Mental or emotional health refers to your overall psychological well-being. It can include the way you feel about yourself, the quality of your relationships, and your ability to manage your feelings and deal with difficulties. Mental health and physical health are very closely connected. Mental health plays a major role in your ability to maintain good physical health. Mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, affect your ability to participate in healthy behaviors. This can result in problems with physical health, such as chronic diseases, and can decrease a person’s ability to participate in treatment and recovery. Issues with mental health can have many different symptoms, just like issues with physical health. Questions can be asked and tests can be done to help assess mental health, the same as with physical health. For physical problems, most people go to the doctor and get a check-up. They have their blood pressure, temperature, and weight measured. They have blood drawn to check for issues with cholesterol, blood sugars, thyroid, iron levels, electrolytes, and other measures. However, most people don’t go to a mental health professional for a mental health exam. In many cases, people only seek out a mental health professional after a crisis has occurred. Are you one of those people? And if you are, why take care of one part of your body and not the other?
