What is Mental Health?

After several years of working with people who suffer from severe mental health disorders, I took a step back and asked myself “what is mental health?” So often it seems like the term “mental health” is conflated with disordered mental health, and I realized I was doing the same. The reality is that everyone has mental health, just like everyone has physical health. We have a mind just as we have a body, and just as our body is weathered by the years living in the world, so too is our mind. We’re aware that we have to keep up our physical health if we want to keep our body in good condition. We know that food, exercise, genetics and the environment we live in all play a part in our physical well being, and how we respond to the needs of our body affects our physical health. The same is absolutely true for our mental health. We’re all coping with the stressors of living in the world, and our mental health is how our mind compensates for that. 

Just as our physical health can vary from day to day depending on what we’ve been exposed to, so too can our mental health. Headaches and stomachaches can happen unpredictably, so too does a flair of anxiety or sadness. The diagnoses that are within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) are conditions that have been identified as disordered ways of thinking, but they also exist within a spectrum. Many if not all people have at least a few symptoms that could be found listed in the DSM, and there is nothing wrong with this. Though some conditions such as bipolar or attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are neurodivergent conditions, many others are conditions that may come and go to greater or lesser degrees within a person's lifetime.

While the DSM has its uses as a way to figure out the best course of treatment for someone with a given set of symptoms, it is but one framework of looking at mental health and our mental well-being. East Asian Medicine (EAM) views the body and the mind as integrated, with different physiological systems corresponding to different emotional, spiritual and social states. When we’re out of balance, these states can become pathological. Yet imbalance is connected with balance and implies both movement and a continuum. These states of being are not static, and can be corrected by both seeking help from others and taking steps to help ourselves. 

Within EAM, acupuncture, herbalist, qi gong and dietary changes can start the pendulum swinging back to balance. Even within a Westernized paradigm such as the DSM, oft-stigmatized conditions such borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia have their own healing trajectory, though the treatment may be more intensive and necessitates the involvement of more conventional mental health interventions. Whether we have one of these more complex conditions or anxiety brought on by the simple act of living in the world today, our mental health deserves the same attention we give to the health of our bodies. We may think to go to an acupuncturist, naturopath or a massage therapist for a “tune-up” for our bodies–we can do the same for our minds, helping ourselves stay regulated and maintain the balance needed to sustain the healthy relationships we’re all capable of with ourselves, each other, and the world at large. 

If you are interested in working on your mental health, schedule with Nicole McCormick for mental health acupuncture at Zen Attitude in Seattle today!