Mental health is a phrase that gets tossed about a lot -- this is true especially during the few decades prior to this one -- but its full meaning often gets shorted. Casual mental health discussions usually focus on significant disorders: schizophrenic condition, bipolar condition, sociopathic tendencies, even Alzheimer's disease. But what gets left out in these sorts of discussions is how mental health affects each of our lives, without exception.

The emphasis when considering mental health is usually about disorder. The presence of a condition means a person is mentally unwell;lacking a condition means mental health is in order. A couple of problems exist with thinking this way. The first is that many people who actually do have mental disorders don't get diagnosed. There are scores of undiagnosed mentally ill in the world.

Secondly, optimal mental health isn't only the absence of a mental condition, or the presentation of symptoms. Mental health isn't solely about not having: it's just as equally about having.

To have optimal mental wellness means successfully coping with life difficulties; having healthy and productive social interactions with friends and family; having stable and functional relationships with informal acquaintances, such as co-workers; and generally being able to acclimate to society at large. These characteristics can absolutely be lacking in persons without apparent psychological or emotional illness.

Does lacking the ability to cope with life's challenges and social interaction imply mental illness? Not in most cases, no. However, one might be able to make the argument that dysfunction does rise to the level of mental illness, particularly where people act out, or turn to alcohol or drugs as a means of coping. Addicts or social misfits aren't typically labeled as mentally ill. Altering this reality would encourage scores to seek out mental health treatment.

Taking this approach -- defining typical dysfunction as indications of mental or psychological illness, and subsequently encouraging treatment for such -- would surely come up against opposition. Arguments in opposition might include the thinking that labeling and treating basic dysfunctions would be a case of overkill, would intrude on people's lives, and would be tantamount to medicating scores of people. But does this really constitute a legitimate counter argument? There's no absolute law that requires mental health to be an intrusive experience, or some type of pharmaceutical experience. No one is suggesting that pharmaceuticals be passed about in even greater quantity than they are now.

What mental health should -- should -- encourage is coping technique, not the alteration of one's reality. Going about it this way -- keep the reality, alter the inappropriate coping mechanisms -- needn't involve any sort of medication cycle whatsoever. Mental health treatment history is extensive, and only fairly recently has it involved treatment with medication. Treating psychological function does not require the usage of pharmaceuticals, and that reality needs to be emphasized.

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