Is anyone else annoyed by the term ‘mental health’ becoming increasingly used to mean mental health problems or issues? I recently heard a woman on the radio say she had ‘ had mental health for many years’ and another saying she couldn’t work ‘ because she ‘suffered from mental health’?
Now today I see an online group launching with the headline, ‘ Mental Health is Nothing to be Ashamed Of’
Is it me?
Yes, annoyed, but unfortunately we hear it more often.
No, not just you Daddima. I too find it annoying. We all have mental health, some have good mental health others poor mental health.
I agree, esp the last example.
What sort of group can this be that can’t bring itself to use the words Mental Illness? But that may have sounded too stark and underlines the vast range of disorders that come under this umbrella.
My old clinical director, a psychiatrist, always said mental health is a great thing. It's mental ill health you have to worry about.
Yes, sadly, 13 years ago, an area near to me was displeased by the thought of a support unit in their area. They turned out with placards saying (name of area) Against Mental Health.
Yes I find this annoying too. Closely followed by ' I've got blood pressure '.
Oh at last! People look at me gone out if I mention this inaccuracy or say mental ill health as an alternative.
If someone else says they have mental health and I reply that's good, only for them to look at me as if I said something wrong! I think I may be suffering from mental illness myself soon!
I was a MH nurse working to promote Mental Health... It's either Mental Health issues/problems or Mental ill Health obviously if someone is unwell.
It is amazing how it has become so common for people to use this term without thinking what it actually means
It is talked about, there was a time it wasn’t
I agree Anniebach- we have made great inroads but there is still a lot of road left.
It is undoubtedly a good thing that mental illnesses can be freely discussed now, without any feeling of shame.
What is at issue here is the use of "mental health", which should mean precisely that and be sub-divided into good mental health and poor mental health.
If mental health now means any mental health problem, what are we supposed to call good mental health?
It would be just as ridiculous if people suffered from physical health or dental health.
I have heard people complain of mental health too. There is still a slight stigma attached to admitting to poor mental health or mental health problems.
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It's like the term 'learning difficulties'....absolutely meaningless.
mum2three
It's like the term 'learning difficulties'....absolutely meaningless.
My DGD has what is called learning disabilities , I haven't actually heard the term "learning difficulties"?
www.nhs.uk/conditions/learning-disabilities/
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Yes very annoying!
Everything is down to Mental Health -
My grandaughter is a qualified mental health nurse and knows the real meaning of the words.
I’d love to say all the things I think about it but I know I’d get shot down in flames.
In the old days people just used to say mental which was equally annoying.
While we are on the subject of annoying inaccuracies, does anyone else find the loose use of the word stomach annoying?
Recent examples were when someone was describing her pregnant daughter's stomach as getting really huge. Another person's stomach was so big that it was hanging out over his jeans.
I grew up in a town that had what were previously known as "mental asylums" now closed, and as a child, most did, had the notion that to be in there, patients had to be truly mad, not the case, some had suffered trauma, shell shock for example. Depression and anxiety back then I perceive people had to get on with it, I don't imagine there was always a lot of help, I think there was a stigma around anything relating to the mind.
Of late, feeling down, having the blues, most of us do at times, or that kind of low level depression are conditions, where that is what Wes Streeting may have had in mind when he commented that "mental health " per se has been over diagnosed, because the lines have been blurred to lump all of that under the same umbrella. Which doesn't really help those who have clinical depression for example. We live in an age of naval gazing and well known people are forever going on about their mental health sometimes as an excuse for bad behaviour.
Of late, feeling down, having the blues, most of us do at times, or that kind of low level depression are conditions, where that is what Wes Streeting may have had in mind when he commented that "mental health " per se has been over diagnosed, because the lines have been blurred to lump all of that under the same umbrella. Which doesn't really help those who have clinical depression for example
Exactly
Sadly I feel it does a disservice to those who have genuine mental health issues by cheapening the description and their experience. A bit like lumpingunwelcome wolf whistles and sexual violence and rape into the same category of sex crime.
I don't quite know what the answer is, maybe our use of language? I just know that Depression is NOT the same as being a bit down or sad after e.g.a bereavement.
Mental health is mind, physical health is top to toe
AGAA4
It would be just as ridiculous if people suffered from physical health or dental health.
I have heard people complain of mental health too. There is still a slight stigma attached to admitting to poor mental health or mental health problems.
"See Me" is Scotland's national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination." - "https://www.seemescotland.org/
This is a real bugbear of mine. Several years ago, when See Me's campaign 'to end mental health stigma" first started, I contacted the website and pointed out that avoiding the phrases psychatric illness/disorder and mental ill health/disorder like this was to use a euphemism: "
"Aeuphemism is a'polite'word orexpressionthat is used toreferto things which people mayfindupsettingorem
...."If something has astigmaattached to it, peoplethinkit is something to beashamedof."
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/euphemism#google_vignette.
The response was that they had canvassed their membership and the majority preferred the euphemism. It seems they have not moved on since than... Oh, the irony. The stigma remains around mental illness. There is no stigma around mental health.... (Some of my words are shown as running together in the preview but not in the original post. I have tried to correct it but it may not have worked... Apologies)
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