What’s the difference between emotional and mental health?
In: Other
Colloquially, the terms emotional health and mental health are used pretty interchangeably, often to avoid the perception of stigma that can come from the latter term. But as u/usernumber36 talked about, emotion is really only one facet of overall mental health and well-being. A person’s though processes, motivations, connection to reality, reactions to trauma, executive functioning, etc. all are interrelated parts of mental health. Emotion is one of those parts.
Real ELI5: Mental health is what we feel, think, and do. Emotional health is what we feel.
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You’re 5 and you have a friend you hang out with a lot. The friend suddenly has to move away one day and you don’t know if they will come back to visit and you really, really miss them.
You feel really sad. You don’t know how to talk to your parents or your other friends about how you feel, so you keep feeling sad. But feeling sad doesn’t affect your daily life or your schoolwork. It’s just that sometimes when you see something funny or you want to do something with your friend, you can’t, so you feel sad. But you continue with your daily life as your hobbies make you feel better. You continue enjoying your music lessons and you keep doing your homework well. But you still feel sad because you really miss your friend. Your emotional health is not OK, but your mental health is.
You stop feeling sad and you start to accept that your friend won’t be there to hang out with you for the foreseeable future. Now that you stop feeling sad, you’re starting to feel happier as your average “mood” goes up a bit. But now you realise that your daily life will not be the same again. You won’t be in music lessons or doing homework with them anymore. You are no longer sad, but that realisation makes you dread doing those things without them. You don’t want to do those things. You start enjoying those activities less and less. Your daily life is getting disrupted and things just feel “bleh”. Your parents ask you if you’re sad, but you’re not feeling immediately sad, and you’re still able to feel happy every day, so you tell them you’re not sad but you’re not feeling completely all right either. Now your emotional health is OK, but your mental health is not.
This might not be fully accurate but I hope it’s ELI5.
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