Mental Health Series, Part 1: Defining the Terms

Kamikun Adebajo
Aug 24, 2021
5 min read

Updated: Mar 2, 2023

Hey you! Welcome to the blog.

If you're a first-timer, Hola!🤗 I'm pleased you're here and for my long-time peeps, how's it going? Did you laugh at me well in the last post? Yh. I know. My life!😅

Anyhoos, today marks the beginning of another series on the blog. If you're wondering, "Another?" Yes, another😁. This is not the first series we're having on the blog. Last March, we explored the world of business and all I can say is that it was a pretty awesome 4 weeks.

However, today, we're going to begin our journey into the world of mental health. And whether you have an idea of what mental health is or you've just been hearing many people mention it on social media, I'm inviting you to spend the next few weeks with me as I try to navigate the mental world. Now, I should say upfront; I'm not a doctor but I do promise that every post will have a ton of scientific referrals included so that we're in line with the experts, and any resource I use will be included at the bottom of each post in case you want to engage in further research.

Now that all protocols have been observed. Let's begin!

Image credit: ProjectHOPE

From a Nigerian perspective, mental health is something that we usually brush under the carpet. When people say or hear 'mental health', they often associate the whole term with just a few aspects of it -usually the bad ones. Just like some people associate feminism with extreme feminists, (those who are mean and disrespectful to men and advocate for vengeful or divisive policies but that one is story for another day) mental health is often associated with mental disorder which even though is under the umbrella does not define all of it.

Mental health, according to the WHO: "is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community".

Or simply according to the US' CDC:

"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."

This is often confused with mental illness which according to Mayo Clinic, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.

Now they also say that many people have mental health concerns but a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function.

Now, why am I saying all this?

I believe it is important to properly define each term because it can be easy to make assumptions which are usually wrong even when based on genuinely harmless intention.

Also, it is important to have concrete medical definitions because social media and the television often do a bad job of representing mental health so that no one wants to move near it.

When I was small, the first things I associated with the word 'mental' were all those Africa magic Yoruba films where somebody would be using awon orisa 👹 to punish someone by making them run mad. Thereafter the subtitles would show 'display of madness'. Another common instance was when someone would say, "Ah that person is not mentally stable o." So much attention was given to the problems and extremes that no one actually remembered to talk about how not to get there.

Now we have a society where people are afraid to seek help for fear of being seen as some Africa magic character. Unlike is frequently shown on TV, one does not become mentally unstable overnight; in fact, mental instability is usually the end result of a long period of mental distress, and this period is what I want to talk about today.

For easy sake, let's have 4 categories.

One, sound mental health.

Two, mental stress.

Three, mental health concerns.

Four, mental illness or disorder.

Let's also have an imaginary mental scale labelled 1 to 100. 1 being very bad mental disorder and 100 being perfect mental health.

Sound mental health can be in the range of 80 to 100.

Why? Because one will not always be in a state of happiness. Sometimes you forget something, get injured, fail a test or your fav team loses a game. In this case, you are not perfectly happy because something bad happened but you are only stressed out for a while. This space is quite fluid and "bad" things may not hold severe or any consequences so even though you feel sad, it's not causing you mental harm.

Next is stage 2. Let's say 50 to 80. This is the space of stress. Now stress is actually good because it helps us grow especially when we overcome whatever obstacle was stressing us; and based on the importance of the event, it can really take a toll on you. Maybe you are anxious about your first exam in college but you prepare and do well; such stress will improve your overall confidence and often you return to stage 1 of mental health.

Next, we have bad stress. Science shows that our mind is like an elastic band when it comes to stress which is why we colloquially say, someone snapped when they suddenly burst into tears or tempers.

But what exactly is bad stress?

This is usually a prolonged type of stress. The tricky part is there are no concrete differences between good stressors and bad stressors (stressors are things that cause you stress). Examples of events that could cause a lot of stress include a death in the family, loss of employment or a divorce. What determines whether the event leads to good or bad stress is the way it is handled. So if you lose your job unexpectedly due to COVID; but then start your own business and it flourishes, even if you had some trouble in the beginning; losing your job could be counted as a good stressor.

Sleeping for only 4 hours a day, once a month due to a monthly presentation can be counted as a sort of good stress because you can recover, but when the habit or stress becomes more frequent, that's when it becomes dangerous - like sleeping 4 hours, 5 days in a week due to Lagos' traffic. There isn't enough time for recovery and you are exerted like a rubber band being pulled. At this point, the effect of getting very little sleep every day can start to cause some serious health concerns like high blood pressure, mood changes, a higher risk of diabetes and a weakened immune system - Healthline. Sound familiar? These are the top issues that plague the average Lagosian or city-living human today.

They often go ignored but if not taken care of can easily start to lead to mental health concerns. Did you notice mood changes are a symptom of prolonged sleep deprivation? No wonder Lagos roads are always shouting matches - half the state is sleep-deprived. All the time!

Anyways, that's where we'll have to leave it today folks. Next time, we'll look into the slippery part of the mental health slope - mental health concerns and their dreaded counterpart, mental disorder.

I hope you found today's post educative or entertaining or both.

If you did, don't forget to support the blog by sharing with your friends, families and on your socials.

Got a thought or question? You can leave it in the comment section below.

See you next time.

Peace and love.

Kami.

Looking for something else to read:

Have you read Reflections, my take on Martin Luther King Jr?

Or if you're looking for something lighter, I'd suggest The 2021 Worship Playlist

Sources for today's post:

Mayo Clinic: Symptoms and Causes of Mental Illness

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968