I had no idea that there was a difference between mental health and emotional health.

Now that I’m aware of the difference, I can see why I was confusing them.

I thought things like stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, and low self-esteem all go bundled into the same area: mental health.

But that’s not true.

So, what’s the difference, and why does it matter?

Mental health

The term ‘mental health’ refers to disease-like states such as schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder.

Mental health is about psychological and neurological conditions that affect cognitive function. Examples of mental health disorders include:

• Clinical depression
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Eating disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Substance-related and addictive disorders

Emotional health

In his book 'Outlive', Dr Peter Attia explains that emotional health “…has more to do with the way we regulate our emotions and manage our interpersonal relationships.”

But don’t be fooled. This isn’t just ‘feeling blue’ or ‘getting up on the wrong side of the bed’.

Even in the absence of a mental health disorder, poor emotional health can seriously impair your ability to live a happy and well-adjusted life, and can even put your life in danger, Dr Attia warns.

Although not explicitly called out in the book, here are some examples of emotional issues I’ve faced, and you might have, too:

• Excessive anger, frustration or irritability
• Hyper-sensitivity
• Emotional eating
• Isolation and withdrawal
• Overwhelm with daily life
• Excessive guilt and shame
• Overthinking and rumination

Why does this matter?

Here’s the crucial thing to take away from this: you don’t have to wait until you have a diagnosable mental health disorder to make improvements to your emotional health.

Working on your emotional health in a proactive way can significantly boost the quality of your life.

Most people stand to benefit from becoming more aware of things that trigger them, and learning ways to handle their emotions more effectively.

The knock-on effects here could be huge, and they include:

• Being a better parent
• Handling work stress better
• Improving relationships with your family, partner, and friends
• More capacity to take on hobbies or a side project
• Better performance at work, and so on

Next steps (if you want them)

You don’t have to dive into counselling or get a degree in psychology to benefit here.

You can explore other avenues. Certain religions like Buddhism and philosophies like Stoicism contain much of the wisdom that these psychotherapies draw from, so that could be a more palatable place to start depending on your appetite for self-help.

To dive into the scientifically-proven ways to improve your emotional health, you could pick one of the psychotherapies and simply watch a YouTube video/read an article about it.

Here are some examples:

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
• and many more…

This is a low-stakes way to see which one might resonate with you, and then look for exercises suggested by that branch of psychotherapy.

For example, if CBT sounds helpful to you, then search “exercises in cbt”, and try one out.

The next progression would be exploring a book on the topic, and at this point, you’re really off to the races.

I’m glad I now know about this distinction, so I hope you found it helpful too 😀

Until next week,

John