What is mental health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.
– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
What is mental illness?
Mental illnesses are conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood or behaviour, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. Such conditions may be occasional or longlasting (chronic) and affect someone’s ability to relate to others and function each day.
– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Are First Responders At a Higher Risk for Mental Health Issues?
Results from Canada’s first national survey looking at operational stress injuries among first responders such as police, paramedics, firefighters and 911 operators suggest they are much more likely to develop a mental disorder than the general population.
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Can your mental health change over time?
Yes, it’s important to remember that a person’s mental health can change over time, depending on many factors. When the demands placed on a person exceed their resources and coping abilities, their mental health could be impacted.
– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
What does it mean to have a Mental Illness?
It is important to know that mental illnesses are medical conditions that have nothing to do with a person’s character, intelligence, or willpower. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illness is a medical condition due to the brain’s biology.
Should I be concerned about my Mental Health?
If several of the following are occurring, it may useful to follow up with a mental health professional.
- Sleep, appetite changes or decline in personal care
- Mood changes
- Withdrawal and loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities
- Drop in functioning, at school, work or social activities
- Problems thinking or difficulties with concentration
- Increased sensitivity to sights, sounds, smells or touch
- Apathy
- Feeling disconnected from oneself or one’s surroundings
- Illogical thinking
- Nervousness, fear or suspiciousness of others
- Unusual behaviour
One or two of these symptoms alone can’t predict a mental illness but may indicate a need for further evaluation. If a person is experiencing several at one time and the symptoms are causing serious problems in the ability to study, work or relate to others, he/she should be seen by a physician or mental health professional. People with suicidal thoughts or intent, or thoughts of harming others, need immediate attention.
-American Psychiatric Association