Improving Mental and Emotional Health

People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their emotions and their behavior. They are able to handle life’s challenges, build strong relationships, and recover from setbacks. But just as it requires effort to build or maintain physical health, so it is with mental and emotional health. Improving your emotional health can be a rewarding experience, benefiting all aspects of your life, including boosting your mood, building resilience, and adding to your overall enjoyment of life.

What is mental health or emotional health?

Mental or emotional health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It includes the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, your ability to manage feelings and deal with difficulties, and how much meaning and joy you derive from life.

Good mental health isn't just the absence of mental health problems such as depression or anxiety. Rather, it's the presence of positive characteristics, such as being able to cope with life's challenges, handle stress, build strong relationships, and recover from setbacks.

Mental and emotional health problems often arise when your nervous system has been compromised by overwhelming amounts of stress. The body's natural and most efficient method of coping with stress and rebalancing the nervous system is via face-to-face social contact with a trusted person. This is why mental and emotional health is so closely linked with social health: helping yourself involves reaching out to others.

Why are we reluctant to address our mental health needs?

Anyone can suffer from mental or emotional health problems—and over a lifetime most of us will. This year alone, about one in five of us will suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. And mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder.

Despite how common mental health problems are, many of us make no effort to improve our situation. We ignore the emotional messages that tell us something is wrong and try toughing it out by distracting ourselves or self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, and other destructive behaviors. We bottle things up in the hope that others don't notice. But our emotional issues always affect those around us, especially when we erupt in rage or despair at the sense of hopelessness and helplessness we feel.

Our reluctance to address our mental health needs stems from a variety of reasons.

In some societies, mental and emotional issues are seen as less legitimate than physical issues. They're seen as a sign of weakness or somehow as being your own fault.
Some people mistakenly see mental health problems as something you should know how to “snap out of.” Men especially, would often rather bottle up their feelings than seek help.
Many people think that if they do seek help, the only treatment options available are medication (which comes with unwanted side effects) or therapy (which can be lengthy and expensive). The truth is that, whatever your issues, there are things you can do to improve the way you feel and experience greater mental and emotional well-being. And you can start doing them today!
The role of resilience in mental and emotional health

Being emotionally and mentally healthy doesn't mean never going through bad times or experiencing emotional problems. But just as physically healthy people are better able to bounce back from illness or injury, people with good emotional health are better able to bounce back from adversity, trauma, and stress. This ability is called resilience.

People who are emotionally and mentally resilient have the tools for coping with difficult situations and maintaining a positive outlook. They remain focused, flexible, and creative in bad times as well as good. While some people learn these skills in infancy, depending on the quality of the relationship with their primary caretaker, they can also be learned at any time later in life.

Improving mental and emotional health
are social creatures with an overriding emotional need for relationships and positive connections to others. We're not meant to survive, let alone thrive, in isolation.

Face-to-face social interaction with someone who cares about you is the most effective way to calm your nervous system and relieve stress. Interacting with another person can quickly put the brakes on defensive stress responses like “fight-or-flight.” It also releases hormones that reduce stress, so you'll feel better even if you're unable to alter the stressful situation itself.
The key is to find a supportive relationship with someone who is a “good listener”—someone you can regularly talk to in person, who will listen to you without a pre-existing agenda for how you should think or feel. A good listener will listen to the feelings behind your words, and won't interrupt, judge, or criticize you.
Reaching out is not a sign of weakness and it won't mean you're a burden to others. The truth is that most people are flattered if you trust them enough to confide in them.
If you don't feel that you have anyone to turn to, there are good ways to build new friendships and improve your support network.
Strategies for connecting to others:

Get out from behind your TV or computer screen. Screens have their place but communication is a largely nonverbal experience that requires you to be in direct contact with other people, so don't neglect your real-world relationships in favor of virtual interaction.
Be a joiner. Join networking, social, or special interest groups that meet on a regular basis. These groups offer wonderful opportunities for meeting