Mental Health

[sandi]

Why is mental health represented on a continuum? Anyone have an exam standard answer...or just an explanation of why this is....

[Scooby]

People aren't either just mentally healthy or mentally ill. It's possible to experience a mental health problem, such as after the death of a loved one, without being considered mentally ill. At the same time, you wouldn't say that a person with a mental health problem is mentally healthy either. 

[yearningforsimplicity]

Because Mental Health is never static - it is constantly changing in relation to our daily life experiences. E.g. it is possible for someone to feel a decline in mental health but after a few days, that person might be resilient enough to 'bounce back' and have positive mental health again. Because we need a way to measure 'mental health', the continuum is one way of showing us all the different mental states that a person can experience.