1
00:00:04,526 --> 00:00:09,440
So efficient and hushed are our 
brains in their day to day operations,  

2
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:14,480
we are apt to miss what an extraordinary 
and complicated achievement it is to feel  

3
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:20,560
mentally well. A mind in a healthy state is, 
in the background, continually performing  

4
00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:26,240
a near-miraculous set of manoeuvres that underpin 
our moods of clear-sightedness and purpose.

5
00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,040
To appreciate what mental health might be  

6
00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:32,960
(and therefore what its opposite 
involves), we might take a moment  

7
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:37,680
to consider some of what will be going on in 
the folds of an optimally-functioning mind:

8
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:44,720
First and foremost, a healthy mind is an 
editing mind, an organ that manages to sieve,  

9
00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:51,200
from thousands of stray, dramatic, disconcerting 
or horrifying thoughts, those particular ideas and  

10
00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:56,720
sensations that actively need to be entertained 
in order for us to direct our lives effectively.

11
00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:02,560
Partly this means keeping at bay punitive 
and critical judgements that might want to tell  

12
00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:08,240
us repeatedly how disgraceful and appalling we 
are - long after harshness has ceased to serve  

13
00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:13,520
any useful purpose. When we are interviewing 
for a new job or taking someone on a date,  

14
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,800
a healthy mind doesn’t force 
us to listen to inner voices  

15
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:22,320
that insist on our unworthiness. It allows us 
to talk to ourselves as we would to a friend.

16
00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:28,400
At the same time, a healthy mind 
resists the pull of unfair comparisons.  

17
00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:33,600
It doesn’t constantly allow the achievements 
and successes of others to throw us off course  

18
00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:36,080
and reduce us to a state of bitter inadequacy.  

19
00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:41,840
It doesn’t torture us by continually comparing 
our condition to that of people who have,  

20
00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:47,280
in reality, had very different upbringings and 
trajectories through life. A well-functioning  

21
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:53,840
mind recognises the futility and cruelty of 
constantly finding fault with its own nature.

22
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:59,680
Along the way, a healthy mind keeps 
a judicious grip on the faucet of fear.  

23
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:05,600
It knows that, in theory, there is an endless 
number of things that we could worry about:  

24
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:11,200
a blood vessel might fail, a scandal might erupt, 
the plane’s engines could sheer from their wings…  

25
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:17,040
But it has a good sense of the distinction between 
what could conceivably happen and what is in fact  

26
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:24,000
likely to happen - and it is able to leave us in 
peace as regards the wilder eventualities of fate,  

27
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:29,440
confident that awful things will either not 
unfold or could be dealt with ably enough  

28
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:35,680
if ever they did so. A healthy mind avoids 
catastrophic imaginings: it knows that there  

29
00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:42,000
are broad and stable stone steps, not a steep and 
slippery incline, between itself and disaster.

30
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:49,920
A healthy mind has compartments with heavy 
doors that shut securely. It can compartmentalise  

31
00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:56,000
where it needs to. Not all thoughts belong at 
all moments. While talking to a grandmother,  

32
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,280
the mind prevents the emergence of images of 
last’s nights erotic fantasies; while looking  

33
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:06,960
after a child, it can repress its more cynical 
and misanthropic insights. Aberrant thoughts about  

34
00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:13,120
jumping on a train line or harming oneself with 
a sharp knife can remain brief peculiar flashes  

35
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:19,360
rather than repetitive fixations. A healthy 
mind has mastered the techniques of censorship.

36
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:26,400
A healthy mind can quieten its own buzzing 
preoccupations in o rder, at times, to focus on  

37
00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:31,840
the world beyond itself. It can be present and 
engaged with what and who is immediately around.  

38
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:38,400
Not everything it could feel has to be felt 
at every moment. It can be a good listener.

39
00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:43,840
A healthy mind combines an 
appropriate suspicion of certain people  

40
00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,240
with a fundamental trust in humanity.  

41
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:52,480
It can take an intelligent risk with a stranger. 
It doesn’t extrapolate from life’s worst moments  

42
00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,880
in order to destroy the possibility of 
anything good emerging with a new acquaintance.

43
00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,160
A healthy mind knows how to hope;  

44
00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:08,480
it identifies and then hangs on tenaciously to a 
few reasons to keep going. Grounds for despair,  

45
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:14,800
anger and sadness are, of course, all around. But 
the healthy mind knows how to bracket negativity  

46
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:20,800
in the name of endurance. It clings to 
evidence of what is still beautiful and kind.  

47
00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:27,040
It remembers to appreciate; it can - despite 
everything - still look forward to a hot bath,  

48
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:33,840
some dried fruit or dark chocolate, a chat with a 
friend, or a satisfying day of work. It refuses to  

49
00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:40,080
let itself be silenced by all the many sensible 
arguments in favour of rage and despondency.

50
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:46,240
Outlining some of the features of a healthy 
mind helps us to identify what can go awry  

51
00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:52,960
when we fall ill. We should acknowledge the extent 
to which mental illness is ultimately as common,  

52
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,560
and as essentially unshameful, 
as its bodily counterpart.  

53
00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,800
True mental health involves a frank acceptance  

54
00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:06,880
of how much ill health there will have to be in 
even the most ostensibly competent and meaningful  

55
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:12,080
life. And we should be no more reluctant to 
seek help than we are when we develop a chest  

56
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:18,720
infection or a sore knee - and should consider 
ourselves no less worthy of love and sympathy.