What is Mental Health
- Feb 7, 2025
- 3 min read
Written by Justin H. Briggs, Writer
Justin H. Briggs is the author of "Insanity Comes To Mind: A Memoir On Mental Health." which was published on May 1st, 2020. He is a good writer working at being great.
How do you feel? What kind of thoughts are you having? Are you where you want to be? These questions would be good to ask yourself if you are wondering about mental health. The answers would be simple baselines for determining the status of your mental health.
If you feel excellent and you think everything is going perfectly in your life then you probably have good mental health. You are also likely the luckiest person in all of space and time.
As imperfect creatures with the ability to consciously interpret existence, we would be gods or more if we each had perfect mental health. The fact of the matter is that we all deal with mental health; we all have feelings, thoughts and concerns.
Knowing about your mental health is an empowering learning experience. Reflection upon our reality is our gift as humans, and what better reality to reflect upon than our own?
A moment’s reflection on mental health
My personal mental health at this moment of writing is good, in my opinion. I feel excited to be writing, a gift I enjoy sharing. I think what I’m writing may help someone, which also makes me feel good. And while the world does what the world does, I am where I need to be right now.
But this has not always been the case, and I should not expect it to remain as such permanently. My mental health has the potential to ruin lives, my own and others when it is operating poorly.
But what do I know?
Mental health is the most complicated concept I have ever dealt with, and I deal with it 24/7/365. My personal mental health condition has been so bad at times that I am currently considered permanently disabled by the United States government.
I receive a monthly support check through Social Security, as well as other benefits as a result of this condition, but that does not make me feel good. I do not think it is good to have to live with the symptoms which I must manage.
Family, friends, and strangers witnessed my behavior when my mental health was as bad as it has ever been and most of them still cannot begin to relate to my situation, though they do their best to understand. Support may take many shapes, and empathy is one of the greatest forms.
I have been to dark places from which I thought I would not return, from which I was told by experts I would never escape. Medical professionals have told me things about my condition that have inspired anger incomprehensible, grief unmanageable, and often apathy irredeemable.
But my feelings, thoughts and actions are my responsibility. And so, understanding these issues about mental health gives me a better footing at not merely avoiding the symptoms I manage from causing harm to myself or others but also offering me the opportunity to better understand what other people may be experiencing as well.
New slang
Mental health is a serious but novel reality of the cultural lexicon to most. I was raised to keep my emotions in check and my thoughts to myself unless they were constructive. Over time, my emotions, thoughts, and behaviors suffered because I dealt privately with things I could not comprehend. My mental health, and then in turn my life, suffered as a result of unaddressed mental health issues.
This is not an indictment; it is a fact of life. We do not talk about the things which we do not understand. But there is a new conversation bubbling up in the world. Exciting changes are happening all the time, and while mental health as a topic may seem like a fad for the foreseeable future, it is a subject worthy of reflection, discussion, and action.
I am happy you decided to be proactive about mental health by reading this article. The resources at your disposal are great should you seek to address issues of your own, and it never hurts to ask questions.
Read more from Justin H. Briggs
Justin H. Briggs, Writer
Justin H. Briggs is a writer located in Manhattan, Kansas, USA. He is more than his diagnosis and less than his potential for success, in his opinion, but he is working on that. His diagnosis of schizoaffective bipolar disorder manifests symptoms of depression, mania, delusion, paranoia, and hallucination. He is in no way medically certified beyond the occasional CPR certification, but he has been there and done that, so to speak.
