There are 4 types of health: physical, mental, emotional, and social. Taking care of all of these is vital to keeping yourself healthy.
A person’s health is affected by a variety of factors, including diet, lifestyle choices and mental health. A person can also develop health issues due to a genetic predisposition or chronic illness.
Physical Health
Physical health represents one dimension of total well-being, and it involves how your body grows, feels and moves. It also includes your lifestyle choices, such as a healthy diet, regular exercise and proper sleep.
Having good physical health decreases your risk of developing serious chronic diseases and conditions, such as heart disease, stroke and some cancers. It also helps you to manage the daily demands of life, including work and school.
Mental health, on the other hand, is about your emotional, psychological and social well-being. It’s important to maintain your mental health in order to live a happy and fulfilling life.
Your mental health can change over time, as a result of life events, such as caring for an ill parent or child, or experiencing economic hardship. It can also be affected by the way you cope with stress or how much sleep you get.
Mental Health
Mental health is a combination of emotional, psychological and social well-being that affects how we think, feel, behave and relate to others. It is essential to the foundation of emotions, thinking, communication, learning, resilience, hope and self-esteem.
In general, mental illness can be prevented or minimized through a number of factors including a person’s genetics, their environment and their access to care. The best outcomes result from early identification and treatment of disorders.
Many people with serious mental illnesses can significantly reduce their symptoms and find a satisfying measure of recovery and independence through effective treatments and recovery supports. These include psychotherapy (talk therapy), medication and a range of services.
This type of treatment is based on scientific research and may involve cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy or dialectical behavior therapy. It is carried out by psychiatrists, psychologists and other primary care clinicians. It can help a person understand their thought patterns and start to work on more healthful ones that support everyday living and reduce the risk of isolation and self-harm.
Emotional Health
Emotional health focuses on how well people are able to handle their emotions. It includes how they process their feelings, how they express them and how they cope with life challenges.
Some common signs of poor emotional health include feeling down, anxious, depressed or angry. They may also exhibit changes in their sleep patterns, eating habits or thoughts.
Often, these symptoms are caused by repressed or overused emotions. These feelings can affect how you perform at work, with friends and family or in your personal relationships.
Learning coping skills that temper negative emotions can help you respond instead of react to upsetting situations. And, if you have someone you can share your emotions with, that can also be beneficial for your emotional wellness.
Social Health
Most people know about the physical and mental health aspects of their health, but less often about social health. This is a dimension that affects how you feel about yourself, your relationships, and the choices you make.
Social health includes a feeling of social integration, sense of responsibility and cooperation, mutual support and altruism. It also includes communication skills and social adaptability, which are important in forming relationships with others.
Individuals who are socially healthy have a positive comfort level with others and are open to ideas, efforts and experiences to grow continually. They are able to envision their potential in life and see themselves as leaders and influencers of society.
However, social health is not defined in a single way in all societies and it depends on the situation and perception of individuals. Hence, provision of a comprehensive and unified definition is difficult. Nevertheless, this dimension has received much less attention than physical and mental health, despite its important role in the development of societies.
