Mental Health vs Mental Illness: There is a Difference

I have a couple of goals in life. The first one is to help as many people as possible who are struggling with their mental health. That seems like a pretty ambitious goal, but my second one is much harder. This second goal of mine is to change the way that we talk about mental health as a culture, and I believe that one of the first steps in accomplishing this goal is to start differentiating between mental health and mental illness.

People use mental health and mental illness interchangeably, and not only does this increase the stigma, but it also makes the topic extremely sensitive. One of the best ways to start thinking about this is to look at the differences between the way we discuss physical health and physical illness because that’s a good starting point. There are a lot of nuances that go into the difference between mental and physical health, but for the purpose of our discussion, this helps us ease into the conversation.

What is Mental Illness?

Much like physical illness, mental illness needs to be treated. Depending on the illness, there are a variety of ways that a mental illness can begin. These are various disorders that can be based on your biology (genetic factors), psychology (ways you think) as well as social influences (your environment). This is why the best mental…