What is Mental ill Health?

There may be some confusion in people's minds as to the difference between mental ill health and mental illness.

Mental ill health refers to the kind of general mental health problems we can all experience in certain stressful circumstances; for example, work pressures can cause us to experience poor concentration, mood swings and sleep disturbance.

Such problems are usually of temporary nature, are relative to the demands a particular situation makes on us and generally respond to support and reassurance.

All of us suffer from mental health problems at times, and such temporary problems do not necessarily lead to mental illness. However, being mentally unhealthy limits our potential as human beings and may lead to more serious problems.

Mental illness can be defined as the experiencing of severe and distressing psychological symptoms to the extent that normal functioning is seriously impaired.

Examples of such symptoms include:

• anxiety
• depressed mood
• obsessional thinking
• delusions and hallucinations

Some form of professional medical help is usually need for recovery / management this help may take the form of counselling or psychotherapy, drug treatment and/or lifestyle change.