May Is Mental Health Awareness Month

May Is

Mental health is an important part of our overall health and well-being.

What is Mental Health?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.

• Mental illnesses are common health conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, or behavior, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. They can be short or long- term (chronic) and affect someone’s ability to relate to others and function each day. They can also affect your physical health such as increasing risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke if left unaddressed.
• 1 in 5 people in the United States experience a mental illness in a given year and 1 in 5 children, either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental illness.

It is normal to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry sometimes. Learning to cope with stress in a healthy way will make you and the people you care about become more
resilient.

Tips on managing your Mental Health:

Let’s talk Mental Health!

Taking your own mental health seriously, and talking with other about it can help overcome the stigma that still surrounds these issues.

Sharing concerns and challenges with your community helps relieve stress and build resilience. Conversation is a powerful coping tool. Talking with friends, neighbors and loved ones about your feelings and concerns can help cope with present pressures, and equip you to deal with them in the future.

To learn more visit https://www.cdc.gov/howrightnow/