What is mental health?

Nowadays, we know more and more about what it means to be mentally unwell - but what exactly constitutes mental 'health’? In this film, we’ll explore what characterises an optimally functioning mind.
If you are struggling with mental health there are lines where you can get professional support: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/nhs-voluntary-charity-services/charity-and-voluntary-services/get-help-from-mental-health-helplines/
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“So efficient and hushed are our brains in their day to day operations, we are apt to miss what an extraordinary and complicated achievement it is to feel mentally well. A mind in a healthy state is, in the background, continually performing a near-miraculous set of manoeuvres that underpin our moods of clear-sightedness and purpose.
To appreciate what mental health might be (and therefore what its opposite involves), we might take a moment to consider some of what will be going on in the folds of an optimally-functioning mind:...”

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Deanca Rensyta
https://www.deancarensyta.com/about

Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions
https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

So efficient and hushed are
our brains in their day to day operations,

we are apt to miss

what an extraordinary
and complicated achievement it is

to feel mentally well.

A mind in a healthy state is,
in the background,

continually performing
a near-miraculous set of manoeuvres

that underpin our moods
of clear-sightedness and purpose.

To appreciate what mental health might be,

and therefore what its opposite involves,

we might take a moment to consider

some of what will be going on in the folds
of an optimally-functioning mind.

First and foremost,
a healthy mind is an editing mind,

an organ that manages to sieve

from thousands of stray, dramatic,
disconcerting, or horrifying thoughts

those particular ideas and sensations
that actively need to be entertained

in order for us to direct
our lives effectively.

Partly, this means keeping at bay
punitive and critical judgements

that might want to tell us repeatedly
how disgraceful and appalling we are,

long after harshness has ceased
to serve any useful purpose.

When we are interviewing for a new job
or taking someone on a date,

a healthy mind doesn’t force us
to listen to inner voices

that insist on our unworthiness.

It allows us to talk to ourselves
as we would to a friend.

At the same time, a healthy mind 
resists the pull of unfair comparisons.

It doesn’t constantly allow

the achievements and successes
of others to throw us off course,

and reduce us to a state
of bitter inadequacy.

It doesn’t torture us

by continually comparing 
our condition to that of people

who have, in reality, had very different
upbringings and trajectories through life,

A well-functioning mind

recognizes the futility and cruelty
of constantly finding fault

with its own nature.

Along the way, a healthy mind keeps 
a judicious grip on the faucet of fear.

It knows that, in theory,

there is an endless number of things
that we could worry about:

a blood vessel might fail,

a scandal might erupt,

the planes' engines could
sheer from their wings…

but it has a good sense of the distinction

between what could conceivably happen

and what is, in fact, likely to happen.

And it is able to leave us in peace

as regards the wilder
eventualities of fate,

confident that awful things
will either not unfold

or could be dealt with ably enough

if ever they did so.

A healthy mind avoids 
catastrophic imaginings.

It knows that there are
broad and stable stone steps -

not a steep and slippery incline -

between itself and disaster.

A healthy mind has compartments
with heavy doors that shut securely.

It can compartmentalise
where it needs to -

not all thoughts belong at all moments.

While talking to a grandmother,

the mind prevents the emergence of
images of last night's erotic fantasies.

While looking after a child,

it can repress its more cynical
and misanthropic insights.

Aberrant thoughts
about jumping on a train line

or harming oneself with a sharp knife

can remain brief peculiar flashes,

rather than repetitive fixations.

A healthy mind has mastered
the techniques of censorship.

A healthy mind can quieten
its own buzzing preoccupations

in order, at times,
to focus on the world beyond itself.

It can be present and engaged
with what and who is immediately around.

Not everything it could feel
has to be felt at every moment.

It can be a good listener.

A healthy mind combines
an appropriate suspicion of certain people

with a fundamental trust in humanity.

It can take
an intelligent risk with a stranger.

It doesn’t extrapolate
from life’s worst moments

in order to destroy the possibility
of anything good emerging

with a new acquaintance.

A healthy mind knows how to hope.

It identifies,
and then hangs on tenaciously

to a few reasons to keep going.

Grounds for despair, anger
and sadness are, of course, all around.

But the healthy mind knows

how to bracket negativity
in the name of endurance.

It clings to evidence
of what is still beautiful and kind.

It remembers to appreciate.

It can, despite everything,
still look forward to a hot bath,

some dried fruit, or dark chocolate,

a chat with a friend,

or a satisfying day of work.

It refuses to let itself be silenced

by all the many sensible arguments

in favor of rage and despondency.

Outlining some of the features
of a healthy mind

helps us to identify what can go awry

when we fall ill.

We should acknowledge the extent

to which mental illness is ultimately
as common and as essentially unshameful,

as its bodily counterpart.

True mental health

involves a frank acceptance of
how much ill health there will have to be

in even the most ostensibly
competent and meaningful life.

And we should be
no more reluctant to seek help

than we are when we develop
a chest infection or a sore knee,

and should consider ourselves
no less worthy of love and sympathy.

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Subtitles by Carol Wang