or sleeping too much
• Isolating themselves from the people around, even with family and friends
• No energy to function well
• Not showing interest in anything
• Feeling certain body pains
• Looks hopeless and helpless
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Showing symptoms like being forgetful, doubtful, always feeling angry, not being in the mood all the time, too scared over something, or worry too much.
• Always yelling or fighting with the people around them
• Odd mood swings
• Always remembering unpleasant past experiences; flashbacks
• Harming themselves or others
• Hallucinations
• Being unable to perform usual tasks and responsibilities

If you or your loved one starts to manifest the above-mentioned signs and symptoms, it’s time to seek professional help to avoid ugly consequences. A mental illness is something that should be taken seriously as it can progress and develop into a severe health problem.

Improving Your Mental Health

People with good mental health are often viewed as someone who knows their full potential, can converse intelligently, knows how to cope with stress, and works diligently. If you wish to improve your mental health and avoid mental illness, follow these tips below, and see the changes for yourself:

• Consult a professional mental health specialist if needed.
• Connect with family and friends.
• Stay positive despite challenges.
• Be physically active.
• Find a new hobby.
• Try to help people in need.
• Get enough rest and sleep.
• Practice new skills.

Truth About Emotional Health

Our emotional health has a great effect on our success, relationships, health, and work performances. It directly impacts how we live our lives and how we define happiness for ourselves. Research shows that success makes people happy, while others believe that happy people generally attract success because of their positive outlook in life. However, this does not guarantee that they are exempted from a mental illness, any person (despite having good emotional health) can also suffer from mental health problems.

We benefit from good emotional health as it keeps us grounded, helps us stay connected with our loved ones, and gives us positive energy despite trials and obstacles. There are several ways to improve our emotional health, the good thing about this is that you can improve your emotional health on your own because it only requires dedication and discipline.

Here are some of the few things that you can do to boost your emotional health:

• Be fully aware of how you react.
• Do not be afraid to express your feelings. Just be sure to let it all out in the right way.
• Think thoroughly before acting upon something. Think twice if possible.
• Learn how to cope up with stress.
• Seek a balanced lifestyle.
• Take care of your body.
• Find a deeper life purpose. (volunteering, donating)

It is important to look after the people we love and make sure that they are doing okay from time to time. But it is our sole responsibility to make sure that we are also healthy in all aspects. Always remember that a healthy life is equivalent to a happier life with meaning and purpose.