What is Mental Health?

Mental health - understanding what it is

Keeping healthy and happy involves looking after our physical and mental health.

What is physical health?

That's easy - it's about keeping our bodies as fit and well as can be. There are times when we all get sick and need to look after ourselves so we can get better.

Looking after our physical health involves making sure we are getting enough rest, eating healthy foods, exercising and taking medicine that is given by a doctor.

What is mental health?

A lot of people don't really understand what mental health is. They think "mental health" has something to do with not being very smart or being strange. THIS IS NOT TRUE .

The truth is we all have mental health just like we all have physical health.

Mental health is about the way we think and feel about ourselves and our world. It's about how we handle our everyday lives, like making and keeping friends, keeping up with school work and getting along with our family.

So just like our physical health, there are times we feel well and happy and times we don't feel so great. Everyone feels angry, sad or scared at times and in most cases people get over it.

It's important to look after our mental health so we live a happy life.