"What is mental health?"
This is a question that I get often as a therapist. Many times, when we think of mental health, we tend to think about mental illness. We think of maybe movie portrayals of people running into the street and screaming things that others do not understand, or people hearing things that others can not hear. Do these things happen? Absolutely. But... Mental health is a spectrum. Are those people "lost causes"? Absolutely not! I have had clients and loved ones who have mental health needs, such as hearing voices, believing they can fly, etc. and live absolutely wonderful lives.
Simply put, mental health means: how healthy your mind is. What do your thoughts say to you? How do you view the world and yourself? That is all part of mental health. Just like we talk about mental illness, it's so important to talk about mental wellness! It is so important to talk about how we take care of ourselves, and others. How can we be kind to ourselves? How can we do things to make ourselves happy? How can we set appropriate boundaries from others and ourselves so that we are not too over extended? All of this is part of figuring out how to be mentally healthy!
As a reminder, In this blog, we will talk about mental health and autism- both topics that have so much stigma around them. We will talk about parenting and balancing our many roles that we each play in our lives! I am going to try to give you tips and update at least weekly so we have something to practice!
So let's jump into this week's Therapist Mama Bear tip!
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