• Question: Do you think mental health is as important as physical health?

    Asked by Tinkerbell to Ali on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Ali Blatcher

      Ali Blatcher answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      Hi Tinkerbell.

      What an amazing question! Very thought provoking.

      Mental health in my opinion is just as important as physical health. One in four of us will suffer from a mental health condition at one point in our life and depression will be the main cause of disability by 2020. This is an epidemic of vast proportions.

      We see so many of our patients who come in with physical illness who also have a mental illness, that sometimes gets overlooked. There is such an overlap between physical and mental illness as well, with psychosomatic symptoms where a patient can have physical manifestations of a mental illness.

      I am doing a project at the moment surrounding the stigma of mental illness, as I think that it is not being paid enough attention at the moment. Stigmatisation of mental illness leads to shame and secrecy, leading to sufferers not being able to speak out, turning to other forms of management, like drinking, drug taking behaviour and of course suicide.

      We need more people like you thinking about mental illness! Well done you!

Comments

  • Photo: Adrian

    Adrian commented on :

    Probably more important as having a positive mind set can help the body overcome adversity. Healthy mind, healthy body, its the wanting to get up and go and do something like going for a walk that helps the physical side of things. If you feel low you just want to sit in a chair or curl up in bed, but feel good and you want to go out and do things. A lot of people suffer from seasonal affective disorder, as the days get shorter and there is less sunlight, but this is very unrecognised as a condition. Leads to feeling low and depressed.

  • Photo: Kit

    Kit commented on :

    Absolutely! Mental health is hugely underestimated and overlooked, and there are big problems with how it’s viewed by society although thankfully this is changing for the better. A huge number of physical problems can either be prevented or improved by good mental health. It’s fascinating to see the differences in the way people cope with illnesses and how they recover differently depending on their beliefs and attitude to their problem. A positive mental state clearly helps. It’s also interesting to see how animals recover after operations – much quicker than humans, probably because they don’t worry as much!

  • Photo: Deborah

    Deborah commented on :

    Definitely, they go hand in hand. When I am seeing my patients with long term chronic disease such as diabetes or renal problems it’s really important that I take time to find out how it is affecting their day to day life, not just looking at test results and medicines. Unfortunately mental health care is vastly underfunded and so even if we recognise people have a problem its not always easy to get them the help they need.