Mental Health Definition

Mental health influences many aspects of a person’s life, and plays a large role in overall health. Establishing a definition of mental health is important because it informs society of where the line is drawn between when a person displays stable functioning and when a person crosses the threshold into having less than ideal mental health. As a result, defining mental health has ignited controversial debate. By having a reliable and consistent definition, individuals can better understand when, in which ways, and to what extent they fall short of achieving perfect mental health. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asserts the importance of this endeavor: “[Mental health] helps determine how we handle stress, relate
However, life is fluid and constantly changing, but the DSM-IV’s definition fails to understand and accommodate for that element. The World Health Organization’s definition does account for this, and therefore is a more compatible and realistic framework. Since life progresses and adapts to new circumstances, the most effective definition of mental health would permit and properly interpret the changes. Consider fashion, for example: different clothing items are cute, and simply more acceptable, on a five year old than on a 70 year old. Similarly, factors contributing to, or detracting from, mental health vary across different points of life. Therefore, just as personal and societal ideas that determine fashion evolve so that it is age and circumstance appropriate, so ought the definition of mental
A common stigma in modern America is to view any degree of functioning that is below optimal mental health as a negative reflection of that human being. As a result, labels with negative connotations, such as crazy, are often associated with mental health struggles. However, as the Surgeon General notes in the 1999 report on mental health, mental health problems are common, and only “17% of U.S. adults are considered to be in a state of optimal mental health” (Mental Health: A Report). This means that 83% of U.S. adults qualify as struggling with their mental health. This number includes both those battling minor struggles, including brief dilemmas, and those with more substantial struggles, including those suffering from a mental illness. A study conducted by Harvard Medical School in 2005 investigated how common mental illnesses are and found that “[a]lmost 50 percent of Americans (46.4 percent to be exact) will have a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetimes, based on the previous edition, the DSM-IV. And the new manual will likely make it even "easier" to get a diagnosis” (Kessler et al.). Since struggling with mental health is statistically common and even predicted to affect an increasingly large number of individuals, maintaining a negative connotation with mental health struggles serves only to degrade society and its