More and more people are now getting familiar with the concept and importance of emotional and mental health, although some use the terms interchangeably, thinking they represent the same thing. In reality, these two concepts are quite different, and understanding them both better will give a better appreciation of how the two affect human behavior.
As with physical health, knowing about the particulars of both mental and emotional health, and what makes them distinct from each other would help people achieve better overall health.
In a world where stress is almost a constant thing, it is important to understand how to maintain health and balance in all aspects, as the adverse effects of unaddressed stress are well known.
At Granite Mountain Behavioral Healthcare in Prescott Valley, Arizona, our specialists can help you or a loved one manage mental vs emotional health efficiently, resulting in successful recovery outcomes.
What is Mental Health?
Mental health is a crucial part of a person’s ability to function properly, as it is involved in practically every moment of a person’s life. It affects the psychological, social, and even emotional aspects of a person. Mental health is also largely responsible for a person’s ability to engage in thought and action.
Mental health is not a consideration that is restricted to age, as it affects and is important to people of all ages, from childhood and even onto the advanced years. The peculiarity of mental health is that it is both resilient and vulnerable at the same time. It is resilient in that it actually helps people get through some of the toughest periods in life, and learn from them as well. It is also vulnerable in that trauma of any kind could have a lasting and deeply damaging effect on it.
Proper cognitive function is also quite dependent on mental health. Things that many people tend to take for granted, such as learning, being able to remember things, and having the ability to perceive, approach, and solve a dilemma in other ways apart from the straightforward manner are all thanks to properly maintained mental health. Just as the body gets stronger with physical exercise, so does a person’s mental health improve with mental exercises that engage the mind in deep and challenging thought.
An irony of mental health is that there are people who, upon hearing the term “mental health,” actually think of the many ways in which a person’s mind behaves erratically and does not function well. This is the opposite of mental health, which is mental illness. It must be noted, however, that mental health is more than just not having any kind of mental illness. It is the sum and total of all properly functioning processes that involve the mind and the cognitive functions of the brain.
What is Emotional Health?
Emotional health, on the other hand, is having the ability to discern what a person feels at any given moment or towards a situation or person, and also being able to manage whatever reaction the emotion instills in the person. There are many cases wherein a person could be fully aware of the emotions being felt but be incapable of controlling the action that these emotions elicit.
This is not just limited to anger management, where a person could have no control over how they behave when they are overcome with anger. Having no control over emotions could manifest in a person suddenly bursting into tears or even going into hysterics when they are sad, or suddenly behaving in an inappropriate manner whenever they feel an attraction towards someone.
Emotional health is directly linked to how a person expresses emotions. Some people could express their emotions in a manner that could be too much for others to tolerate or understand. While others seemingly display little to no emotion at all. Both the excess and the seeming lack of emotional response could be attributed to poor emotional health, as the person could be completely unsure of how to express how they feel.
Conversely, some people do know how to control their emotions, but in a manner that is also decidedly unhealthy. These are the people who tend to suppress their emotions, even up to the point where their ability to control what they feel is surpassed. Once this tipping point is reached, there is always the danger of the person having either an emotional breakdown or simply lashing out blindly, regardless of who the nearest person might be.
Maintaining an Awareness of Your Mental State is Important
Knowing what kind of emotional or mental state a person has is utterly important for both the person and the people around them. Ignoring this could lead to so many problems. This has been proven time and again with people from practically all walks of life, from every social standing in society, and every age group.
Reports of young adults doing things that no one expected them to do still shock people everywhere, although if someone had only paid attention to the telltale signs of deteriorating mental vs emotional health, they might have been able to proactively do something about it.
Being aware of the state of one’s mental or emotional health allows a person to gauge if they are close to a breakdown, where they seemingly just shut down and are incapable of doing anything else. This will also serve to protect the person and those around them if the mental or emotional breakdown leads to the person becoming irrational and violent.
Learn More About Your Emotional Health vs Mental Health At Granite Mountain
It’s not enough to just handle one aspect of the problem if it requires several different approaches. This is something we learned here at Granite Mountain. Some issues need to be addressed at the same time, or there might not be any progress at all.
We know this because we have helped many with this issue. It is a complex issue, but we know how best to approach it. Come talk to us.Yo
