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What
is Mental Health?
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What
is 'Mental' Health?
Mental Health is the ability to live your life and be
with your friends and family/whanau in a positive way.
Good mental health includes a general sense of well being
and control over your life, allowing you to join in with
things and make good decisions about different situations.
It is perfectly normal for our mental health to have ups
and downs. For example someone we care about may die,
we may get sick or hurt and of course we have to do stressful
things like sit exams. We also may fall out with mates
or split up with our girlfriend/boyfriend. All of these
things can mean we feel a bit down or unhappy.
On the other side a holiday, having a blast with mates
or succeeding in sport or school can make us feel on top
of the world and ready to take on anything.
Sometimes people experience ongoing problems that affect
their ability to enjoy life over a longer period of time,
which we may refer to as having a mental illness.
So what is Mental Illness then?
Saying exactly what mental illness is can be a tricky
job. This is because people who do start by talking about
people having "abnormal" feelings and behaviours, which
is a funny word to use because what is "normal' and "abnormal"
varies from culture to culture and even from person to
person. For example in some cultures it is normal to cry
and wail if someone has died but in others it is more
normal to keep those emotions to yourself and not express
them.
We like to think of mental health and illness as being
at the opposite ends of a long line...
| Mental
health |
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Mental Illness |
Everyone is on this line somewhere and where we start
on the line is probably a result of our genes (thanks
mum and dad!). When stuff stresses us out we can move
away from being mentally healthy and towards mental illness.
Often this is just for a short time and a person will
take steps to get healthy again quickly, but it is when
people get stuck and can't seem to escape the feelings
and thoughts that are making their life difficult that
we call it a mental illness.
So the key is it can happen to anyone and we all need
to look after our mental health like we look after our
physical health. Lots of people go to gyms and watch what
they eat nowadays to be healthier in their body, and we
think that if people started looking after their mind
as much that would be just great.
But you know what they say about
being "mental"?
Yeah we do and most of the things you have heard are complete
rubbish. Here are some of the myths
we hear around:
Mentally Ill people are violent
Not true. In fact you are no more likely to be
bashed by someone with a mental illness than anyone else.
It has been argued that because people with stresses in
their life lose confidence you are less likely to find
them being aggressive!
Mentally Ill people never get
better
Not true. Most people experiencing mental health problems
have one episode then completely recover. Some people
have more than one episode and an even smaller group of
people has some ongoing problems, which they deal with
throughout their life.
Mental Illness is rare
Now this really is not true. In New Zealand mental illness
affects one in five people and the most common mental
illness, depression, affects one in 12 teenagers.
Being mentally ill means you are
weak
Not true. Our experience is that people fighting illness
of any kind show great strength and determination, and
mental illnesses are no exception. Some great people have
overcome a mental illness on their way to success, such
as, John Kirwan (the All Black), Winston Churchill and
Princess Diana.
What are the illnesses called?
Some quite common examples of mental health problems are
included in this site so go and take a look from the menu
on the left.
Who can help a person if they
are becoming unwell?
People often go to their friends or family/whanau first
and this is cool. Sharing your problems if you can will
help you resolve a lot. However, there are other people
who can help, and these may include:
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School counsellors |
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Family Doctor |
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Ministers or other people in your community |
Also some of these people or someone's family/whanau may
talk about seeing mental health professionals such as
psychologists, counsellors, nurses, social workers, occupational
therapists or psychiatrists. This sounds scary to some
but should not be as they are just normal people who have
been trained to help people with their problems. If you
live in Auckland there are a number of places someone
can go for help and they are included on this website
on the Auckland
survival kit.
Do you have any other tips?
Yes. Apart from cruising the rest of the website and gathering
more information about these things we reckon that if
you, or someone you know, is having problems then the
following list might be helpful:
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Try to find someone supportive. Ignoring your
problems may not make them go away so talk to someone |
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Ask for help from someone that you trust e.g.
whanau, schoolteacher, counsellor, doctor etc |
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Get help early as this is better in the long run
and may stop things getting worse |
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Don't blame yourself it is not your fault! |
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You are not crazy and you are not abnormal, feeling
the way you do is very common and you have done
nothing wrong |
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Try doing small things and break work down into
bite size chunks |
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Praise yourself for small successes and improvements
on the way to getting better |
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Balance out your expectations, trying to do not
too much but not too little |
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Focus on the positive things you can do |
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Take one step at a time |
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Try and stick to everyday routines when you can,
like same bedtimes and getting up in the morning |
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Try to keep up a healthy lifestyle, remember healthy
body = healthy mind! |
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Learn some stress management techniques, learn
to relax and get physically active |
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Drugs and Alcohol may make things worse |
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If someone talks to you about a type of illness
(e.g. depression) then find out what you can about
it |
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Learn what triggers off your "unwell" times and
what may be your early warning signs that things
are not going well |
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Spend time with your friends and enjoy life when
you can |
Are there any other websites that
might give me more information?
There are links to lots of websites on these pages, which
may be helpful. If you feel you need to talk to someone
right now about your problems and you live in New Zealand
then go to www.youthline.co.nz.
A couple of good general websites for young people about
mental health are:
Also check out our cool
links page for young people.
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