Everybody has mental health, as we all have brains, however, we don’t all have a mental illness. We all have times when we feel down, stressed or frightened. Most of the time those feelings pass, but sometimes they develop into a mental illness such as anxiety or depression.
Although factors like poverty, genetics, childhood trauma, discrimination, or ongoing physical illness increase an individuals chance of developing mental health problems they are not the reason and the important thing to note is that mental health problems can and do happen to everyone. , but mental health problems can happen to anybody. Mental health issues can be fatal with over 6,000 people a year die by suicide in the UK alone.
Different mental health problems affect people in different ways and it’s key to understand an individual’s experience. Diagnosis is not a definite way to understand a person’s experience.