May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Psychological Perspectives with Dr. Deb

May is Mental Health Month. Through media, local and national events, the hope is to reduce stigma about mental illness and promote well-being for children and adults. This year’s theme is “Pathways to Wellness” — and calls attention to strategies and approaches that help  achieve wellness and good mental and physical health. Take a look at what wellness really is about:

• Wellness is essential to living a full and productive life. It’s about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy. 
• Wellness involves a set of skills and strategies that prevent the onset or shorten the duration of illness and promote recovery and well-being. 
• Wellness is more than an absence of disease. It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. 
• Steps that build and maintain well-being and help us all achieve wellness involve a balanced diet, regular exercise, enough sleep, a sense of self-worth, development of coping skills that promote resiliency, emotional awareness, and connections to family, friends and community.
• Just as we check our blood pressure and get cancer screenings, it’s a good idea to take a periodic reading of our emotional well-being.
• Fully embracing the concept of wellness not only improves health in the mind, body and spirit, but also maximizes one’s potential to lead a full and productive life. 
• Using strategies that promote resiliency and strengthen mental health and prevent mental health and substance use conditions lead to improved general health and a healthier society: greater academic achievement by our children, a more productive economy, and families that stay together.