1:00PM
“We’re facing a mental health crisis.”
Almost every time I read the phrase “mental health,” I cringe. Or maybe it’s more of frustration bursting out of my pores, wanting to shout, “Please use emotional health!”
I don’t like the phrase “mental health.” I don’t find that it helps me very much. For example, if someone says to me, “You have a problem with your physical health”—I may agree, saying something like my knee hurts, but most likely will say that I’m fine. If someone says to me, “You have a problem with your mental health”—I will probably get defensive, maybe roll my eyes, and say that I’m a smart person, my brain is fine. If someone says to me, “You have a problem with your emotional health”—I’m likely to agree, saying how I’ve been stressed, didn’t sleep well, am worried about the future, am going stir-crazy in the house during quarantine, etc.
I think there are a few challenges with framing almost the whole conversation as “mental health.” One, I think the term originates in the industry working with people with very severe issues, back when it was called the insane asylum, and unfortunately carries that stigma. Two, I think when we talk about mental things, we often talk about language and language is a tool to differentiate, to label, to know—I find that the certainty and differentiation can lead to stigma in itself. Third, I think most people probably think that our brains are fine, which can lead to defensiveness. Four, I think when people talk about mental health, they often refer to emotional challenges—anxiety, depression, worry, loneliness, and many others. I can see how our mental behaviors, or rather linguistic behaviors lead to these types of feelings, but I don’t know what mental health even looks like.
I’m sure I could find more, but I guess I just wonder why we don’t call it emotional health. For me, it seems to make more sense. We talk about happiness, sadness, depression, and all of these situations as if they only exist in the mind, whereas emotions seem to combine the mind and body. Anna Wierzbicka wrote that the word emotion doesn’t exist in all cultures but what does is to think and to feel and that emotions are pretty much just thought applied too feeling.
I believe we have an emotional health crisis that has been brewing and will brew for a long time. I think it has been with us throughout human history. I wonder how society would look if we switched the story from “mental health” to “emotional health.”
1:10PM
