Compare And Contrast Mental Health And Emotional Health

The Difference between Mental Health and Physical Health

When you have to compare and contrast mental health and emotional health, people seem to get confused.

What you need to understand is that mental health refers to a person's psychological state of mind. In contrast, emotional health refers to a person’s emotional abilities.

If this still sounds confusing, let us elaborate on the difference between the two.

What is Mental Health?

Positive signs of well-being, like being socially active and having the ability to think and behave, are said to be signs of good mental health.

If one can think, act, behave, and feel well, they are in a good psychological state, which automatically signals good mental health.

Some of the common mental health disorders are schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar disease, depression, etc. All these are conditions in which a person cannot think straight, further impacting their actions.

These mental disorders can be genetic but are mostly based on environmental and situational factors. For example a person, may not be born with it, but certain circumstances affect their mental health eventually, from which they are unable to recover.

What is Emotional Health?

Emotional health refers to having a well emotional state which reflects if one is happy, angry, sad etc. Mental and emotional health may sound like one, but it is not. For example, a person who has poor mental health will still be able to talk and express their emotions at certain times, like to a therapist or their best friends. When deprived mental health takes over a person’s emotional state, they are said to have issues with their emotional regulation.

However, emotional health is not just about recognizing but also distinguishing happy, sad, and different emotions to prevent severe consequences.

Emotional intelligence and understanding are a big part of good emotional health. People suppressing their emotions for a long period of time will surely have deteriorating emotional health over a person who can healthily express their emotions.

Emotional health is influenced by genetic and environmental factors.

Some ways to improve your emotional health are practicing mindfulness, journaling, and commuting with someone you love and trust.

The Differences between Mental and Physical Health

To help you understand it better, here are some of the differences in emotional health and mental health:

Area of functioning differs:

A person with good mental health can think logically and properly. Whereas the function of emotional health is to help one function their emotions well.

Mental health affects our cognitive functions, while emotional health affects our feelings and emotions.

For example, suppose you failed in your exam. Now you be very sad, which is your emotional state, but if you are sulking over it for days and having depressive thoughts, then you are starting to have poor mental health.

Both do not depend on each other

Mental health and emotional health do not depend on each other. This means that just because you have poor mental health does not mean you will also have poor emotional health also.  

Treatment methods

The treatment methods of both vary as well. The practices to cure mental health are therapy, medication, and instructions to change lifestyle.

However, for emotional health is journaling, mindfulness, talking to others, etc to control emotions fully.

The Similarities between Mental Health and Physical Health

Now that we have stated the difference, let’s talk about the similarity between the two. They have their own differences but here are a few similarities which make them seem similar. Mental health in the broader aspect talks about the poor condition of mind. But when it goes out of hand or severe, it starts impacting your emotional health. Hence, poor emotional health is a repercussion of poor mental health.

In the long run, both of them hurt one's lifestyle. Even if one is worse, a person can be hugely affected, which affects their other aspects of life.

Also, both of them are highly influenced by environmental factors. If you are in a place you do not like, which can be a group of friends, a job, or even where you reside, then there are chances that you might have bad mental or emotional health and in worst case scenario both.

Both of them can also be caused by genetic issues.

Also, the treatment methods are not that different. You will be instructed to meet a therapist, take medicines and follow somewhat similar ways to get both on track.

Examples to Understand the Difference

Here are a few examples that will further help you understand how mental health and emotional health are different:

Examples

Lucy hates her job and has depression over it. She wants a new job and is not motivated to complete any of the tasks assigned. However, due to her good emotional health, she can still complete her tasks without her boss complaining.

Janet has bipolar disorder, due to which she needs medication every day. However, she is still able to have command over her emotions and form happy relationship with others. She does not let her mental disorder get the best of her.

Symptoms of Good Mental & Emotional Health

Here are some symptoms if you have good mental health:

• Being optimistic
• Take challenges positively
• Accept responsibilities
• Give tasks 100%
• Stand up for beliefs

Symptoms if you have good emotional health

• Express emotions well
• Aware of emotions that you're feeling
• Deal with problems logically
• Use positive thoughts over negative thoughts

Conclusion

Overall, mental and emotional health sound alike, but it is not. Mental health can lead to serious issues in the brain, which can affect one seriously, but emotional health does not directly bring you diseases. They are different from each other but not quite so. A person needs a good balance of both to have good well-being overall. If taken over, issues in any one area can lead to serious problems in the future, which can be difficult to tackle.

There are many practices that one can do to ensure that they are keeping their mental and emotional health in check. We hope you underrated the difference between the two terms and we clarified it well for you.