About Emotional Health
What is emotional health?
Is emotional health the same as
happiness?
Not exactly. Happiness is an emotion
which people feel for a short period of time, often alongside many
other emotions. Emotional health is about more than this, it is the
ability to cope with difficult times in life, and this depends on a
person’s knowledge, skills, experience, social and environmental
circumstances. If someone has good emotional health they are more
likely to cope with difficult times, and hence they may be happier
in life.
Emotional skills
The ability to cope with difficult times in
your life is not something we are born with, it is something we
learn. We learn from our own experiences and from copying, or
avoiding, the experiences of the people around us.
For example, if you have grown up in a family
where people do not talk about their feelings or what is worrying
them, then it is likely you will find it very difficult to do
so.
Skills considered to be important for
emotional health are:
- Self awareness
- Empathy
- Social skills like listening and relationship skills
- Managing difficult feelings
- Motivation
These skills can be taught for example in
schools or work place training, or learnt through life experience.
For information on Samaritans
schools and workplace programmes click here.
Emotional awareness, attitudes &
stigma
People generally have a far better
understanding of physical health than of emotional health. Whereas
people feel comfortable talking about most physical health problems
and illness, they don’t like to talk about emotional problems or
mental illness.
Talking about feelings is sometimes seen as
taboo or a weakness. When people suffer emotional or mental health
problems, like depression, a phobia, a eating disorder, or
dementia, this is often not openly talked about. People suffering
mental health problems say the stigma they experience is sometimes
more stressful than the illness itself. Inaccurate media reporting
which makes people with mental health problems sound dangerous or
unstable is also unhelpful. The result of this is that people feel
excluded from society and in some cases don’t get jobs, or housing
they are entitled to.
The more people know about emotional issues
and talk about them, the more accepted these become and the more
included people feel. To find out more about emotional health
problems visit our Feeling Low
section.
More information
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about someone?
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sources of help