#15: In February 2024, 1 in 7 Adults Said That Their Mental Health Was Bad or the Worst it Has Ever Been

#15: In February 2024, 1 in 7 Adults Said That Their Mental Health Was Bad or the Worst it Has Ever Been

Alongside the wellbeing resources that we have been sharing this week for #worldwellbeingweek, we wanted to give it an extra spotlight in this week's newsletter. 1 in 7 is a high number, and that statistic suggests that someone you know is struggling with their mental health. Read on to help yourself, or better prepare yourself to help a friend.

Mental Health vs Mental Wellbeing

Dr Lina Gega says that mental wellbeing refers to our sense of self and our ability to live our lives as close as possible to the way that we want. Whereas, mental health refers to signs and symptoms that cause significant emotional distress. There is a difference between the two however, each affects the other, and are more often than not, intertwined.

Because they are intertwined we have included both wellbeing and mental health elements within this edition. We've pulled key elements from related articles to give you the best overview we can of what is an ever-developing topic. You'll find a link to each article throughout if you would like to find out more about specific topics. Without further ado, let's jump in.

How We Talk About Mental Health is Changing and Needs to Change Even More

Often we use the term ‘mental health’ incorrectly. In fact, when asked about how we are, we are nowadays more easily able to say ‘It’s my mental health’, meaning that we are struggling mentally. Not physically. Yet, when talking about our physical health we never reply with ‘It’s my physical health’ and that’s because we are educated better about our physical health hence we say things like ‘My stomach hurts’ or ‘It’s my old leg playing me up with gout’.

Essentially, our education is just beginning with mental health. Luckily, we have a Mental Health Toolkit that will help to speed that up. The term Mental Health is relatively new in our 300,000 years on the planet. Even more so, the term ‘mental health’ is becoming something we can say to each other and know what it is, within the last decade.

Our Language Needs to Evolve From:

  • Stage 1: ‘It’s my mental health’.
  • Stage 2: ‘My mental health is poor’.
  • Stage 3: ‘I am very stressed’, ‘I am not sleeping’, ‘I am depressed’. Or describing 1 of the 10 mental health issues.
  • Stage 4: ‘I am very stressed because…’ and it is the because that helps us to articulate better what is wrong and also enables the other person to better understand what is wrong. Plus, by these two things happening, the chances of improving your poor mental health state will increase significantly.

So let’s get to stage 4 quickly, describing our mental health better.

The 5 Wellbeing Steps

The NHS England website says there is evidence to suggest there are five steps you can take to improve your wellbeing:

  • Connect with other people.
  • Be physically active.
  • Learn new skills.
  • Give back to others: volunteer, give your time.
  • Pay attention to the present moment (mindfulness).

These may seem like simple things or things you've read before. But there's a reason they're being repeated. Because they work. Connection to so key to our wellbeing, and that connection needs not to be digital. Interacting with someone via online message is better than not interacting at all, of course. However, seeing someone face-to-face is unbeaten in terms of wellbeing.

Bonus: this links to our expert interview with Mich Bondesio ?? where she discusses Digital Wellbeing.

Wellbeing Coaching Cards

?No Wellbeing resource of ours would be complete without mentioning our Wellbeing Coaching Cards. The deck consists of 80 cards to help your coachee identify their strengths and goals within wellbeing, and for you as the coach to help guide them through.

In collaboration with Bobbi Hartshorne this deck will help you coach your team on one of the most topical issues.

What About Wellness?

Without confusing you further, wellness is also caught up in mental health and wellbeing.

Understanding wellness is like learning to balance different parts of life. It’s not about doing everything perfectly but making choices that keep us healthy and happy. From dealing with stress to building good relationships, wellness is about finding the sweet spot in our lives. It’s an invitation to create a beautiful melody where wellness guides us to a life that’s full of energy and joy.

Find out more about wellness at work, wellness and nutrition, and much more with our full Wellness article by the lovely Farah Yasser .

Share For a Win-Win

Please click the share button so that your network can start their procrastination prevention today. And, as an incentive to share, we're giving away a free coaching card deck to the first 5 people who share this week's newsletter. Simply share and email [email protected] to claim your freebie. So, get sharing!

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