What Does Mental Health Mean?

Mental health is perhaps one of the most unfortunate terms that still exists in health and health care related professions and work nowadays, and still carries a massive stigma that is completely unwarranted from days past when any type of mental illness was associated with what is known as asylums and loony bins.

Many people still have an association of mental health as being related to individuals who are in some sense extremely dangerous and out-of-control and have illnesses or conditions that need to be heavily regulated by medication that effectively deadens them as people and turns them into zombies.

It is still a widely held belief that these patients without this type of medication, whether they are in-patients or outpatients, would be extremely dangerous and liable to attack people either in their own home or on the streets without cause.

The stereotypical view of patient with mental illness has developed over many decades and to say that it is simply untrue does not really change the deep underlying suspicion that many people have of what health means. Even putting mental health in the context of how and why people were locked up in an asylum over the decades seems to make little difference to people's perception of what mental health means in today's world.

If people explain what mental health means by reference to specific types of illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism then actually there is a much greater chance that the stigma and stereotype associated with mental health does actually get broken down. The other unfortunate thing about mental health is at it separates out the nation of health into mind, as opposed to see health as a holistic process that involves body mind and soul.

Sometimes people to speak about a spiritual sickness but that is rare, but people do not normally speak about a physical illness in the same context as they will talk about a mental illness. People generally talk about a specific illness without referencing it is a physical one. In the context of health insurance, mental health does tend to get specified by types of illness or disease or condition, which are either specifically excluded or included.

Perhaps the important thing to realize and understand is what types of treatment are needed or necessary to treat anyone who has a condition that falls under the definition of mental illness and see whether or not such treatment falls under the benefit schedule of the insurance plan. Many effective treatments for conditions that are classified as mental health are what is known as talking therapies, which can range from counselling through to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Obviously the issue of medications and prescription drugs can also be significant and these need to be understood.