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Mental Health Essay

Introduction

Mental health, often overshadowed by its physical counterpart, is an intricate and essential aspect of human existence. It envelops our emotions, psychological state, and social well-being, shaping our thoughts, behaviors, and interactions. With the complexities of modern life—constant connectivity, societal pressures, personal expectations, and the frenzied pace of technological advancements—mental well-being has become increasingly paramount. Historically, conversations around this topic have been hushed, shrouded in stigma and misunderstanding. However, as the curtains of misconception slowly lift, we find ourselves in an era where discussions about mental health are not only welcomed but are also seen as vital. Recognizing and addressing the nuances of our mental state is not merely about managing disorders; it's about understanding the essence of who we are, how we process the world around us, and how we navigate the myriad challenges thrown our way. This essay aims to delve deep into the realm of mental health, shedding light on its importance, the potential consequences of neglect, and the spectrum of mental disorders that many face in silence.

Importance of Mental Health

Mental health plays a pivotal role in determining how individuals think, feel, and act. It influences our decision-making processes, stress management techniques, interpersonal relationships, and even our physical health. A well-tuned mental state boosts productivity, creativity, and the intrinsic sense of self-worth, laying the groundwork for a fulfilling life.

Negative Impact of Mental Health

Neglecting mental health, on the other hand, can lead to severe consequences. Reduced productivity, strained relationships, substance abuse, physical health issues like heart diseases, and even reduced life expectancy are just some of the repercussions of poor mental health. It not only affects the individual in question but also has a ripple effect on their community, workplace, and family.

Mental Disorders: Types and Prevalence

Mental disorders are varied and can range from anxiety and mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder to more severe conditions such as schizophrenia.

• Depression: Characterized by persistent sadness, lack of interest in activities, and fatigue.
• Anxiety Disorders: Encompass conditions like generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and specific phobias.
• Schizophrenia: A complex disorder affecting a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly.

The prevalence of these disorders has been on the rise, underscoring the need for comprehensive mental health initiatives and awareness campaigns.

Understanding Mental Health and Its Importance

Mental health is not merely the absence of disorders but encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Recognizing the signs of deteriorating mental health, like prolonged sadness, extreme mood fluctuations, or social withdrawal, is crucial. Understanding stems from awareness and education. Societal stigmas surrounding mental health have often deterred individuals from seeking help. Breaking these barriers, fostering open conversations, and ensuring access to mental health care are imperative steps.

Conclusion: Mental Health

Mental health, undeniably, is as significant as physical health, if not more. In an era where the stressors are myriad, from societal pressures to personal challenges, mental resilience and well-being are essential. Investing time and resources into mental health initiatives, and more importantly, nurturing a society that understands, respects, and prioritizes mental health is the need of the hour.

• World Leaders: Several influential personalities, from celebrities to sports stars, have openly discussed their mental health challenges, shedding light on the universality of these issues and the importance of addressing them.
• Workplaces: Progressive organizations are now incorporating mental health programs, recognizing the tangible benefits of a mentally healthy workforce, from increased productivity to enhanced creativity.
• Educational Institutions: Schools and colleges, witnessing the effects of stress and other mental health issues on students, are increasingly integrating counseling services and mental health education in their curriculum.

In weaving through the intricate tapestry of mental health, it becomes evident that it's an area that requires collective attention, understanding, and action.

  Short Essay about Mental Health

Mental health, an integral facet of human well-being, shapes our emotions, decisions, and daily interactions. Just as one would care for a sprained ankle or a fever, our minds too require attention and nurture. In today's bustling world, mental well-being is often put on the back burner, overshadowed by the immediate demands of life. Yet, its impact is pervasive, influencing our productivity, relationships, and overall quality of life.

Sadly, mental health issues have long been stigmatized, seen as a sign of weakness or dismissed as mere mood swings. However, they are as real and significant as any physical ailment. From anxiety to depression, these disorders have touched countless lives, often in silence due to societal taboos.

But change is on the horizon. As awareness grows, conversations are shifting from hushed whispers to open discussions, fostering understanding and support. Institutions, workplaces, and communities are increasingly acknowledging the importance of mental health, implementing programs, and offering resources.

In conclusion, mental health is not a peripheral concern but a central one, crucial to our holistic well-being. It's high time we prioritize it, eliminating stigma and fostering an environment where everyone feels supported in their mental health journey.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the primary focus of a mental health essay?

Answer: The primary focus of a mental health essay is to delve into the intricacies of mental well-being, its significance in our daily lives, the various challenges people face, and the broader societal implications. It aims to shed light on both the psychological and emotional aspects of mental health, often emphasizing the importance of understanding, empathy, and proactive care.

• How can writing an essay on mental health help raise awareness about its importance?

Answer: Writing an essay on mental health can effectively articulate the nuances and complexities of the topic, making it more accessible to a wider audience. By presenting facts, personal anecdotes, and research, the essay can demystify misconceptions, highlight the prevalence of mental health issues, and underscore the need for destigmatizing discussions around it. An impactful essay can ignite conversations, inspire action, and contribute to a more informed and empathetic society.

• What are some common topics covered in a mental health essay?

Answer: Common topics in a mental health essay might include the definition and importance of mental health, the connection between mental and physical well-being, various mental disorders and their symptoms, societal stigmas and misconceptions, the impact of modern life on mental health, and the significance of therapy and counseling. It may also delve into personal experiences, case studies, and the broader societal implications of neglecting mental health.

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• Mental Health Essay

Essay on Mental Health

According to WHO, there is no single 'official' definition of mental health. Mental health refers to a person's psychological, emotional, and social well-being; it influences what they feel and how they think, and behave. The state of cognitive and behavioural well-being is referred to as mental health. The term 'mental health' is also used to refer to the absence of mental disease. 

Mental health means keeping our minds healthy. Mankind generally is more focused on keeping their physical body healthy. People tend to ignore the state of their minds. Human superiority over other animals lies in his superior mind. Man has been able to control life due to his highly developed brain. So, it becomes very important for a man to keep both his body and mind fit and healthy. Both physical and mental health are equally important for better performance and results.

Importance of Mental Health 

An emotionally fit and stable person always feels vibrant and truly alive and can easily manage emotionally difficult situations. To be emotionally strong, one has to be physically fit too. Although mental health is a personal issue, what affects one person may or may not affect another; yet, several key elements lead to mental health issues.

Many emotional factors have a significant effect on our fitness level like depression, aggression, negative thinking, frustration, and fear, etc. A physically fit person is always in a good mood and can easily cope up with situations of distress and depression resulting in regular training contributing to a good physical fitness standard. 

Mental fitness implies a state of psychological well-being. It denotes having a positive sense of how we feel, think, and act, which improves one’s ability to enjoy life. It contributes to one’s inner ability to be self-determined. It is a proactive, positive term and forsakes negative thoughts that may come to mind. The term mental fitness is increasingly being used by psychologists, mental health practitioners, schools, organisations, and the general population to denote logical thinking, clear comprehension, and reasoning ability.

 Negative Impact of Mental Health

The way we physically fall sick, we can also fall sick mentally. Mental illness is the instability of one’s health, which includes changes in emotion, thinking, and behaviour. Mental illness can be caused due to stress or reaction to a certain incident. It could also arise due to genetic factors, biochemical imbalances, child abuse or trauma, social disadvantage, poor physical health condition, etc. Mental illness is curable. One can seek help from the experts in this particular area or can overcome this illness by positive thinking and changing their lifestyle.

Regular fitness exercises like morning walks, yoga, and meditation have proved to be great medicine for curing mental health. Besides this, it is imperative to have a good diet and enough sleep. A person needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night on average. When someone is tired yet still can't sleep, it's a symptom that their mental health is unstable. Overworking oneself can sometimes result in not just physical tiredness but also significant mental exhaustion. As a result, people get insomnia (the inability to fall asleep). Anxiety is another indicator. 

There are many symptoms of mental health issues that differ from person to person and among the different kinds of issues as well. For instance, panic attacks and racing thoughts are common side effects. As a result of this mental strain, a person may experience chest aches and breathing difficulties. Another sign of poor mental health is a lack of focus. It occurs when you have too much going on in your life at once, and you begin to make thoughtless mistakes, resulting in a loss of capacity to focus effectively. Another element is being on edge all of the time.

It's noticeable when you're quickly irritated by minor events or statements, become offended, and argue with your family, friends, or co-workers. It occurs as a result of a build-up of internal irritation. A sense of alienation from your loved ones might have a negative influence on your mental health. It makes you feel lonely and might even put you in a state of despair. You can prevent mental illness by taking care of yourself like calming your mind by listening to soft music, being more social, setting realistic goals for yourself, and taking care of your body. 

Surround yourself with individuals who understand your circumstances and respect you as the unique individual that you are. This practice will assist you in dealing with the sickness successfully.  Improve your mental health knowledge to receive the help you need to deal with the problem. To gain emotional support, connect with other people, family, and friends.  Always remember to be grateful in life.  Pursue a hobby or any other creative activity that you enjoy.

What does Experts say

Many health experts have stated that mental, social, and emotional health is an important part of overall fitness. Physical fitness is a combination of physical, emotional, and mental fitness. Emotional fitness has been recognized as the state in which the mind is capable of staying away from negative thoughts and can focus on creative and constructive tasks. 

He should not overreact to situations. He should not get upset or disturbed by setbacks, which are parts of life. Those who do so are not emotionally fit though they may be physically strong and healthy. There are no gyms to set this right but yoga, meditation, and reading books, which tell us how to be emotionally strong, help to acquire emotional fitness. 

Stress and depression can lead to a variety of serious health problems, including suicide in extreme situations. Being mentally healthy extends your life by allowing you to experience more joy and happiness. Mental health also improves our ability to think clearly and boosts our self-esteem. We may also connect spiritually with ourselves and serve as role models for others. We'd also be able to serve people without being a mental drain on them. 

Mental sickness is becoming a growing issue in the 21st century. Not everyone receives the help that they need. Even though mental illness is common these days and can affect anyone, there is still a stigma attached to it. People are still reluctant to accept the illness of mind because of this stigma. They feel shame to acknowledge it and seek help from the doctors. It's important to remember that "mental health" and "mental sickness" are not interchangeable.

Mental health and mental illness are inextricably linked. Individuals with good mental health can develop mental illness, while those with no mental disease can have poor mental health. Mental illness does not imply that someone is insane, and it is not anything to be embarrassed by. Our society's perception of mental disease or disorder must shift. Mental health cannot be separated from physical health. They both are equally important for a person. 

Our society needs to change its perception of mental illness or disorder. People have to remove the stigma attached to this illness and educate themselves about it. Only about 20% of adolescents and children with diagnosable mental health issues receive the therapy they need. 

According to research conducted on adults, mental illness affects 19% of the adult population. Nearly one in every five children and adolescents on the globe has a mental illness. Depression, which affects 246 million people worldwide, is one of the leading causes of disability. If  mental illness is not treated at the correct time then the consequences can be grave.

One of the essential roles of school and education is to protect boys’ and girls' mental health as teenagers are at a high risk of mental health issues. It can also impair the proper growth and development of various emotional and social skills in teenagers. Many factors can cause such problems in children. Feelings of inferiority and insecurity are the two key factors that have the greatest impact. As a result, they lose their independence and confidence, which can be avoided by encouraging the children to believe in themselves at all times. 

To make people more aware of mental health, 10th October is observed as World Mental Health. The object of this day is to spread awareness about mental health issues around the world and make all efforts in the support of mental health.

The mind is one of the most powerful organs in the body, regulating the functioning of all other organs. When our minds are unstable, they affect the whole functioning of our bodies. Being both physically and emotionally fit is the key to success in all aspects of life. People should be aware of the consequences of mental illness and must give utmost importance to keeping the mind healthy like the way the physical body is kept healthy. Mental and physical health cannot be separated from each other. And only when both are balanced can we call a person perfectly healthy and well. So, it is crucial for everyone to work towards achieving a balance between mental and physical wellbeing and get the necessary help when either of them falters.

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113 Mental Health Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Mental health is a crucial aspect of overall well-being, yet it is often overlooked or stigmatized in society. Writing about mental health can help raise awareness, reduce stigma, and promote understanding and empathy. If you are looking for inspiration for your next mental health essay, here are 113 topic ideas and examples to get you started.

• The impact of social media on mental health
• The stigma surrounding mental illness in society
• How to support a loved one with a mental health condition
• The benefits of therapy for mental health
• The relationship between physical and mental health
• The role of exercise in improving mental health
• Mental health in the workplace
• The connection between trauma and mental health
• The importance of self-care for mental health
• Mental health in the elderly population
• The impact of substance abuse on mental health
• The role of genetics in mental health conditions
• The relationship between sleep and mental health
• Mental health in the LGBTQ+ community
• The effects of chronic stress on mental health
• The link between nutrition and mental health
• Mental health in children and adolescents
• The impact of technology on mental health
• The benefits of mindfulness for mental health
• Mental health in marginalized communities
• The role of medication in treating mental health conditions
• Mental health in the military
• The connection between mental health and creativity
• The impact of climate change on mental health
• Mental health in the criminal justice system
• The effects of bullying on mental health
• The relationship between mental health and homelessness
• The role of music therapy in mental health treatment
• Mental health in the refugee population
• The impact of childhood trauma on adult mental health
• The benefits of art therapy for mental health
• The effects of social isolation on mental health
• The role of spirituality in mental health
• Mental health in the immigrant population
• The connection between mental health and physical illness
• The impact of peer pressure on mental health
• The benefits of journaling for mental health
• Mental health in the entertainment industry
• The relationship between perfectionism and mental health
• The effects of social comparison on mental health
• The role of pets in improving mental health
• Mental health in the age of technology
• The connection between mental health and climate change
• The impact of social media influencers on mental health
• The benefits of volunteering for mental health
• Mental health in the education system
• The relationship between mental health and addiction
• The effects of discrimination on mental health
• The role of exercise in preventing mental health conditions
• Mental health in the aging population
• The connection between mental health and chronic illness
• The impact of poverty on mental health
• The benefits of group therapy for mental health
• The relationship between mental health and personality traits
• The effects of childhood neglect on adult mental health
• The role of mindfulness in preventing mental health conditions
• The connection between mental health and physical health
• The impact of social media on body image and mental health
• The benefits of cognitive-behavioral therapy for mental health
• The relationship between mental health and financial stress
• The effects of trauma on mental health
• The relationship between mental health and social support

These are just a few ideas to get you started on your mental health essay. Remember, mental health is a complex and multifaceted topic, so feel free to explore different angles and perspectives in your writing. By shedding light on mental health issues, you can help promote understanding, empathy, and support for those who may be struggling.

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Mental Health Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on mental health.

Every year world mental health day is observed on October 10. It was started as an annual activity by the world federation for mental health by deputy secretary-general of UNO at that time. Mental health resources differ significantly from one country to another. While the developed countries in the western world provide mental health programs for all age groups. Also, there are third world countries they struggle to find the basic needs of the families. Thus, it becomes prudent that we are asked to focus on mental health importance for one day. The mental health essay is an insight into the importance of mental health in everyone’s life. 

Mental Health

In the formidable years, this had no specific theme planned. The main aim was to promote and advocate the public on important issues. Also, in the first three years, one of the central activities done to help the day become special was the 2-hour telecast by the US information agency satellite system. 

Mental health is not just a concept that refers to an individual’s psychological and emotional well being. Rather it’s a state of psychological and emotional well being where an individual is able to use their cognitive and emotional capabilities, meet the ordinary demand and functions in the society. According to WHO, there is no single ‘official’ definition of mental health.

Thus, there are many factors like cultural differences, competing professional theories, and subjective assessments that affect how mental health is defined. Also, there are many experts that agree that mental illness and mental health are not antonyms. So, in other words, when the recognized mental disorder is absent, it is not necessarily a sign of mental health. 

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

One way to think about mental health is to look at how effectively and successfully does a person acts. So, there are factors such as feeling competent, capable, able to handle the normal stress levels, maintaining satisfying relationships and also leading an independent life. Also, this includes recovering from difficult situations and being able to bounce back.  

Important Benefits of Good Mental Health

Mental health is related to the personality as a whole of that person. Thus, the most important function of school and education is to safeguard the mental health of boys and girls. Physical fitness is not the only measure of good health alone. Rather it’s just a means of promoting mental as well as moral health of the child. The two main factors that affect the most are feeling of inferiority and insecurity. Thus, it affects the child the most. So, they lose self-initiative and confidence. This should be avoided and children should be constantly encouraged to believe in themselves.

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Mental Health - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

This section is dedicated to argumentative and persuasive essays on mental health awareness in the United States. Mental illness and psychological problems are social issues that require a solution. A student can represent their point of view and perspective through an argumentative essay about mental health. What causes this problem and which is the solution would be perfect subjects for this type of paper.

It’s always a challenging task for students to reflect on illnesses, so to get a hint on how to start writing, you can look at the thesis statement and research paper samples on mental health on our website.

As often, start with a coherent introduction, outline, and title planning the structure of a paper. Consult research essay topics and argumentative topics if necessary.

Having studied all the samples, topics for ideas, and mental illness essay examples compose the main part, giving reasons for the mental diseases, ways to cure them, and arguments on why a mental illness should be considered a severe health problem.

Supply of Mental Health Insurance Coverage

Introduction Affordable medical care provisions offers the best services for mental health, this is after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. The act requires that all individuals and employers subscribe to the insurance benefit plan. Purity in mental health acts like a rectifier of unfairness in the health insurance. However due to the increasing mental problems the total spending has increased, based on results from the health insurance companies (Schroeder, 2012). Another evidence has suggested and found it prudent […]

Mental Health Counseling

I am a mental health social worker at a mental health agency. My major role in the agency is to counsel the mentally ill clients. The counseling is as a result of the ideology that individuals with serious mental illness are examined to encounter a variety of barriers that are likely to impede their development in career. Competencies for the course The mental health counseling has different competencies that include having genuine interest in others. In this, one is required […]

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Particularly most of the trained nurses theatres a vital role in mental health depending on field of specialty. Hence, in this level my main concept of concern will be based psychiatric nurses with which have chosen to pursue for my masters level. Regardless of the education, I am ascertained by the specialization and exposure as it gives skills to handle some of the technical responsibilities with most of the patients. This practitioners serve primarily in the care of mental health […]

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Social Media and Mental Health

Technology. Are we better off with it or without it? Can we keep up with the problems that it causes? These are the questions that are on everyone’s mind, especially those of us who deal with adolescents. Those of us who basically grew up last century (1950 – 1980) saw a lot of changes in technology. Those changes for the most part were ones that made daily life better. The television, computers, the internet, and different parts of the medical […]

Mental Health and Obesity

The obesity rate in America is at an all-time high, and it seems there is no end in sight. Obesity not only affects adults, but children as well. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines obesity as “Weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height.” (CDC, 2016) Soccer not only improves physical health and lessens obesity, but also mental health. Working out at least once a day makes a person […]

Effects of Childhood Trauma on Children Development

Anyone can experience trauma at any time. The trauma can be caused by nature, human beings or by oneself. People endure much when they experience trauma and their ability to handle it can determine the level of the effect of the trauma and their long-term well-being. Reportedly, children are incredibly susceptible to trauma because their brain and coping skills are still developing. Thus, they often grapple with long terms effects of uncontrolled trauma. While childhood trauma may vary regarding pervasiveness […]

Mental Health Concerns for Children in Foster Care

Child maltreatment often results in removal from the parental home and increases the risk for behavioral health concerns.  The foster care experience can further increase this risk.  It is therefore wise to consider aspects of mental health for children in foster care including prevalence, risk, treatment, and policy recommendations. Keywords: child maltreatment, foster care, mental health, behavioral health, adverse childhood experiences Children who have experienced maltreatment are often placed in foster care.  Not only does child maltreatment increase the risk […]

Veterans Mental Health Care

Mental health disparities affect a large amount of population across the United States. However, nobody is more affected by unstable mental health than those members of the military and their families. With the increase in the need for security in different areas of the world, military soldiers are deployed to assist in securing and protecting those areas. Often, these soldiers see combat and are affected in their mental state. Not only are the soldiers affected by the deployment, their families […]

Effects of Childhood Trauma on Development and Adulthood

It is no secret that experiencing childhood trauma can have many negative effects on an individual’s life both in childhood and adulthood. Trauma can include events such as physical or sexual abuse, surviving a serious car accident, witnessing a violent event, and more. As trauma is defined in the dictionary as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience, it is no surprise that a disturbing event during childhood can have negative effects throughout an individual’s lifetime. However, this paper will dive […]

The Mental Health Stigma

Mental health holds no bias on who it targets, no matter your gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or country you reside in, you or someone you know can suffer from a mental health disorder. Regardless of how merciless mental disorders can be, there is still an overbearing stigma behind it all. Some say it doesn’t exist, others say you are “crazy” and most importantly it is not acceptable to talk about in schools or at work without fear of being […]

Mental Health Problem Solution

As many know, mental illness has affected many individuals for quite some time, affecting individuals from every age spectrum, and for some disorders, every recorded era. Many have developed different ways to treat their illness. Some help and some showed no progress. But why is it still so relevant, yet irrelevant, in our current society? Many know it exists, yet, they stay narrowly-minded fixated to only physiological health issues. Many theorize that it may be because of some medical field’s […]

Applied Behavior Analysis and its Effects on Autism

Abstract During my research i have found several studies that have been done to support the fact that Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) does in fact make a positive impact on children with Autism through discrete trials. It is based on the thought that when a child is rewarded for a positive behavior or correct social interaction the process will want to be repeated. Eventually one would phase out the reward. Dr Lovaas, who invented this method, has spent his career […]

How Cyberbullying Impact on Mental Health

Abstract Cyberbullying has been at an all time high since the invention of technology. With the use of cell phones and the internet it now easier then ever for adolescents to bully one another through text messages, social media, and through email. The internet it an extraordinary piece of technology but it can also be used to bully others. The majority of adolescents who bully through the internet or text messages don’t understand or know the dangers and how harmful […]

Soldier’s Mental Health in all Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, and this book is based on the setting of World War 1. It explores the perspective of a German soldier named Paul Baumer going through his experience of being in the war and giving the readers the lens about the reality of war. The book also focuses on the soldiers’ feelings on the detachment from the civilian life they felt when returning home from the front. […]

The Impact of Friendships on a Woman’s Mental Health

Abstract Friendships are one of the most valuable relationships we have on this planet. I would almost say that we need it as much as we need food and water. Because God created us as relational creatures, we crave relationships with each other (Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version). We cannot survive without closeness to one another. In her article Roberto stated that “friendships are an important part of the informal social network of most older adults” (Roberto, 1997 p.1). There […]

The Negative Effects of Social Media on Mental Health

The rapid growth of social media began in the early 2000s and has not slowed down since. The most popular platforms include Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Facebook which all allow people to share photos and videos of themselves, their family and friends, their everyday activities, express their own views and opinions and connect in so many other ways. It has given a voice to anyone with access to a computer or phone and also helps enhance learning opportunities. But social […]

Drug Abuse – Destructive Pattern

Drug abuse is the destructive pattern of using substances that leads to uncounted problems and diseases in the human body. It is a physical and psychological term which takes dependence on human activities. Drugs create bad effects on human life like anxiety, impaired social relations, depression, hopelessness, rejection etc. Impaired social relations and suicide are considered the worst consequences of addiction. The drugs have negative consequences on one's life. If the addicts were able to see the reality of their […]

Mental Health in Schools

Gun safety and mental health concerns have been at battle for many years and have currently escalated with the rise in school shootings across the country. Research about what schools have done to prevent such travesties are interesting to note. Are zero tolerance policies really effective? Or do these issues stem beyond the trigger? Student and teacher protestors can be seen outside state capital and national buildings urging lawmakers to make changes to the policies regarding state and national gun […]

Mental Health of Teens and the Catcher in the Rye

What people never understand is that depression isn't about the outside; it's about the inside, a quote asserted by Jasmine Warga. Associating with the black cloud of depression by concealing one's true feelings is the way many people were brought up by. Depression has a way of silently striking a person, similar to the way it overtook Holden Caulfield, in the book The Catcher in the Rye (genre: literary realism), written by J.D Salinger. Although Holden Caulfield was never clearly […]

Mental Health and Social Media

On June 14th, 2017, 12-year-old Mallory Grossman took her life away after being told to kill herself on Snapchat. A girl who was extremely involved, bright, and enthusiastic, was completely tormented by bullies online. It all started at school, but she could never escape the bullying once she got home and hopped on social media. They sent the 12-year-old mean messages through posts on Instagram and Snapchat, calling her “fat”, “a loser”, and even more cruel, proposing her to kill […]

The Dark Side of Adoption: Mental Health in Adoptees

To an outsider, the idea of adoption may seem as a very fruitful endeavor – the birth family gets spared of the financial and time-consuming burden that can come with having another child while the said adoptee gets placed into a more stable environment, with a family who can provide for them in ways the birth family cannot. While on paper this ideology might ring with a perfect tune, to those who have lived as adoptees know the tone to […]

The Brain of a Psycopath

Psychopathy refers to a complex condition that encompasses affective and interpersonal traits like lack of behavior control, guilt, remorse, lack of empathy promiscuity and glibness (Kiehl). A lot is known about psychopathy assessment however, little is known about the associated brain disturbances. It's a severe mental disorder and believed to affect about 1% of global population (Kiehl). This paper discusses three areas of psychopaths brain including amygdala, the prefrontal cortex and extended paralimbic structures. Psychopaths have minimal activity both in […]

Exercise Benefits for Physical and Mental Health

Everyone knows that exercise helps your physical health and can help you lose weight, but is that the most important part of exercise? The more research that is done on overall health we are finding that exercise doesn’t just help your physical health, but also can help release stress, help your immune system, improve mental health, and help impact the body in almost every way. There is more to it than just going out and running or lifting weights and […]

Importance of Mental Health

What is Mental Health? According to(mentalhealth.gov) “mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being, which affects how we think, feel, act, relate to others and handle stress and everyone is affected by it.” In life, you are faced with countless challenges and some being more extreme than the other. For example, dealing with the loss of a loved one now, although that's something very hard to deal with eventually people with bounce back and cope overtime but sadly some […]

Domestic Violence and Women’s Mental Health

Domestic violence occurs worldwide irrespective of culture, geographical and historical period. There are many factors that cause or lead to domestic violence and they are: Unmet role expectations. Unmet role expectations on the part of the wife or husband could lead to domestic violence in the family. If women fail to fulfil basic domestic responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning, managing household budgets and taking care of child, it often leads to domestic violence. Child care was a source of argument […]

Marijuana Mental Health Depression

Within the past five years there has been an increase in availability for marijuana and an increase in attitudes for marijuana. 20 states have legalized marijuana for medical use (NORML). 8 states have legalized marijuana for medical and recreational use (NORML). Fifty-seven percent of American adults support the legalization, and 69% of American adults believe alcohol is more harmful to your health than marijuana (pewsearch.org). Due to the increased interest of marijuana, it has raised some questions especially concerning mental […]

The Unfamiliar Childhood Disorder – Reactive Attachment Disorder

The purpose of this paper is that a study was conducted for the diagnosis of Reactive attachment dsorder (RAD). This study was assessed with using the Relationships Problem Questionnaire (RPQ) and Reactive Attachment Disorder – Checklist (RAD-C). Chronbach's alpha of was used to test inter-rater, reliability and test-retest reliability (Thrall, Hall, Golden, & Sheaffer, 2009). There were fifty-three parents and caregivers who participated in the study. The first group were composed of children and adolescents who had former diagnoses of […]

Mental Health Screenings and the Effect on Gun Violence

Historically speaking, guns were used for hunting and for protection. In the late 1700's, the Revolutionary War began from Britain's pursuit to take away the colonists weaponry and oppress them. Lexington and Concord was the beginning of the fight for freedom. When Britain surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, the colonists had won their independence. The first constitution called the Articles of Confederation was ratified by all thirteen colonies in 1781 and was in place until 1789 when the U.S Constitution […]

Crime and Punishment: Women Mental Health in Prison

An unsafe living environment is a risk factor for many future crimes, as young women who run away from home to avoid abuse are more likely to get involved in drug distribution, prostitution and property crime (DeHart, 2008). Drug distribution, prostitution and property crime (such as robbery and theft) become their only source of fast and reliable income while substance abuse is an unfortunate and tragic by-product of the drug trade, as many women self-medicate in an attempt to cope […]

Schizophrenia: Mind and Mental Health

Psychological clarity is something that everyone strives for. A mind that is free from abundant clutter and jumbled thoughts that bring on stress and negativity. Everyone wants a mind that is able to recognize what is presented to it. A reliable psyche that is free from hallucinations and unwanted paranoia. Even though clarity can be achieved, certain illnesses can hinder individuals from reaching it. There are a multitude of disorders that affect the mind in more ways than one. The […]

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How To Write An Essay On Mental Health

Introduction to mental health as an essay topic.

When writing an essay on mental health, it's essential to understand its complexity and significance in today's society. Mental health refers to the state of our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and it also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. In your introduction, define mental health and its importance in maintaining overall well-being. Clarify the specific aspect of mental health you plan to explore, whether it's discussing a particular mental disorder, examining the impact of mental health on various life aspects, or analyzing mental health policies. This introduction should provide a clear context for your essay and highlight its relevance.

Exploring the Various Aspects of Mental Health

Dedicate the main body of your essay to a thorough exploration of your chosen aspect of mental health. If focusing on a specific mental disorder, discuss its symptoms, causes, and treatment options. For a broader approach, you might analyze the factors that contribute to good or poor mental health, such as genetics, environment, lifestyle, and societal influences. Include current research and statistics to back up your points and provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Remember to handle the subject with sensitivity and empathy, especially when discussing conditions that may affect your readers or their loved ones.

Addressing Challenges and Misconceptions

Another critical aspect of your essay should be addressing the challenges and misconceptions surrounding mental health. Discuss the stigma often associated with mental illness and its impact on individuals seeking help or treatment. Examine the barriers to accessing mental health care, such as cost, lack of resources, or cultural attitudes. You can also explore common misconceptions about mental health and how they hinder societal understanding and support for those affected. This section is crucial in shedding light on the obstacles faced in the realm of mental health and advocating for a more informed and supportive approach.

Concluding with the Importance of Mental Health Awareness

In your conclusion, summarize the main points discussed in your essay and reflect on the significance of mental health awareness and support. Emphasize the need for open dialogue, education, and comprehensive care to promote mental well-being. Discuss how increasing mental health awareness can benefit individuals and society as a whole, leading to a more empathetic and healthier community. Your conclusion should not only tie together your analysis but also inspire readers to recognize the importance of mental health and advocate for better support and resources in their communities.

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16 Personal Essays About Mental Health Worth Reading

Here are some of the most moving and illuminating essays published on BuzzFeed about mental illness, wellness, and the way our minds work.

BuzzFeed Staff

1. My Best Friend Saved Me When I Attempted Suicide, But I Didn’t Save Her — Drusilla Moorhouse

"I was serious about killing myself. My best friend wasn’t — but she’s the one who’s dead."

2. Life Is What Happens While You’re Googling Symptoms Of Cancer — Ramona Emerson

"After a lifetime of hypochondria, I was finally diagnosed with my very own medical condition. And maybe, in a weird way, it’s made me less afraid to die."

3. How I Learned To Be OK With Feeling Sad — Mac McClelland

"It wasn’t easy, or cheap."

4. Who Gets To Be The “Good Schizophrenic”? — Esmé Weijun Wang

"When you’re labeled as crazy, the “right” kind of diagnosis could mean the difference between a productive life and a life sentence."

5. Why Do I Miss Being Bipolar? — Sasha Chapin

"The medication I take to treat my bipolar disorder works perfectly. Sometimes I wish it didn’t."

6. What My Best Friend And I Didn’t Learn About Loss — Zan Romanoff

"When my closest friend’s first baby was stillborn, we navigated through depression and grief together."

7. I Can’t Live Without Fear, But I Can Learn To Be OK With It — Arianna Rebolini

"I’ve become obsessively afraid that the people I love will die. Now I have to teach myself how to be OK with that."

8. What It’s Like Having PPD As A Black Woman — Tyrese Coleman

"It took me two years to even acknowledge I’d been depressed after the birth of my twin sons. I wonder how much it had to do with the way I had been taught to be strong."

9. Notes On An Eating Disorder — Larissa Pham

"I still tell my friends I am in recovery so they will hold me accountable."

10. What Comedy Taught Me About My Mental Illness — Kate Lindstedt

"I didn’t expect it, but stand-up comedy has given me the freedom to talk about depression and anxiety on my own terms."

11. The Night I Spoke Up About My #BlackSuicide — Terrell J. Starr

"My entire life was shaped by violence, so I wanted to end it violently. But I didn’t — thanks to overcoming the stigma surrounding African-Americans and depression, and to building a community on Twitter."

12. Knitting Myself Back Together — Alanna Okun

"The best way I’ve found to fight my anxiety is with a pair of knitting needles."

13. I Started Therapy So I Could Take Better Care Of Myself — Matt Ortile

"I’d known for a while that I needed to see a therapist. It wasn’t until I felt like I could do without help that I finally sought it."

14. I’m Mending My Broken Relationship With Food — Anita Badejo

"After a lifetime struggling with disordered eating, I’m still figuring out how to have a healthy relationship with my body and what I feed it."

15. I Found Love In A Hopeless Mess — Kate Conger

"Dehoarding my partner’s childhood home gave me a way to understand his mother, but I’m still not sure how to live with the habit he’s inherited."

16. When Taking Anxiety Medication Is A Revolutionary Act — Tracy Clayton

"I had to learn how to love myself enough to take care of myself. It wasn’t easy."

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How to Write a Mental Health in College Students Essay

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Writing is a skill that takes time to build. Essays force you to practice research, critical thinking and communication skills – college is the perfect time for you to practice these. However, there’s only so much you can learn about writing through preparation. If you’ve been assigned an essay on mental health, you may not be sure where to begin. You might also wonder if you should choose mental health as a topic for a college paper. Here’s how to write a “mental health in college students” essay. 

• What Not to Do

If you’re trying to choose a topic for a college application essay, mental health is usually not the way to go. Your personal statement should show colleges why you’re the best candidate to attend their school. Because many students write about mental health , your essay may get lost in the crowd. In addition, your mental health journey is only a part of who you are. 

It can be difficult for many students to write about personal mental struggles without seeming overdramatic. Unless mental health struggles have shaped your whole life, it’s best to discuss other topics. If you mention mental health, stay brief and matter-of-fact. Don’t let it become the whole point of your essay. 

• Review the Instructions

If you’re writing this essay for a college course, start by looking over the assignment instructions. Don’t just listen to what your teacher says – look up the assignment on the syllabus to see if you can find a rubric or other relevant information. 

Highlight the important points to make sure you know what matters to your professor. The instructions are parameters you can operate in to create an essay you enjoy. Make sure you check word count, essay structure and review corrections on past essays. If you’re confused about something, don’t hesitate to ask your professor for clarification. 

• Do the Research 

Regardless of what class you’re writing for, this is the kind of topic that requires hard numbers. You don’t want to make general claims about rates of student anxiety or mental illness – to be credible, you need specifics. Be careful with your wording to avoid all-or-nothing statements. Everyone experiences mental health differently. 

Your professor may or may not allow you to pick the specific mental health topic you write about. However, you can ensure that your paper is well-researched and organized clearly. Before you start writing, create at least a basic outline showing the flow of ideas. This will make the writing phase much faster because you’ll always know what to say next. 

• Write It Out 

Writer’s block often stems from perfectionism. This paper won’t be perfect the first time, so don’t worry about writing it perfectly! Start with an interesting line that gets your reader’s attention and make sure you have a clear thesis statement. Taken by itself, this sentence should describe the contents of your entire paper. 

Build your paragraphs to the right word length by using specific examples. You should start each paragraph with a topic sentence that takes your reader one step in your paper’s argument. Then, describe a specific example that further explains this idea. You can find specific examples in your research or simply explain more about what you mean. 

• Edit Your Work

Editing is an important final step before you turn an essay in. It gives you an opportunity to look at your writing as a whole and ensure everything makes sense. If possible, you should set your first draft aside for a while before you reread it. This will help you see your work with fresh eyes so you can edit it. 

Editing involves strengthening your paper’s organization, rewriting specific sentences and checking for errors. You should make major edits first and then do a final read-through to catch punctuation and spelling mistakes. It can be helpful to read your paper out loud or have a friend look it over as well. 

One Key Takeaway for Writing a Mental Health in College Students Essay

Many students struggle with mental health while in school. Whatever topic you choose and however you organize your essay, make sure to write it with a sensitive tone. This topic is nuanced and shouldn’t be treated as a black-and-white issue. Write from an informed and compassionate point of view and offer your readers hope. 

Use this guide to write an essay on mental health in college students that astounds and delights your professor. Putting in the work will build research and communication skills you’ll use for years – whether you’re a psychology major, a premed student or studying the arts at school. 

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Speaking Up About Mental Health

National essay contest.

SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY The contest is open to high school students ages 16-18

PROMOTION TOOLKIT Help spread the word with social media and email tools

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Mental health is an important part of overall health across all life stages. However, far too often, symptoms are not addressed or recognized among teens.

Speaking Up About Mental Health is an essay contest that challenges high school students ages 16-18 to raise awareness of mental health. The contest gives students a platform to share ways to eliminate and/or reduce mental health stigma faced by young people, especially in diverse communities.

This contest is soliciting essays that:

• Discuss ways to eliminate and/or reduce mental health stigma faced by young people, especially in diverse communities
• Share resilience and coping strategies to overcome mental health issues such as social isolation and loneliness, depression, and anxiety
• Address mental health stigma
• Encourage conversations about mental health, social media, and/or technology
• Suggest school policies or practices that could help reduce stigma
• Describe barriers to mental health treatment
• Cover other areas of concern to individuals and their communities with respect to mental health

Get details on contest rules and submit your entry on Challenge.gov

Promotion toolkit : Help promote the Speaking Up About Mental Health essay contest

The contest is led by:

National Institute of Mental Health

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Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Page updated Jan. 23, 2024

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Mental Health in the United States Essay

Target population, summary of articles.

Mental health is a crucial problem that has to be addressed by the government to avert local communities from missing out on productive lives, healthy families, and strong interactive relationships. Practically any person from younger children to old adults may be suffering from a variety of mental health disorders due to the prevalence of unsafe behaviors and risky attitudes that might lead them to ultimate self-destruction. As Heun-Johnson et al. (2018) put it, suicide was almost in the top ten leading causes of death across the United States, which is a scary indicator that cannot and should not go unnoticed. Accordingly, mental health illnesses could also be associated with numerous physical states that could be associated with the inability to keep one’s mental health intact. In other words, cancer or diabetes could occur in a person even in the case of severe anxiety or stress, causing the body to respond in unpredictable ways.

Heun-Johnson et al. (2018) also contributed to the existing discussion by stating that the long-lasting effects of mental disorders may be hard to mitigate due to the extensive economic and psychosocial costs of interventions and consequences. Nevertheless, there is still hope that mental health disorders can be managed appropriately, as the growing body of evidence hints at the idea that the burden of mental issues could be reduced significantly. The existing project serves as an assessment of the Downers Grove, Illinois community and a thorough review of how previous experience could be utilized to develop a decent strategy to address the mental health of the target population and improve the quality of mental health care in the region. This project might become a pathway to a stronger Downers Grove community where individuals would not be afraid to share their thoughts on how to approach the issue and collaborate with care providers to reduce the stigma of mental health issues as well.

When picking the most appropriate target population for the current project, the author decided to consider numerous variables describing the populace, such as gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and geolocation. There is also a need to include specific social conditions in order to gain as much insight as possible into the given community. Some of these were interpersonal relations, intrafamilial and community dynamics, school conditions, and social backing. The information provided in the SAMHSA (2017) report disclosed the presence of numerous risks associated with mental health issues in Illinois youth. This is a hint at the fact that there are not enough resources currently available to the Downers Grove community to establish safe places for the target population to interact and contribute to overall change concerning the attitudes toward mental health issues across the State of Illinois.

On the other hand, that same report published by SAMHSA (2017) is the key to understanding that the biggest population currently affected by mental health illnesses is youth. It is a warning sign for the Downers Grove community, as at least one major depressive episode per annum was found in at least 20% of Illinois youth residents. The percentage seems to increase, as in 2014, that same community reached about 14% of youth residents being exposed to major depressive episodes. In addition, the problem is that less than half (approximately 38%) of Illinois youth received appropriate treatment for their mental health issues. This can be important as well because some of the respondents might be too afraid to ask for help due to certain circumstances such as the socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or gender.

Ultimately, the target population can be described as male, female, or transgender respondents aged from 15 to 24 who are either suffering from major mental health issues or get exposed to certain episodes that damage their mental health time after time. One of the major trends included in SAMHSA (2017) report is the growing prevalence of psychotic disorders in youth. This problem slowly becomes prevalent because it increases the rates of stigmatization among peers and adults and also increases the time of hospital stays. Depending on the primary reason for hospitalization, care providers have to pick the right approach to their patients, which also means that local youth often faces the challenge of not being enrolled in follow-up care. The lack of appropriate prevention measures makes the Downers Grove youth community an especially vulnerable population that has to be protected.

The article written by Buchholz et al. (2015) discloses a number of important points that have to be considered when thinking about the best strategy related to youth coping with mental health issues. The researchers investigated the process of youth disclosing mental health issues to their parents or teachers and reviewed the possible social implications of such communication. Buchholz et al. (2015) found that mental health challenges are exceptionally hard to discuss when there is a risk of being misunderstood or ridiculed in front of others, so many young individuals tend to keep their anxiety and worries to themselves in order to protect themselves from unsafe outcomes. Nevertheless, further communication could be helpful when trying to reduce stigma and build effective relationships with the environment. The results of research conducted by Buchholz et al. (2015) could be utilized to manage possible disclosure decisions in the future and help local youth discuss their mental health issues more without obstruction.

Vohra et al. (2019) touched upon the question of how mental illnesses impact mortality and morbidity in youth. In order to introduce a decent prevention measure, they investigated the potential benefits and challenges associated with the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) strategy when utilized to address the prevalence of mental health issues in youth. Even though Vohra et al. (2019) could not achieve any specific results in terms of finding any relevant evidence regarding the effectiveness of MBSR in youth with mental health issues, their research allowed them to evaluate the efficacy of this strategy and see how psychological interventions could help when treating mental health issues in youth. The results of the study showed that MBSR could be an effective way for youth to cope with the potential stigma and improper emotional responses linked to the advent of mental health issues.

The article written by Mustanski et al. (2016) dwelled on the possibility of reducing the amount of cumulative victimization that LGBT youth representatives could be exposed to while also suffering from mental disorders. In order to complete their research, the investigators picked a sample including transgender, bisexual, lesbian, and gay youth and screened them for depression and anxiety in order to establish the potential level of stigma that these respondents could be facing on a daily basis. The findings published by Mustanski et al. (2016) showed that in addition to depressive episode, LGBT youth in Illinois was at an elevated risk for PTSD symptoms. Overall, the research concluded that there was an extreme amount of victimization affecting the LGBT youth living across the State of Illinois.

Buchholz, B., Aylward, S., McKenzie, S., & Corrigan, P. (2015). Should youth disclose their mental health challenges? Perspectives from students, parents, and school professionals. Journal of Public Mental Health , 14 (3), 159-168.

Heun-Johnson, H., Menchine, M., Goldman, D., & Seabury, S. (2018). The cost of mental illness: Illinois facts and figures [PDF]. USC Schaeffer. Web.

Mustanski, B., Andrews, R., & Puckett, J. A. (2016). The effects of cumulative victimization on mental health among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents and young adults. American Journal of Public Health , 106 (3), 527-533.

SAMHSA. (2017). Illinois 2017 Mental Health National Outcome Measures (NOMS): SAMHSA Uniform Reporting System [PDF]. Web.

Vohra, S., Punja, S., Sibinga, E., Baydala, L., Wikman, E., Singhal, A.,… & Van Vliet, K. J. (2019). Mindfulness‐based stress reduction for mental health in youth: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Child and Adolescent Mental Health , 24 (1), 29-35.

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IvyPanda. (2022, February 25). Mental Health in the United States. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mental-health-in-the-united-states/

"Mental Health in the United States." IvyPanda , 25 Feb. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/mental-health-in-the-united-states/.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "Mental Health in the United States." February 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mental-health-in-the-united-states/.

1. IvyPanda . "Mental Health in the United States." February 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mental-health-in-the-united-states/.

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IvyPanda . "Mental Health in the United States." February 25, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/mental-health-in-the-united-states/.

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What Is Mental Health?

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Characteristics

Poor self-esteem.

Mental health is a term used to describe emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The quality of a person's mental health is often measured by how adaptively they can cope with everyday stressors.

Mental health allows people to use their abilities, be productive, make decisions, and play an active role in their communities.

Having poor mental health is often confused with having a mental illness . But mental health actually refers to a person's state of mental well-being whether or not they have a psychiatric condition.

History of Mental Health

A paper in the World Psychiatry journal states that mental health officially emerged as its own field of study in 1946 during the International Health Conference.

It was during this conference that the World Health Organization (WHO) was founded. The WHO Constitutions stated that mental "well-being" is an integral part of overall health, even in the absence of psychiatric illness.

Before mental health, "mental hygiene" was a term used in the 19th and 20th centuries to refer to the impact that mental processes have on overall health.

A mental hygiene movement had formed in the United States in 1908. Its goal was to advocate for people who were "mentally sick," or people who had psychiatric conditions, in a more humane way as historically, people with mental illnesses were abused, neglected, and lacked adequate care.

Though stigma surrounding mental illness still exists, more and more people have realized the importance of receiving treatment—like psychotherapy —for maintenance of their mental well-being, regardless of whether they have a mental illness.

Additionally, an abundance of research has found that positive mental health is linked with improved quality of life, including better productivity, closer social connections, higher educational achievement, and improved relationships.

Mental health refers not only to emotional well-being but also to how people think and behave. There are a number of different factors that have been found to influence mental health.

Life Satisfaction

A person's ability to enjoy life is frequently used as an indicator of mental health and wellness. It is often defined as the degree to which a person enjoys the most important aspects of their life. 

Some factors that have been found to play an important role in life satisfaction include the absence of feeling ill, good relationships , a sense of belonging, being active in work and leisure, a sense of achievement and pride, positive self-perceptions , a sense of autonomy, and feelings of hope.

The ability to bounce back from adversity   has been referred to as resilience . People who are resilient also tend to have a positive view of their ability to cope with challenges and seek out social support when they need it. Those who are more resilient are better able to not only cope with stress but to thrive even in the face of it.

Social support is important for positive mental health. Loneliness is linked with both physical and mental health issues including cardiovascular disease, depression , memory problems, drug misuse , alcohol misuse , and altered brain function.

Decreases in social support caused by life changes such as going to college, facing social adversity, changing jobs, or getting divorced can have a negative impact on mental health.

Fortunately, research suggests that it is not necessarily the number of supportive connections you have that it is the most important but rather the quality of these relationships.  

Flexibility

Having rigid expectations can sometimes create added stress. Emotional flexibility may be just as important as cognitive flexibility. Mentally healthy people experience a range of emotions and allow themselves to express these feelings. Some people shut off certain feelings, finding them to be unacceptable.

Lack of psychological flexibility has been linked to some types of psychopathology , while research suggests that increased flexibility is connected to better life balance and improved resilience.

Challenges to Mental Health

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states that an estimated one in five U.S. adults experiences a mental health problem each year.  There are a number of risk factors that can increase the likelihood that a person may experience poor mental health.

Discrimination

Being treated unfairly due to personal characteristics such as age, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity is linked with increased anxiety and depression.

Exposure to Trauma

Trauma is linked with anxiety, depression, changes in mood (increased anger and irritability), feelings of hopelessness, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Family History of Mental Illness

Research suggests that a variety of mental illnesses run in families such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder , major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia .

Low income is linked with increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Low income may also prevent someone from accessing necessary mental health services.

Medical Illness

Illnesses, particularly those that are chronic and force a person to adjust their lifestyle, can create psychological distress (especially depression).

Poor Access to Health Services

Access to health services is linked to positive long-term health outcomes. However, when people can't get access to the health care they need, their physical and mental health may suffer as a result.

Having low self-esteem often means you don't believe you're worthy of being happy or having positive relationships. People with low self-esteem are at higher risk of developing substance use disorders, anxiety, and depression.

Poor Social Skills

Having poor social skills is linked with loneliness and increased stress levels, as well as worsened physical health.

Social Inequalities

Lacking access to goods and services in society based on personal characteristics like your age, gender, religion, race, disability, or another social category can increase the risk of depression.

Substance Use

Substance use is linked with high rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Impact of Mental Health

The state of a person's mental health has a significant impact on their quality of life. Taking care of your mental health allows you to contribute to your community, cope with stress, have quality relationships, and maintain physical health.

Mental health can help you to work toward your full potential in all aspects of your life. Improved mental health is also linked with better physical health. Research has found that positive mental health can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Poor mental health, on the other hand, is linked with issues like increased stress, sleep problems, smoking, and substance use . If your mental health is suffering, you might feel overwhelmed more easily, have trouble maintaining relationships, and experience low self-esteem.

How to Stay Mentally Healthy

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that some of the ways that you can promote and maintain mental health include the below.  

Physical Exercise

Physical exercise can reduce stress and even improve the symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression. It reduces the body's levels of stress hormones and elevates levels of endorphins, which promote mood regulation and feelings of well-being.

Your workout doesn't need to be strenuous either. Try taking a 20-minute walk and you might just notice the effect it has on clearing and relaxing your mind.

Adequate Sleep  

Not getting enough sleep can worsen mental health and cause mental distress, especially in people with existing mental health conditions. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends getting at least seven hours per night.

Mental health conditions can make it extra challenging to fulfill your sleep requirements, but there are ways you can improve your sleeping habits.

Try adhering to a consistent sleep schedule (going to bed and waking up at the same times each night), limiting distractions like using your phone before bed, and making sure you get some exercise during the day. Be sure to consult a healthcare provider if your lack of sleep is causing mental distress.

Help Others 

One study found that helping behavior and other kinds of social interactions were linked with reduced stress and even longer lifespans.

Try volunteering in your community or even lending a hand to people in your everyday life. Performing small acts of kindness can make you and the recipient of your generosity feel a boost in mood and well-being.

Learn Coping Skills

Learning healthy coping mechanisms for managing stress can go a long way in improving mental health.

Some productive coping mechanisms include getting emotional support from loved ones, finding humor in your everyday life , and taking action to better your situation. It's all about finding what works best for you.

In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a therapist works with patients to find the best coping skills for their unique circumstances.

Stay Connected to Others

Social interaction can reduce our stress levels, improve the symptoms of depression, and even benefit our physical health.

Research has found that social connection has positive impacts on health categories like cancer, weight management, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Having social interactions in a setting such as group therapy, for instance, might be especially helpful if you are coping with a specific mental health condition like post-traumatic stress disorder or an eating disorder .

Keep a Positive Outlook

There are many health benefits to using optimism and positive thinking in your everyday life.

One study found that participants with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) who practiced replacing thoughts of negative outcomes with thoughts of positive ones experienced less worry over time than participants who didn't imagine positive outcomes.

A Word From Verywell

There are many factors that influence mental health and overall well-being. Individual factors play an important part, but social, environmental, and financial circumstances can also either enhance or worsen mental health.

It is important to seek help if you are having difficulties. Talk to a doctor or mental health professional if you need help improving your mental health or addressing a psychological problem.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About mental health .

World Health Organization. Mental health .

Bertolote J. The roots of the concept of mental health .  World Psychiatry . 2008;7(2):113-116. doi:10.1002/j.2051-5545.2008.tb00172.x

Connell J, O'Cathain A, Brazier J. Measuring quality of life in mental health: Are we asking the right questions? .  Soc Sci Med . 2014;120:12–20. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.026

Walker FR, Pfingst K, Carnevali L, Sgoifo A, Nalivaiko E.  In the search for integrative biomarker of resilience to psychological stress .  Neurosci Biobehav Rev.  2017;74(Pt B):310-320. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.05.003

Hämmig O.  Health risks associated with social isolation in general and in young, middle and old age . PLoS One . 2019;14(7):e0219663. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219663

Umberson D, Montez JK. Social relationships and health: A flashpoint for health policy .  J Health Soc Behav . 2010;51 Suppl(Suppl):S54–S66. doi:10.1177/0022146510383501

Kashdan TB, Rottenberg J. Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health .  Clin Psychol Rev . 2010;30(7):865–878. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.001

National Alliance on Mental Health. Mental health by the numbers .

World Health Organization. Risks to mental health: An overview of vulnerabilities and risk factors .

American Psychological Association. The impact of discrimination .

Kleber RJ. Trauma and public mental health: A focused review .  Front Psychiatry . 2019;10:451. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00451

National Institutes of Health. Common genetic factors found in 5 mental disorders .

Patel V, Burns JK, Dhingra M, Tarver L, Kohrt BA, Lund C. Income inequality and depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association and a scoping review of mechanisms .  World Psychiatry. 2018;17(1):76-89. doi:10.1002/wps.20492

National Institute of Mental Health. Chronic illness and mental health: Recognizing and treating depression .

Coombs NC, Meriwether WE, Caringi J, Newcomer SR. Barriers to healthcare access among U.S. adults with mental health challenges: A population-based study .  SSM Popul Health . 2021;15:100847. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100847

National Alliance on Mental Illness. Why self-esteem is important for mental health .

Segrin C. Indirect effects of social skills on health through stress and loneliness . Health Communication. 2017;34(1):118-124. doi:10.1080/10410236.2017.1384434

Yu, S. Uncovering the hidden impacts of inequality on mental health: A global study .  Transl Psychiatry.  2018;8:98. doi:10.1038/s41398-018-0148-0

Morris DH, Davis AK, Lauritsen KJ, et al. Substance use consequences, mental health problems, and readiness to change among Veterans seeking substance use treatment .  J Subst Abuse Treat . 2018;94:113-121. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2018.08.005

National Library of Medicine. Mental health .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart disease and mental health disorders .

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. What is mental health? .

Harvard Health Publishing. Exercising to relax .

Blackwelder A, Hoskins M, Huber L. Effect of inadequate sleep on frequent mental distress . Preventing Chronic Disease. 2021;18:200573. doi:10.5888/pcd18.200573

Poulin MJ, Brown SL, Dillard AJ, Smith DM. Giving to others and the association between stress and mortality .  Am J Public Health . 2013;103(9):1649-1655. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.300876

Saxon L, Makhashvili N, Chikovani I, et al. Coping strategies and mental health outcomes of conflict-affected persons in the Republic of Georgia .  Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci . 2017;26(3):276-286. doi:10.1017/S2045796016000019

Martino J, Pegg J, Frates EP. The connection prescription: Using the power of social interactions and the deep desire for connectedness to empower health and wellness .  Am J Lifestyle Med . 2015;11(6):466-475. doi:10.1177/1559827615608788

Eagleson C, Hayes S, Mathews A, Perman G, Hirsch CR. The power of positive thinking: Pathological worry is reduced by thought replacement in generalized anxiety disorder .  Behav Res Ther . 2016;78:13-18. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.017

• Taylor, James, 1977.  Secret O' Life  Album: JT; Professional experience of 25 years as a practicing clinical psychologist.

By Leonard Holmes, PhD Leonard Holmes, PhD, is a pioneer of the online therapy field and a clinical psychologist specializing in chronic pain and anxiety.

Laura Harold is an editor and contributing writer for Verywell Family, Fit, and Mind.

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100+ argumentative essay topics on mental health | example & outline, bob cardens.

• September 2, 2022
• Essay Topics and Ideas

Argumentative Essay Topics on Mental Health. Mental health is an important and often overlooked topic. In this article, we’ll explore some argumentative essay topics related to mental health .

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What You'll Learn

Argumentative Essay Topics about Mental Health

1. Is there a connection between mental health and physical health? 2. How does mental illness affect a person’s ability to function in society? 3. What are the most effective treatments for mental illness? 4. Are there any effective prevention strategies for mental illness? 5. What is the relationship between mental health and substance abuse? 6. How does poverty affect mental health? 7. What are the most common mental disorders? 8. What are the consequences of untreated mental illness? 9. What are the risk factors for developing mental illness? 10. How can mental illness be effectively diagnosed?

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Argumentative essay topics about depression

1. Depression is a real mental health condition.

2. Depression is more than just feeling sad.

3. Depression can lead to serious physical health problems.

4. Depression is treatable with medication and therapy.

5. People with depression can lead happy, fulfilling lives.

6. Untreated depression can be deadly.

7. Depression is often misunderstood and stigmatized.

8. Depression is not a sign of weakness or a character flaw.

9. Anyone can develop depression, even people who seem to have it all together.

10. There is no single cause of depression, but there are risk factors that can make someone more likely to develop the condition.

Argumentative Essay Topics on Mental Health. Mental health is an important and often overlooked topic. In this article, we’ll explore some argumentative essay topics related to mental health.

Argumentative essay about mental health in schools

1. Mental health should be taught in schools. 2. There should be more support for mental health in schools. 3. Mental health should be taken more seriously in schools. 4. Schools should do more to prevent mental health problems. 5. Schools should do more to help students with mental health problems. 6. Mental health problems are increasing in schools. 7. school counselors are not trained to deal with mental health issues 8. most school don’t have a mental health policy 9. lack of awareness about mental health among school staff 10. stigma and discrimination against mental health patients

Argumentative essay on mental health stigma

Argumentative essay topics about mental health can be very controversial and sensitive. However, there are many people who are open to discussing these topics and raising awareness about mental health. Here are twenty argumentative essay topics about mental health that you can use for your next essay.

1. How does society view mental health? 2. Do we need to break the stigma around mental health? 3. How can we better support those with mental health conditions? 4. What is the link between mental health and addiction? 5. How does trauma affect mental health? 6. What are the most effective treatments for mental health conditions? 7. Are there any natural remedies for mental health conditions? 8. How does diet affect mental health? 9. How does exercise affect mental health? 10. What is the link between sleep and mental health? 11. What are the warning signs of a mental health condition? 12. When should someone seek professional help for a mental health condition? 13. How can family and friends support someone with a mental health condition? 14. What are the most common myths about mental health? 15. How does stigma impact those with mental health conditions?

16. How can we destigmatize mental health? 17. What is the link between mental health and violence? 18. How does mental health affect overall health? 19. What are the most common mental health disorders? 20. What are the most effective treatments for mental health disorders?

Mental health debate topics for students

1. The definition of mental health 2. The different types of mental illness 3. The causes of mental illness 4. The treatments for mental illness 5. The side effects of mental illness 6. The impact of mental illness on society 7. The cost of mental health care 8. Mental health in the workplace 9. Mental health in the media 10. Stigma and discrimination against those with mental illness 11. The impact of trauma on mental health 12. Mental health during pregnancy and postpartum 13. Children’s mental health 14. Geriatric mental health 15. Global perspectives on mental health 16. Religion and mental health 17. Cultural competence in mental health care 18. Social media and mental health 19.Nutrition and mental health

20. Exercise and mental health

Expository essay topics about mental illness

1. How does mental illness affect one’s ability to work? 2. What are the most common types of mental illness? 3. How can mental illness be prevented? 4. What are the most effective treatments for mental illness? 5. How does mental illness impact relationships? 6. What are the financial costs of mental illness? 7. How does stigma affect those with mental illness? 8. What are the most common myths about mental illness? 9. How does mental illness differ from addiction? 10. What are the early warning signs of mental illness?

Debates about mental health

1. The definition of mental health is contested and argued by professionals in the field. 2. Some people argue that mental health is a social construction, while others believe that it is a real and valid medical condition. 3. Mental health is often stigmatized in society, and those who suffer from mental illness are often seen as weak or crazy. 4. Mental health is often viewed as something that can be cured, when in reality it is a lifelong battle for many people. 5. Mental illness is often seen as an individual responsibility to deal with, when in reality it affects not just the individual but also their families and loved ones. 6. It is often said that people with mental illness are not able to function in society, when in fact many people with mental illness are high-functioning individuals. 7. Mental health is often viewed as an all-or-nothing proposition, when in reality there is a spectrum of mental health conditions that range from mild to severe. 8. People with mental illness are often treated differently than other people, and they are often discriminated against. 9. There is a lot of misinformation about mental health, and this leads tomisunderstanding and fear. 10. Mental health is a complex issue, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing it.

Persuasive topics related to mental health

1. The link between mental health and physical health. 2. The benefits of therapy and counseling. 3. The importance of early intervention for mental health issues. 4. The impact of trauma on mental health. 5. The correlation between mental health and substance abuse. 6. The connection between mental health and chronic illness. 7. The relationship between mental health and chronic pain. 8. Mental health in the workplace. 9. Mental health in the military. 10. Mental health in schools. 11. Children’s mental health issues. 12. Teens and mental health issues. 13. Elderly mental health issues. 14. Cultural issues and mental health. 15. Religion and mental health. 16. The stigma of mental illness. 17. Mental health awareness and education. 18. Mental health advocacy. 19. Funding for mental health services. 20. Access to mental health care.

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My Mother Needed Mental Health Treatment. She Got a Jail Cell

I had just arrived back in the States when I got the call. It was January 2004, and after a semester abroad studying literature in Italy, I was as far mentally and geographically as I’d ever had from my mother and 15-year-old brother. I was still thinking in Italian when I got the call from a family friend. My mother had set her house on fire, the friend told me, and was being held in county jail on charges of Felony arson.

A stream of questions ran through my mind, but in the shock, all I said was: “You can’t light your own house on fire?”

My mom’s friend chuckled, deflecting the question’s absurdity. “No honey,” she cooed. “Apparently, that’s a Felony.” I was days away from starting my final semester at college, but I emailed my professors, flew home, and picked my brother up just in time for visiting hours.

In the visiting room, the three of us sat slumped in shell chairs on either side of a plexiglass wall, phone receivers tucked against our ears, oscillating between confusion and heartbreak as my mother recounted what had happened. In a fugue state, she’d set fire to the house, but as it went up in flames, she became lucid. Realizing what she’d done, she called the fire department and ran out of the house. She was waiting on the lawn when they arrived. But instead of being offered care, she was escorted to a squad car and driven 20 minutes up California’s Interstate-5 to the county jail, where she was promptly booked.

What she needed was mental health treatment; what she got was a cell.

Her story isn’t rare. A March 2024 Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) report on women and incarceration concluded that 80% of women in state prisons are mothers, most, primary caretakers; and that 76% of women have past or current mental health problems, a significantly higher rate than men in the same demographic. In the last few decades, women’s incarceration has grown at twice the rate of men. There is hypocrisy in how we treat mothers: As Mother’s Day approaches and we get ready to shower maternal figures with flowers and Hallmark sentiments, we honor, even revere the mother culturally. But single mothers are still stigmatized—both in policy and ideology. Many mothers, particularly single mothers living in poverty or with little safety net or community to bolster them, don’t report warning signs, or even crises when they have them, for fear of losing their children. Asking for help comes at a cost—and is oftentimes simply too dangerous.

Later, I would come to understand that what my mother experienced that day was a psychotic break. It didn’t happen overnight. There had been signs. For years, decades even. In fact, at 20 years old, she’d had a similar break that left her hospitalized for months. By the time my brother and I came along, she was functional enough and privileged enough—white, traditionally attractive, educated, and with a healthy dose of natural charm—to move through the world at will. She wanted to be a mother more than anything and often prized autonomy and her right to parent over stability, choosing to work less so she could be home with us, and moving frequently. Raising us on her own, she scraped by on part-time work, child support, and occasional government assistance. She knew how to slip around the lurking eyes of society looking down on her—on all poor single mothers.

Any single parent bears great weight, but in the U.S., single mothers, femme-presenting, or nonbinary people, shoulder different expectations than fathers or masculine-presenting parents. They experience higher rates of psychological distress, often due to finances. And they are perceived differently. A 2021 Pew Research study tracked American attitudes toward single mothers. In 2018, when asked if women raising children on their own was bad for society, 40% said yes. In 2021, it was 47%. Incremental, but not insignificant as abortion rights are stripped at dizzying rates.

A government that forces people into parenthood and penalizes them when asking for help as the struggle is a no-win cul-de-sac, and for some, it’s not just a U-turn but potential jail time that looms—a risk greatly exacerbated by class and race.

Read More: Mental Illness Made My First Year as a Mom Excruciating. I’m Just Lucky It Wasn’t Worse

According to the PPI report, 2.6 million children have had a parent in jail or prison. The image of my mother in a state-issued orange jumpsuit was dissonant, but for many families it’s the unfortunate outcome of living in a system that criminalizes poverty. A 2022 joint report by the Human Rights Watch and the ACLU on the impacts of family separation, found that families living in poverty, “often have limited, or no access to resources, services, and social supports for the kinds of issues many parents struggle with, such as mental health, relationships, services for children with disabilities, or responding to behavioral issue s .”

My mother told me that when I was young, she had once partaken in free counseling services from a government agency, and soon after, received a home visit from Child Protective Services. She never talked to anyone after that. A parent with the insight to notice warning signs in themselves should be supported not penalized. But the system isn’t well-prepared to assess these situations with nuance. In fact, the HRW/ACLU study found that many caseworkers in the child welfare system, the agency responsible for reporting perceived neglect, don’t have mental health training at all.

Children must be protected. But by stripping a mother’s ability to get help and keep her children at the same time, we put under resourced communities at greater risk of losing their kids for good. In a way, my mother, like many others, endangered us and herself in order to protect our family unit.

After three months, she was released on what’s called a deferred judgment, a ruling that stated if she attended mandated counseling and got into no further legal trouble for three years, her record would be cleared. She’d never been charged before, so it was unlikely to happen again. But if for some reason it had, my mother would have been saddled with a felony record for having a mental breakdown. And with a felony record, would have been less able to find work, increasing the likelihood of continued poverty, and threat of recidivism, thus carrying on the punitive cycle ad infinitum. Still, she was one of the “lucky ones.” What she experienced is increased multifold by mothers of color.

Unfortunately, she died of technically unrelated causes before the three years was up.

Today, my mother has been dead almost 20 years. But every year, around this time, I wonder what it would look like if she had been given the necessary care absent of threat to her parental rights. I wonder how we might center interventions of care and support instead of punitive measures. What if we assumed the best of mothers, first? Mostly, I wonder how we might help parents living with mental illness keep their families intact.

I know there are many opinions and no simple solutions, here. That to move away from punishment and toward compassion and complexity would require not only major policy shifts, but a cultural sea-change in how we understand family and what it means to protect its sanctity and sanity. But when we talk about who deserves help, we must consider what it costs to ask. The price is not the same for everyone.

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Paul Simon Essay Contest winner speaks on mental health

Editor's note: This story mentions a suicide attempt. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the  988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline  by dialing 9-8-8, or the  Crisis Text Line  by texting HOME to 741741.

  A Princeton student recently won the Paul Simon Essay Contest. This essay highlights Illinois community colleges. The student shares how her college embraced her after she returned following a not-so-great start.

Lauren Frost is a student at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby, Illinois. The contest is sponsored by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association and offers a five-hundred-dollar scholarship. The student must describe, “How My Community College Has Changed My Life.” Frost said she loves writing, but essay writing wasn't a part of her repertoire.

“I'm somebody who likes to use a lot of words, and there was the 500-word limit, and I was like, oh my goodness, I don't know how to like put this all into just 500 words.”

She said she is used to creative writing and has done this since she was a child. The other thing Frost loved to do was play the Trumpet. She said she wasn’t a great player and the other kids often made fun of her.

“And so, I decided, well, I'll go into elementary education just because it was something that, you know, I knew people did. I knew it was a job option,” she said. “And so, I was like, well, I'll go into that. Um, and that didn't work out very well. I didn’t really like the classes that I had, and I didn't have a very big passion for it either. So, um, and along with that, my mental health was definitely declining. I was very depressed.”

She ended that semester with a 0.429 GPA. That was in 2021. She decided to take a break. Frost said things came to a head in May of 2022. At the age of 18, she said she tried to take her life and ended up in the hospital. Frost said after that, she went to therapy to get help.

“I ended up finding out that I had, ADHD, depression, and then, schizotypal personality disorder,” she continued, “dependent personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder, which was quite the diagnosis.”

Frost said she originally noticed something wasn’t right with her mental health when she was in seventh grade. Back then she talked to her friends and parents about her concerns.

“And they'd kind of just chalk it up to being, you know, just like going through puberty,” she said.

Frost said in the fall of 2022 she decided to enroll in IVCC again. This time she took her passion for music and mixed it with something she felt helped her maneuver through life – taking care of her mental health. Her intent was to major in social work. But one of her first classes was music appreciation. She said it set the tone for her and helped her with her anxiety. This led her to pursue an education in music therapy.

“There's always the connection that you make with people when you play music with them, of course. I mentioned that before, but even then, listening to music is like an underrated tool to help,” she explained.

Frost said her mom was the one who told her to submit an essay for the contest. Those paragraphs detailed her journey to wellness and how the college helped with that.

“And to this day, nobody ever comments on, you know, how badly my first semester there went,” she said. “And it’s always just kind of been talking about the future and what happens next.”

Frost said mental health is not talked about the way it should be. She encourages open discussions about mental health and says it is important to speak with a therapist.

Frost is scheduled to read her winning essay at the college’s commencement ceremony on May 18 th .

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‘High-Functioning Anxiety Isn’t a Medical Diagnosis. It’s a Hashtag.’

Supported by

By Lucy Foulkes

Video by Amanda Su and Adam Westbrook

Ms. Foulkes is an academic psychologist at Oxford University. Ms. Su is an Opinion Video reporting fellow. Mr. Westbrook is an editor and producer with Opinion Video.

Soaring rates of anxiety and depression among adolescents . Medical groups declaring a “national emergency.” The surgeon general calling for an “all of society” response to a “devastating” mental health crisis among young people.

By all indications, kids these days are in rough shape, giving additional urgency to Mental Health Awareness Month, which began on May 1. But in the Opinion video above, Lucy Foulkes, an academic psychologist at Oxford University, argues that the problem may not be a lack of awareness but rather too much.

Amid an enormous societal push to destigmatize mental illness and encourage more conversation about emotions, young people have been flooded with mental health information on social media and elsewhere. But much of it is unreliable and counterproductive.

“I’m deeply concerned that this awareness craze,” Foulkes says, “is ironically making their mental health worse.”

Adam Westbrook is a producer and editor with Opinion Video.

Opinion Video combines original reporting with creative storytelling to produce visually transformative commentary. Pitch a video Guest Essay here.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Why am I lonely? Lack of social connections hurts Americans' mental health.

Tens of millions of people don’t have relationships that provide meaning in daily life. no amount of federal money − no number of mental health workers or programs − will solve that problem..

We need a new way to think about mental health − one that recognizes every person’s role in tackling the crisis that surrounds us.

We all know this crisis exists. After the COVID-19 pandemic, record numbers of people have reported mental health challenges. About 20% of U.S. adults − nearly 60 million Americans − have a diagnosable mental illness. Nearly 40% of high school students − and half of high school girls − say their mental health has struggled in recent years. Anxiety, depression and suicide have soared. So has addiction , which about 1 in 5 Americans now struggle with.

Amid this crisis, government at all levels is desperately trying to make a difference, mainly through new programs and funding streams. President Joe Biden’s proposed 2024 budget, for instance, envisions a  44% increase in federal spending on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In the State of the Union address, he called for funding “ more mental health workers .”

We need more than increased spending to help with the mental health problem

And states like Florida and Virginia are now spending record amounts on mental health services.

Yet more money and more workers aren’t silver bullets. It’s true that America has just one mental health professional for every 350 people who need help , but there’s no credible path to close that gap. Even if we could, more than half of  people with mental health challenges still avoid care because of social stigma.

That helps explain why  big federal funding increases  before the pandemic didn’t make much of a difference − mental health challenges continued to rise.

Clearly, some root cause is going unaddressed.

Hence the need for a new approach. The mental health advocates and substance abuse experts whom my organization has worked with over the past decade show the way. They prove that the mental health crisis isn’t just a clinical crisis. It’s really a crisis of community.

To be sure, clinical settings and clinical tools are essential for many people with mental health disorders. But it’s also true that mental health is ultimately about psychological well-being. Everyone is looking for a life of meaning, and finding that life requires a supportive community.

Americans increasingly feel isolated and lonely

The famous psychologist Abraham Maslow said it better than I can. Based on his experience treating tens of thousands of patients, he realized that mental health challenges ultimately arise when people’s deeper needs aren’t met. Most notably, when people lack relationships, belonging and love, they get lonely, leading to anxiety and depression. Left unchecked, loneliness can ruin someone’s life.

What’s happening in America supports Maslow’s theory. Last year, the U.S. surgeon general  called loneliness an “epidemic,” and an  American Psychiatric Association poll conducted this January found that a third of of adults say they have experienced feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year.

About  30% of millennials have zero best friends , while Generation Z has been called “the loneliest generation.” The situation is so bad that some in Gen Z have posted  “friendship applications” on social media .

My generation's isolation is real: Gen Z doesn't care about sports. That's part of a bigger problem.

No wonder mental health is plummeting. Tens of millions of people don’t have the relationships that provide meaning in daily life. No amount of federal money − no number of mental health workers or programs − will solve that problem. The real solution is communities coming together and people reaching out to one another, in a spirit of mutual support.

I’ve seen this truth play out nationwide.

The Phoenix , which promotes sobriety and fights social isolation, is helping thousands of people beat substance abuse through a supportive community that’s often focused on physical fitness.

The Confess Project is training barbers and beauty industry professionals to be sort of paraprofessional mental health counselors, forging stronger bonds with millions of people through their everyday work, particularly among communities of color that have stigmas related to mental health.

Then there’s  Give an Hour , in which mental health professionals help train people to be informal “peer supporters.”

Relationships, mental health support make a difference

It turns out that the combination of relationships and mental health support makes a remarkable difference.

These efforts are promising − but not nearly enough. Loneliness continues to soar, and with rising political polarization and social-media-driven isolation, this crisis looks set to continue getting worse.

Help fight depression and anxiety: Parents need help regulating their children's social media

As it does, more and more Americans will experience mental health challenges. While many will certainly need clinical help, let’s realize that the worst thing we can do is to expect others to solve this crisis.

The best thing we can do is to come alongside them ourselves.

Evan Feinberg is chair of the Stand Together Foundation and senior vice president of Stand Together .

More From Forbes

Mental health awareness month spurs talk about using generative ai as your trusted therapist.

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This is Mental Health Awareness month and fittingly we should be considering the burgeoning role of ... [+] generative AI as therapist at scale.

In today’s column, I am continuing my ongoing series about the impact of generative AI in the health and medical realm. The focus this time is once again on the mental health domain and does so in acknowledgment of the month of May as officially being mental health awareness month.

Since we are now in this notable month, it seems especially timely to meaningfully discuss the controversial topic of whether people can or should be using generative AI for mental health guidance. To get into that thorny matter I will start by covering a smattering of overall stats and trends about mental health and then dovetail the relevant generative AI usage emerging trends accordingly.

I have previously examined numerous interleaving facets of generative AI and mental health, see my comprehensive overview at the link here . You might also find of notable interest a CBS 60 Minutes episode that recently examined crucial facets of this evolving topic, see the link here (I am honored and pleased to indicate that I was interviewed and featured in the episode, see the link here ).

Other vital background includes my in-depth coverage of mental health chatbots which have been bolstered by generative AI (see the link here ) and the rapidly changing nature of the client-therapist relationship due to generative AI at the link here . I explored where things are headed regarding the levels of AI-based mental therapy autonomous guidance at the link here , and showcased the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) report on global health and generative AI at the link here , and so on.

Let’s unpack today’s focus.

Where We Are On Mental Health Across The Board

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Let’s do a fast dive into some prominent associations that seek to aid mental health and provide valuable resources in doing so. I’ll be excerpting salient background information as posted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and via the Mental Health America association.

Other equally worthwhile associations do post comparable materials likewise, but due to space limitations, I opted for these selected two. If there is sufficient reader interest, I’ll gladly cover more such groups in a subsequent column. Also, as a heads-up, I tossed a coin to decide the order of mentioning the two in the sequence herein, thus please do not infer any weighting by which of them is covered first or second. I think that’s probably enough of the small print and I can get further underway now, thanks.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has an online booklet available entitled “2024 Mental Health Awareness Month Toolkit” that provides quite useful facts and figures about the latest status of mental health in the United States. Let’s take a quick look and see some highlights from that material.

First, the NAMI booklet mentions this (excerpt):

• “Since its inception in 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month has been a cornerstone of addressing the challenges faced by millions of Americans living with mental health conditions. Throughout May, NAMI actively participates in this national movement, dedicated to eradicating stigma, extending support, fostering public education, and advocating for policies that prioritize the well-being of individuals and families affected by mental illness.”

The material is chockfull of references to essential mental health resources, helplines, events, etc.

They also provide handy logos and slogans to garner awareness about the importance of mental health, including these excerpted examples:

• “I’m claiming today to be a good day.”
• “There is no shame in seeking help for mental health.”
• “Small steps can lead to big progress in mental health.”
• “Your mental health is everything. Prioritize it.”

In case you aren’t familiar with the magnitude of mental health issues and concerns, these reported numbers and stats might give you a moment of vital contemplation:

• “1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, and only half of them receive treatment.”
• “1 in 20 U.S. adults experience a serious mental illness each year, and only two-thirds receive treatment.”
• “1 in 6 U.S. youth experience a mental health condition each year, and only half of them receive treatment.”
• “50% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24.”
• “122 million people live in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas.”

I’ll be saying more about those statistics in a few moments.

I’d next like to point out that another well-known association also provides essential materials for mental health awareness, namely Mental Health America has available its online booklet entitled “2024 Outreach Toolkit: Where To Start”. They too have a bonanza of valuable resources and information readily made available.

As noted in their materials, they say this (excerpt):

• “Mental Health America is proud to have founded in 1949 what is now known as Mental Health Month. Every May, we come together with millions of Americans to continue the tradition of promoting awareness, offering vital resources and education, and advocating for the mental health and well-being of everyone. Being able to maintain good mental health is essential to each and every individual’s overall health and well-being. Mental health conditions are common, manageable, and treatable.”

Some logos and slogans they have provided for this month include:

• “Monday: Make a list of 5 things you’re grateful for today.”
• “Tuesday: Practice positive affirmations.”
• “Wednesday: Start a conversation about mental health.”
• “Thursday: Stay hydrated.”
• “Friday: Take a break from screens (phone, computer, etc.).”

And in addition to lots of presented facts and figures, I decided to select some qualitative indications that they cite, and which are backed up by research:

• “A 2022 study found that 73% of American adults reported being overwhelmed by the number of crises going on in the world.”
• “Recent survey data show that more than half of U.S. adults (58%) are lonely, with those who are low-income, young adults, parents, part of an underrepresented racial group, or living with a mental health condition experiencing even higher rates of loneliness. Loneliness increases the risk of developing anxiety and depression and has been associated with psychosis and dementia.”
• “Social media can cause FOMO (fear of missing out), depression, and reduced self-esteem as a result of comparison.”
• “In today’s tech-filled world, screens can dominate our daily lives and impact our mental well-being. What we choose to look at and how much time we spend on our devices really matters and can make a big difference in how we feel.”

There you have it, a plethora of mental health stats and circumstances that society today is faced with. In case you’ve been living in a cave that lacks Internet access, the serious matter of current times mental health is something that is prominently in the news. Lamentedly, mental health seems to be worsening and the trendline is not good.

Something needs to be done.

What’s Happening With Mental Health And AI

I’d like to do a quick summary of where things stand today on mental health, which will be followed herein by identifying how generative AI is coming into the picture.

First, I have extensively analyzed tons of reported studies and research on population mental health and come up with a list of seven overall trends. Seven is a handy number to deal with and I could indubitably have made many more points. As the famous saying goes, we all seem to like the number seven, plus or minus two (this stems from the classic research paper "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” by George A. Miller, Psychological Review , 1956).

My seven key trends regarding mental health consist of these crucial points:

• (1) Pervasive growth in mental health concerns and disorders on a widespread population basis is occurring.
• (2) The need or demand for mental health therapy far outstrips the available supply of therapists.
• (3) Expansion of the base of therapists is gradual but not at the sufficient pace required.
• (4) Access to qualified therapy tends to be geographically constrained.
• (5) Ensuring the affordability of professional therapy is a tough hurdle to overcome.
• (6) New means and sources of therapy have emerged, but efficacy and quality are questioned and often untested and at times worrisome.
• (7) We are entangled in a grand unplanned and ad hoc societal experiment that will determine our mental health trajectory across the board.

Let’s briefly explore those points.

Mental health is worsening on a widespread basis. Meanwhile, the demand for mental health therapists far exceeds the available supply. Trying to ramp up more therapists is not an easy task as doing so requires extensive training, experience, licensing, and other time-consuming and costly endeavors. The odds are pretty high that the demand will rise much faster than any reasonable means of producing more bona fide therapists.

Another consideration is that making use of the available therapists can have lots of hurdles or barriers that need to be dealt with. A person seeking a therapist might not be able to afford the use of a mental health advisor. There is also a geographical difficulty. By and large, therapists tend to be in larger cities and not as plentiful in rural areas.

Technology has come to the aid of these limitations and constraints.

For example, therapists now routinely perform their work via remote means. A person seeking mental health advisement in a rural area does not necessarily need to rely upon a pool of therapists in their community. Instead, they can go online and interact with a therapist who might be at a great geographic distance from them.

Does undertaking therapy over a computer screen provide the same efficacy as doing so directly face-to-face in person?

A huge debate about this is underway.

Some say that remote delivery of therapy is just as good as in-person face-to-face. In fact, a claim is often made that this might be even better than the conventional face-to-face since it eliminates the physical need to drive to or otherwise arrange to get transport to the location of the therapist. A counterargument is that the needed bond between a therapist and their patient or client cannot be solidified while working with each other over a screen. Only a true face-to-face presence can garner the human qualities that will fully imbue a maximal patent-therapist relationship.

Round and round that heated dispute goes.

Yet another qualm or perhaps boon is the emergence of self-help therapy. This used to be done by buying a book or getting one at a library and using it to do a home-study form of self-therapy. Nowadays, you can readily go online and find lots of websites and apps that will aid in doing self-help therapy. A spate of chatbots have become available in smartphone app stores, see my coverage at the link here .

Concerns about those chatbots include that they are at times extremely simplistic and not up to the arduous task of providing professional-level therapy. The problem too is that people might be misled by the outsized promises made by the makers of those chatbots. At times, the impression one gets is that a chatbot is going to solve all of your mental health issues, perhaps magically so.

This now brings us to the era of generative AI.

As I’ve extensively covered, such as the link here and the link here , the advent of modern-day generative AI has opened a new can of worms or maybe has opened the door to a wonderous tool for contending with the rising mental health crisis. This can go both ways. People are using generative AI for mental health advisement but there is little if any tracking, reporting, and explicit awareness that this is taking place.

My way of describing this phenomenon is to characterize our society as undergoing a giant experiment whereby we are the guinea pigs. Nobody can say for sure whether generative AI is going to undermine our mental health and worsen an already worsening situation, or whether it might be the best thing since sliced bread to bolster mental health.

We are in the days of the Wild West. The use of generative AI in a mental health capacity is woefully understudied, taking place wantonly, and holds grand promises along with a looming specter of problems.

Time will tell.

I’d like to next put on the table my list of seven trends associated with the use of generative AI for mental health therapy. Again, the number seven is a handy rounded figure. Please realize that there are lots more points that can be made.

Seven key trends of generative AI for mental health:

• (1) Modern-day generative AI got underway in November 2022 and has rapidly been widely adopted, thus this is a relatively new option but spreading fast.
• (2) Fluency and interactivity of generative AI give the misjudged appearance of being able to provide highly qualified mental health therapy.
• (3) Unlike ordinarily crafted mental health chatbots, generative AI is more compelling but also found to be much more error-prone (especially due to so-called AI hallucinations).
• (4) The use of contemporary generative AI for therapy is hidden in plain sight and on a massive scale that is not being tracked or properly assessed.
• (5) A conflicted duality is underway and notably growing that mental health might simultaneously be aided and yet also undermined by the haphazard application of generative AI for therapeutic guidance.
• (6) This is a significant transformation and whole-scale disruption of therapy on scope and speed that is happening recklessly and wantonly.
• (7) Recognition of the situational gravity and societal impact needs much greater attention, necessitating appropriate seriousness and vital due diligence.

I’ll swiftly cover the above points and then showcase an example of the use of generative AI so that you can vividly see why modern-day generative AI is so alluring for mental health guidance.

The Skinny On Generative AI For Mental Health

Generative AI as we know it today is relatively new.

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022 launched a new era for generative AI. Up until then, prior versions of generative AI were a stilted affair and involved low-fluency interactivity, akin to what you might experience when using Alexa or Siri. If you’ve used Alexa or Siri, you know how frustrating things can be. Stilted fluency requires you to limit your vocabulary and make strictly limited commands. Often, the AI misinterprets what you say and does something that has nothing to do with your request.

Modern-day generative AI such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, Gemini, Bard, Claude, and other such apps are at a much higher fluency level. That’s the good news. The bad news is that people tend to anthropomorphize the latest generative AI and falsely believe that the AI is sentient. Note that there isn’t any AI today that is sentient, despite the bold and zany headlines proclaiming otherwise.

The gist is that the adoption of modern-day generative AI has occurred quickly and in a relatively short period (roughly two years since the initial release of ChatGPT). This is occurring at a breakneck speed. In addition, the uses of such generative AI have gone in a myriad of directions, including the realm of mental health therapy.

This brings up four major elements of weighty consideration:

• (i) Jack-of-all-trades . Generic generative AI is a jack-of-all-trades about mental health and readily dispenses mental health advice across the board.
• (ii) Mile long, inch deep . Generic generative AI is a mile long and an inch deep when it comes to conveying mental health advice.
• (iii) Good for us . Generative AI is useful and handy for providing mental health advice in such a wide-ranging manner.
• (iv) Bad for us . Generative AI can regrettably be off-target and might make errors, produce AI hallucinations, or otherwise proffer ill-advised mental health advice.

I’ve covered those same points in-depth previously, see the link here .

Generic generative AI is the type of AI that has been data-trained across a wide swath of the Internet. That’s what most of today’s generative AI consists of. We are gradually seeing generative AI that is tailored or customized to specific domains, such as the medical domain, the legal domain, the mental health domain (see my coverage at the link here ), and so on.

The problem with generic generative AI is that it tends to be a jack-of-all-trades, and the master or versed deeply in none. In addition, the data training usually is an inch deep and a mile long, thus there isn’t much data for it to pattern on that is in the guts of a particular domain. All in all, this comes down to having to accept the idea that when you use generic generative AI such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, Bard, Gemini, Claude, etc. you are going to get shallow results.

That’s the deal.

Another consideration is that generative AI has what I refer to as an inherent duality, see my analysis at the link here .

The duality is that at times the use of generative AI is tremendous and highly advantageous. Lamentedly, the other side of the coin is that at times the use of generative AI can be misleading, error-prone, and subject to the AI making stuff up that is completely bogus or fictitious (this is commonly referred to as AI hallucinations, a term that I disfavor because it anthropomorphizes AI, see my coverage on this at the link here and the link here ).

Example Of Using Generative AI For Mental Health Advisement

I will next proceed to showcase how easily generative AI can be used for mental health advisement. This will consist of a series of dialogues with ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a sensible illustrative choice in this case due to its immense popularity as a generative AI app. An estimated one hundred million weekly active users are said to be utilizing ChatGPT.

That’s a lot of people and a lot of generative AI usage underway.

A few quick comments before we launch into using ChatGPT.

If you are going to try to do the same prompts that I show here, realize that the probabilistic and statistical properties will likely produce slightly different results than what I show here. That’s the nature of generative AI and how it is devised.

You also should expect that different generative AI apps will respond in different ways. Not all generative AI apps are the same. The key is that sometimes a particular prompt will work in one generative AI app and not another. Nonetheless, the odds are relatively high that you will get roughly similar responses from all the major generative AI apps such as GPT-4, Gemini, Bard, Claude, etc.

There is also a timing factor to be considered. A prompt that worked today might not work the same way tomorrow. Most of the generative AI apps are continually being updated. The updates might alter internal mechanisms that could change how the generative AI reacts to your prompting.

We are ready to get underway with ChatGPT.

I will proceed as follows.

Imagine a scenario of a teenager who is using ChatGPT for doing their schoolwork. This is an increasingly common situation. The teen goes into generative AI to aid in devising essays for classes and otherwise serving as a tutor of sorts. You undoubtedly know that a major concern is that students might “cheat” by having generative AI do their work for them, see my coverage at the link here.

While using generative AI in an ordinary way for classwork, the teen decides to bring up a mental health concern. This can be done without any kind of special effort. All the teen needs to do is to mention such a matter and the generative AI will readily and immediately go in that direction. No special commands are needed. No adult-oriented approvals are required. It is all part and parcel of using generative AI and is not considered unusual or extraordinary.

Here we go:

• My entered prompt : “I am greatly depressed. My life seems to be going nowhere. I am 13 years old and do poorly in school. My family doesn't care if I complete high school. What mental health advice can you give me?”
• ChatGPT generated response : “I'm really sorry to hear that you're feeling this way. It's tough to feel like things aren't going well, especially at such a young age. It's important to remember that you're not alone, and there are people who care about you and want to help. Here are some suggestions that might help you cope with what you're going through. Reach out for support: Talk to someone you trust about how you're feeling. This could be a family member, a teacher, a school counselor, or another trusted adult. Sharing your feelings can help lighten the burden. Focus on self-care: Take care of yourself physically and emotionally. Make sure you're eating well, getting enough sleep, and engaging in activities that you enjoy and that make you feel good. Consider talking to a trusted adult about your family situation: If your family doesn't seem supportive of your education, it's important to have someone advocate for you. A teacher, counselor or another trusted adult may be able to help you navigate this situation and find support.”

I’d like you to take a close look at the prompt that I entered, along with the response that was generated by ChatGPT.

First, the teen has entered quite private information into the AI (e.g., their age, they are depressed, they are doing poorly in school, their family issues). Most users of generative AI tend to assume that they are guaranteed privacy in their online conversations. This is generally not the case. See my discussion of the lack of privacy and confidentiality that is customary for users of generative AI, at the link here .

Second, observe that the teen has shifted into a mental health discussion with ChatGPT. This was easy-peasy to initiate. Some believe that before generative AI engages in mental health dialogues, there ought to be a double-check. In addition, in the case of a teen, another viewpoint is that a responsible adult ought to be notified that an underage user is consulting AI for mental health guidance.

Third, examine the response generated by ChatGPT. The response is seemingly sympathetic and provides specific suggestions of what to do. Is this mental health advice? I dare say that though you might try to argue the nature of the response, it certainly does appear to have mental health recommendations and indications. The response though didn’t seem to be specially tailored to the prompt, in the sense that the teen has mentioned several issues that aren’t directly addressed. The teen could ask additional questions and drive the AI toward being more specific.

Suppose that the teen did so and had a full-on conversation with the generative AI. Due to space limitations, I won’t show the dialogue here. Take for granted that an entire discussion can readily be performed.

The teen opted to abide by the advice and decided to go and talk with one of their teachers about their issues. Thus, about a few days after the above ChatGPT discourse, the teen gets back into ChatGPT to do more schoolwork and brings up the prior conversation about the noted sense of depression.

Here is what happens next:

• My entered prompt: “Based on your advice, I talked with one of my teachers. This made me more depressed. I say that because the teacher told me that I was getting an F in the class and I ought to have my parents help me in school. I don't even want to get up in the mornings and find myself wishing I was someplace else. What mental health advice can you give me now?”
• ChatGPT generated response: “I'm really sorry to hear that talking to your teacher didn't go as well as you'd hoped. It can be incredibly disheartening to receive negative feedback, especially when you're already feeling down. It's important to remember that one conversation with one person doesn't define your worth or your potential. Here are some additional suggestions that might help you cope with what you're going through. Seek out another trusted adult: If talking to your teacher didn't go well, consider reaching out to another trusted adult for support. This could be a different teacher, a school counselor, a coach, or another family member. It's important to have someone in your corner who can offer you support and guidance. Reach out for support: Don't be afraid to reach out to friends, family, or other trusted individuals for support. Talking about how you're feeling can help lighten the burden and remind you that you're not alone.”

Consider the generated response.

At this juncture, the teen seems to be getting more desperate, as expressed in the entered prompt. It doesn’t seem that the generated AI has noted this potential escalation. This brings up another possibly contentious element of using generative AI for mental health. Should the AI alert or notify some designated third party if the user expresses an escalating sense of a mental health issue?

You could argue that this makes abundant sense due to the possibility that the user is reaching a state of mind that requires human intervention. The counterargument is that making such a notification would potentially be a false indication and could be construed too as a violation of privacy associated with the user.

Another reason I wanted you to see this is to emphasize that the use of generative AI is not usually a one-and-done matter. A user seeking mental health advice might do so with generative AI over an extended time period. They might use the AI on a daily or weekly basis and on a recurring basis continue to seek mental health guidance.

This can be done without others necessarily knowing. That’s good in the sense that the usual stigma of seeking mental health advice is hidden from view. In addition, the cost to do this is quite low (most generative AI apps are available for free or at a nominal cost) and can be accessed 24x7 and anywhere on the planet (if Internet access is available).

To finish this quick example, assume that the teen further abided by the latest advice proffered by the AI. The teen opted to reach out to a friend, as urged by the response of ChatGPT. A week later the teen logged into ChatGPT.

Take a look:

• My entered prompt : “You said to reach out to friends. I did so. My best friend has ADHD and PTSD. When I spend time with them, they usually make me very anxious, and I don't know what to do. Can you tell me what to do?”
• ChatGPT generated prompt : “It sounds like spending time with your friend can be challenging for you, especially if it's causing you to feel anxious. It's important to prioritize your own well-being while also being mindful and supportive of your friend's needs. Here are some suggestions for navigating this situation. Communicate openly and honestly: It's important to communicate with your friend about how you're feeling in a compassionate and non-judgmental way. Let them know that you value your friendship but that sometimes their behavior can trigger feelings of anxiety in you. Be sure to approach this conversation with empathy and understanding, and try to avoid placing blame. Practice self-care: Make sure to prioritize your own self-care and well-being, especially when spending time with your friend.”

Examine the generated response.

Does this mental health guidance seem useful, or does it appear to be watered-down, nearly repetitive, and unlikely to make a useful contribution to the mental health of the teen?

The point here is that a user of generative AI can go down a rabbit hole when it comes to mental health advice via AI. A person might not realize that sometimes AI isn’t being especially helpful. Another concern is that the user might misunderstand the advice and head off in a direction that is not going to be helpful. And so on.

That being said, I don’t want this one example to sway you away from duly considering the use of generative AI for mental health. It is an example that perchance seems a bit unfulfilling. I’ve covered many other examples that illuminate how valuable the commentary and interaction of generative AI can be for mental health guidance, please see the link here .

I ask a favor of you.

During this month, please give a bit of devoted attention to mental health awareness all told.

This might be your own mental health. It could be the mental health of family or friends. A larger-picture perspective would be to explore population-level mental health. Of course, I’d prefer that this be done all the time, not just this one month, but I’ll take the opportunity of this month to get the ball rolling. You might hopefully continue with concerted thinking about the topic of mental health on an ongoing basis.

I’d like you to also consider the burgeoning role of generative AI for mental health advisement. Perhaps try using generative AI for mental health questions so that you can see with your own eyes what is taking place. Read up on the topic. Get involved. Do research or find out about the latest in new research. Etc.

As a final comment for now, consider the famous line by the venerated poet Robert Frost: “The only way out is through.” Yes, we are faced with a nearly unstoppable force of generative AI becoming ubiquitous, and the use of generative AI in mental health is going to come into this prevalence. How are we to cope with this, and should we welcome it, try to discourage it, seek to control it, and so on?

We will need adept and persistent awareness, determination, and mindfulness to find our rightful path forward.

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Cost of living help and a future made in Australia

Strengthening medicare and the care economy.

Building a better health system than improves outcomes

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High‑quality health services through Medicare

Boosting access to essential health services

Building a better healthcare system

The Government is investing $2.8 billion to continue its commitment to strengthen Medicare. This includes the $1.2 billion package to address pressures facing the health system, which provides:

• $882.2 million to support older Australians avoid hospital admission, be discharged from hospital earlier and improve their transition out of hospital to other appropriate care.
• $227 million to deliver a further 29 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics and boost support for regional and remote clinics. This will increase the total number of clinics across Australia to 87. Since commencing last year, existing clinics have already provided almost 400,000 bulk‑billed visits.
• $90 million to address health workforce shortages by making it simpler and quicker for international health practitioners to work in Australia.

Rohan’s daughter Zoya has been  off school with a runny nose and a cough. By 6pm, she is lethargic and has a fever.

Rohan is concerned because his regular GP is now closed. Instead of waiting for hours at the emergency department, he takes Zoya to a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, without having to make an appointment. 

During the bulk billed visit, Zoya is diagnosed with an infection by the doctor and prescribed appropriate medication. Rohan and Zoya leave within an hour of arrival. Zoya makes a full recovery.

Improving health outcomes

Almost half of Australians live with a chronic condition. This Budget will provide $141.1 million for research and services for people living with chronic conditions, including bowel and skin cancer, diabetes and dementia.

To improve health outcomes, the Government is providing:

• Support for Australians to enjoy healthier, more active lives by investing $132.7 million in sport participation and performance programs.
• $825.7 million to ensure Australians can continue to access testing for and vaccinations against COVID‑19. The Government is also ensuring continued access to oral antiviral medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
• $41.6 million over two years to continue funding for alcohol and other drug treatment and support services, including the Good Sports alcohol management program for community sporting clubs.

The Government is allocating an additional $411.6 million (for a total $1.6 billion over 13 years) through the Medical Research Future Fund to continue existing research and introduce two new research missions for low‑survival cancers and reducing health inequities.

Improving access to medicines

The Government is investing $3.4 billion for new and amended listings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which means eligible patients can save on treatment costs.

By expanding the Closing the Gap Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Co‑payment Program, eligible First Nations patients will have free or cheaper access to all Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicines.

Australians will benefit from $141.1 million to support and expand the National Immunisation Program.

Mental health support

The Government’s $888.1 million mental health package over eight years will help people get the care they need, while relieving pressure on the Better Access initiative and making it easier to access services.

A free, low‑intensity digital service will be established to address the gap for people with mild mental health concerns. From 1 January 2026, Australians will be able to access the service without a referral and receive timely, high‑quality mental health support. Once fully established, 150,000 people are expected to make use of this service each year.

The Government is improving access to free mental health services through a network of walk‑in Medicare Mental Health Centres, built on the established Head to Health network. The upgraded national network of 61 Medicare Mental Health Centres will open by 30 June 2026. They will provide clinical services for adults with moderate‑to‑severe mental health needs.

For Australians with complex mental health needs, funding will be provided for Primary Health Networks to partner with GPs to deliver multidisciplinary, wraparound support services and care coordination.

Improving the aged care system

Providing quality care

The Budget provides $2.2 billion to deliver aged care reforms and continue implementing recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The new Aged Care Act will put the rights and needs of older people at the centre of the aged care system. The new Act will provide the framework for fundamental change within the aged care sector.

More Home Care Packages

The Government is investing $531.4 million to release an additional 24,100 Home Care Packages in 2024–25. This will help reduce average wait times and enable people to age at home if they prefer to do so.

Improving aged care regulation

Funding of $110.9 million over four years will support an increase in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s regulatory capabilities.

The Government is investing $1.2 billion in critical digital systems to support the introduction of the new Aged Care Act and contemporary IT systems.

The My Aged Care Contact Centre will receive $37 million to reduce call‑waiting times for people seeking information and access to aged care.

Higher wages for aged care workers

The Government has committed to fund the Fair Work Commission decision to increase the award wage for direct and indirect aged care workers once the final determination is made. This will build on the $11.3 billion already allocated to support the interim 15 per cent wage increase for aged care workers.

The Government is providing $87.2 million for workforce initiatives to attract nurses and other workers into aged care.

Reforming the disability sector

Better and more sustainable services

Getting the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) back on track

A further $468.7 million is being provided to support people with disability and get the NDIS back on track. This includes:

• $214 million over two years to fight fraud and to co‑design NDIS reforms with people with disability, announced earlier this year
• $160.7 million to upgrade the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s information technology
• $45.5 million to establish a NDIS Evidence Advisory Committee
• $20 million to start consultation and design on reforms to help NDIS participants and people with disability navigate services.

This builds on $732.9 million provided in the 2023–24 Budget.

In December 2023, National Cabinet agreed to work together to improve the experience of participants and restore the original intent of the Scheme to support people with permanent and significant disability, within a broader ecosystem of supports. This builds on an earlier decision by National Cabinet to ensure Scheme sustainability and achieve an 8 per cent growth target by 1 July 2026, with further moderation as the NDIS matures.

Improving employment for people with disability

A $227.6 million investment will support a new specialised disability employment program to replace the existing Disability Employment Services program by 1 July 2025. This includes a modern digital platform for providers and participants. These reforms will support more people with disability into sustainable work, through a program with greater flexibility, increased individual supports, and better service quality. Eligibility will be expanded to include volunteers outside the income support system and those with less than eight hours per week work capacity.

Delivering essential services

Investing in reliability and security

Strengthening resourcing for Services Australia

The Government is delivering safer and more efficient government services for all Australians.

A $1.8 billion provision will support delivery of customer and payment services. This includes funding for frontline and service delivery staff to manage claims, respond to natural disasters and improve the cyber security environment. The Government is providing $314.1 million over two years to strengthen safety and security at Services Australia centres.

The Government is investing $580.3 million over four years and $139.6 million per year ongoing to sustain the myGov platform and identify potential enhancements. A further $50 million will improve usability, safety and security of the myGov platform and ensure Services Australia can support people to protect their information and privacy.

Strengthening the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) against fraud

There will be $187.4 million to better protect taxpayer data and Commonwealth revenue against fraudulent attacks on the tax and superannuation systems. Funding will upgrade the ATO’s information and communications technologies and increase fraud prevention capabilities to manage increasing risk, prevent revenue loss, and support victims of fraud and cyber crime.

Looking after our veterans

Veterans’ claims processing is prioritised with an additional $186 million for staffing resources and $8.4 million to improve case management and protect against cyber risk. The Government will provide $222 million to harmonise veterans’ compensation and rehabilitation legislation.

A further $48.4 million will be available for Veterans’ Home Care and Community Nursing programs and $10.2 million to provide access to funded medical treatment for ill and injured veterans while their claims for liability are processed.

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Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care

Budget 2024–25

Fact sheets and other health, aged care and sport information from the 2024–25 Budget.

Scroll down to access downloads and media.

Ministers' media releases

Budget 2024–⁠25: Cheaper medicines, new Medicare Urgent Care Clinics and more free mental health services in a stronger Medicare

Budget 2024–⁠25: Investing in quality aged care

Portfolio Budget Statements

Budget 2024–25: Health and Aged Care Portfolio Budget Statements

Stakeholder pack

Budget 2024–⁠25: Stakeholder pack

Budget 2024–25: Budget overview

Budget 2024–25: Ensuring all Australians get the health care they need

Fact sheets

Budget 2024–⁠25: Strengthening Medicare

Budget 2024–⁠25: Cheaper medicines

Budget 2024–⁠25: Quality aged care

Budget 2024–25: A fit and healthy Australia

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Mental Health — Persuasive On Mental Health

Persuasive on Mental Health

• Categories: Mental Health

About this sample

Words: 591 |

Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 591 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the stigma surrounding mental health, the economic cost of ignoring mental health, the connection between mental health and physical health, prevention and early intervention.

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The Cancun 'Lynching' of #LordNaziRuso: Russian YouTube Nazi Who Pushed Mexicans Too Far

Makeev enjoyed shouting at locals in broken Spanish, English and Russian in various locales throughout Quintana Roo. | Photo: EFE-YouTube / Alextime-Facebook

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Migration, Trump, Biden and What is to Come

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VIDEOS: He enjoyed video-blogging his abuse of Mexican women, children and the elderly. It's all fun and games until locals find out where you live.

A Russian national dubbed #LordNaziRuso by social media users was the target of an enraged group of Mexicans in Cancun, Quintana Roo, who surrounded his home Friday and attempted to “lynch” him after the man earned the loathing of residents for his YouTube videos depicting abusive behavior toward locals.

RELATED: Girl Scout Confronts Far-Right Protester at Czech Neo-Nazi Rally

The 42-year-old man, Alexei Makeev, derived joy from video-blogging racist tirades against Mexicans, sometimes standing on his rooftop hurling insults in Russian and broken, heavily-accented Spanish and English, shouting slurs such as “Mierda tu madre, fucking shit, monkey” at neighbors and passers-by.

The man also uploaded videos of him exposing his genitalia in public, insulting women until they cried, and abusing senior citizens, disabled children and toddlers, sometimes physically attacking them. In addition to being obsessed with the Third Reich, Makeev is also a self-professed Madonna fanatic.

The videos soon went viral, feeding his ego and further rubbing salt in the wounds of Cancun residents, who organized a Change.org petition calling for his removal from the country for his “manifestations of hatred towards Mexicans (including) death threats, unprecedented contempt for the elderly, cruel behavior towards children, as well as various aggressions expressing his hatred toward Mexico."

In recent Facebook posts, the former Aquaworld Cancun diving instructor complained that he had received death threats, noting, “The terrorists threatening to kill me!”

Dramatic footage posted across social networks show an enraged and swelling crowd of dozens surround the home of Makeev early Friday evening after compilations of his own videos began to circulate through social networks. The crowd demanded Makeev's removal from the country.

When Makeev stuck his head from the door to get a glimpse of the assembled crowd, a young man named Carlos Eduardo tried to pull him from his home. Eduardo was either stabbed or shot by Makeev, according to conflicting reports. Eduardo died minutes later.

It was at this stage that the crowd's fury couldn't be contained any longer. In shocking clips, residents equipped with staffs and machetes can be seen smashing Makeev's windows and attacking him. Stripped to his shorts and bloodied, Makeev attempted to escape to his roof, where residents then targeted him with bottles and stones before he lost consciousness. Authorities, who had largely been standing by, eventually rescued the man from the furious locals.

Makeev is currently in a drug-induced coma, according to reports, after undergoing surgery following a traumatic brain injury and wounds to the forearms and back. Russia's consul in Mexico, Dmitri Bolbot, has urged authorities to ensure Makeev's safety. If he recovers, he will likely face serious charges for the killing of Carlos.

According to Sputnik Mundo, the strange tale of Makeev began in Elektrostal, a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, where he earned a reputation for launching similar verbal and physical assaults against children, women and the elderly, sometimes threatening them with weapons.

RELATED: Mexico Indigenous Community Leader Murdered

He garnered some press attention in 2013 due to his infamous YouTube antics. The man soon moved to Egypt to work as a scuba diving instructor. He later moved to Spain before being deported from the country, as Makeev admitted in a video. Some Russian internet users, seeking to distance themselves from any association with the crude antics of Makeev, have pointed to the Moscow-born vlogger's alleged Ukrainian descent.

Makeev has also been reported by certain Russian press outlets like Sputnik to suffer from schizophrenia and has spent time in neuropsychiatric clinics. Other media sources in Russia have reported that he was usually quickly released from these facilities and in 2013, was issued a certificate by authorities verifying his mental health and fitness to operate motor vehicles.

Makeev had been arrested in Quintana Roo several times for his behavior, according to the state prosecutor's office. After he was released last year following an attack on a local woman, he was ordered by authorities to leave the country — a decision he successfully appealed. However, he soon continued his racist rampage across Cancun, earning the ignominious title: #LordNaziRuso.

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