What is Mental Health?

Mental health is good mental well-being and a sound mind, that enables people to know their abilities and cope with stresses of life, which may be as a result of work, family, or other things, it is an integral component of health and well-being. Mental health is a basic human right, but mental suffering is different from any other illness. When your body is sick, it impacts your body, and when your mind is sick, it impacts your entire person, the very essence of who you are. Mental pain brings negative feelings that reach deep into one’s sense of self, and it can show up as hopelessness, fear, agony, and helplessness, it includes impairment of functioning. The distress is felt physically as well, often beyond words, it is both physiological and psychological.

Pain is inescapably subjective, so it is very isolating. The pain of mental suffering can make people unwilling to take the responsibility to seek a mental health professional and starting the process towards feeling better.

What Happens During General Assessment ?

Using information from a person’s general medical history and current interview, a therapist will inquire about both family history and personal history. Clients are asked about physical and mental health symptoms and medications if on any medication, troubling thoughts and behaviours are assessed, situations that bring on the symptoms or make them worse, how often symptoms occur, how long they last, how they affect performance, relationships and activities.

You will be asked about your upbringing, current life and relationships, sources of stress, and troubling experiences. You may be asked to describe the level of pain you feel, while the therapist is paying attention to your answers and making observations about your  consciousness, appearance, motor activity, emotional state, expressions, and mood. ‎