WHAT DOES MENTAL HEALTH MEAN TO YOU?
Everyone has mental health and this can be described as:
• How we feel about ourselves and the people around us
• Our ability to make and keep friends and relationships
• Our ability to learn from others and to develop psychologically and emotionally.
Everyone experiences feelings such as being worried or stressed at some point in their lives. Being mentally healthy is also about having the strength to overcome the difficulties and challenges we can all face at times – to have confidence and self-esteem, to be able to take decisions and to believe in ourselves.
This is normal, there are lots of things that we can do to boost our mental health wellbeing. Some websites are detailed below, or you could look at the MindMate site .
It is when these feelings don’t go away and become overwhelming you might be in need of some help and support.
What to look out for?
• Issues eating and/or with food.
• The desire or act of hurting yourself
• Feeling scared and/or anxious
• Hearing and/or seeing things that others don’t
• Issues controlling your temper and/or anger
• Having difficulties with those around you (eg family and friends)
• Feeling low, with little interest in things around you
• Feelings of trauma, leading to feelings of insecurity and helplessness
• Feelings of anxiety when placed in a mixed gender social group
Talk to someone
It can be sometimes hard to talk to someone about how you feel. Some people feel comfortable talking to a family member, a friend or perhaps your GP, teacher or tutor at college who could support you and, if needed, help you to contact CAMHS.