Mental health and mental illness facts

• Mental health is more than just being free of a mental illness. It is more of an optimal level of thinking, feeling, and relating to others.
• Mentally healthy individuals tend to have better medical health, productivity, and social relationships.
• Mental illness refers to all of the diagnosable mental disorders and is characterized by abnormalities in thinking, feelings, or behaviors.
• Some of the most common types of mental illness include anxiety, depressive, behavioral, and substance-abuse disorders.
• There is no single cause for mental illness. Rather, it is the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.
• While everyone experiences sadness, anxiety, irritability, and moodiness at times, moods, thoughts, behaviors, or use of substances that interfere with a person's ability to function well physically, socially, at work, school, or home are characteristics of mental illness.
• There is no one test that definitively indicates whether someone has a mental illness. Therefore, health-care practitioners diagnose a mental disorder by gathering comprehensive medical, family, and mental-health information.
• Talk therapy (psychotherapy) is usually considered the first line of care in helping a person with a mental illness. It is an important part of helping individuals with a mental disorder achieve the highest level of functioning possible.
• Psychotherapies that have been found to be effective in treating many mental disorders include family focused therapy, psycho-education, cognitive therapy, interpersonal therapy, and social rhythm therapy.
• Medications may play an important role in the treatment of a mental illness, particularly when the symptoms are severe or do not adequately respond to psychotherapy.
• A variety of factors can contribute to the prevention of mental-health disorders.
• Individuals with mental illness are at risk for a variety of challenges, but these risks can be greatly reduced with treatment, particularly when it is timely.