What is The Difference Between Emotional And Mental Health

Mike Richins

Last Updated On: November 29th, 2022

In today’s society, people are generally more open about their struggles and talk about their emotional and mental health. However, a lot of people think that emotional and mental health is the same, or don’t know the difference.

So, what is the difference between emotional and mental health? Emotional health generally refers to how well someone can cope and handle their emotions. If you don’t have good emotional health, it’s difficult to maintain positive relationships. Mental health refers to the ability to think clearly and manage stress and emotions.

They’re similar, but not the same, and there’s a lot more to it. So today, we’ll cover all the differences between emotional and mental health along with a lot of other things. Now, without further ado, let’s get straight into it.

What is Mental Health?

Mental health refers to someone’s mental state and can influence their actions or thoughts greatly. This includes the person’s psychological, social, and emotional well-being. It directly influences how we feel at certain moments, how we make decisions, and how we act.

A lot of people think mental health is only important as an adult, but it’s always important no matter your age. It directly affects someone’s actions or thought process, so people shouldn’t neglect it.

Besides, it affects people in a whole lot of areas in their lives, such as maintaining healthy and positive relationships. People struggling with poor mental or emotional health may face these issues —

• Severe changes in mood
• Lack of energy
• Eating too little or overeating
• Increased use or addiction to alcohol and drugs
• Insomnia or sleeping too much
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Eating disorders
• Bipolar disorder
• PTSD

But in short, if you often can’t think clearly and make the wrong decisions and you’re overcome by stress or your emotions, you most likely have poor mental health.

What is Emotional Health?

Emotional health is very similar to mental health, but it can’t be used interchangeably. It refers to more specific matters, unlike mental health which can refer to a wide variety of issues, including emotions.

But generally, it refers to your awareness of emotions and how you handle them. So this refers to coping, managing, and handling your emotions properly in appropriate ways.

Typically, having good emotional health is important to maintain positive relationships with people around you as it refers to your ability to cope and manage your emotions. So if you can’t handle your own emotions or cope, you might have poor emotional health.

On the contrary, if you have good emotional health, you should be able to do these —

• Deal with your life situations such as various problems or challenges without getting too stressed out, frustrated, or overwhelmed.
• Express healthy feelings enough and not suppress them.
• Think positively and rarely dwell on your mistakes in the past or various negative thoughts.

You might often experience the same or similar symptoms and issues when you have mental or emotional health problems.

What Can Cause Poor Mental Or Emotional Health?

There are several different ways a chemical imbalance can occur in your brain which can result in poor emotional or mental health issues. These ways can include things like past trauma, but it depends a lot from person to person.

However, it can be more common to have poor mental or emotional health when it runs through the family. It can also occur when someone

• Has a drug or nicotine addiction, or
• Any other mind-altering drug.

Mental health a lot of the time refers to decision-making aspects or stress-related aspects. But emotional health refers to the problems you might have with your heart, such as traumatic or negative events.

What is The Difference Between Emotional And Mental Health

As mentioned above, emotional and mental health are very similar and relate to each other. But they aren’t the exact same thing, and there are quite a few differences. Some of them are mentioned below —

• Mental Health Mostly Refers To Processing Information, While Emotional Health Refers To Expressing Or Managing Emotions.

Mental health mostly refers to how we process information and how we act on it and make decisions. It can also affect our emotions.

But emotional health, on the other hand, refers to how we express our emotions and manage them.

• You Could Have Good Mental Health With Bad Emotional Health

A lot of people use mental and emotional health interchangeably, but they’re different things. You might have great mental health and poor emotional health, or have it the other way around.

For example, if someone struggling with mental health has a lack of energy to do their various daily tasks, with good emotional health they could manage their emotions and get some energy to continue with their work.

• They Have A Difference In Scope

Mental health can refer to a wide variety of things, so it has a wider scope. This is because it not only refers to how you process information and acts on behalf of it, but it also refers to your emotions and other aspects. Overall, it’s a much more broad term.

However, emotional health strictly refers to how you handle or express emotions. Mental health has a very close relation with emotional health as it can affect your emotions, but it’s not always the case.

Overall, emotional health can refer specifically to your emotions and how you express, cope, or deal with them. So they have a smaller scope.

How to Fix Emotional Or Mental Health

When your emotional or mental health degrades a lot, there isn’t really any healthy instant fix for it. This is why a lot of people get addicted to drugs as it can quickly make them feel better.

Nevertheless, you could improve your emotional and mental health slowly by simply being more positive. In a bad situation, try to identify what’s good about it instead of what’s terrible.

And instead of thinking about your weaknesses, try to think about your strengths and how you could use them to slowly work on your weaknesses and make them stronger too. Your overall point of view in life can often help fix your mental or emotional health.

But for even more help, you could consider seeking therapy. It can help you greatly to express your emotions and open up about your problems and get advice on how to deal with them.

So, try to find a therapist that specifically treats your gender or age as they can generally give more detailed advice and perhaps help more.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are a few differences between emotional and mental health, but mental health is a more broad term. However, if you have similar questions, you should consider checking out the most frequently asked questions we get below —

Conclusion

Understanding the question “what’s the difference between emotional and mental health?” is important as they don’t mean the same thing. A lot of people use mental and emotional health interchangeably, which is wrong.

In short, mental health generally refers to how you process information and act on it. This directly relates to your emotions too, so they can also refer to your emotions and have a wider scope and meaning.

On the other hand, emotional health strictly refers to your emotions and how you cope, handle, and manage them. So you might have good emotional health but bad mental health, and vice versa.

Naturally, if you’re suffering from mental or emotional health-related issues, you should try to think more positively and realistically. It’s even better if you can seek professional help and get therapy as it can help you get advice and deal with your life struggles. With that said, cheers!