"Why don't we just call it health?"
- Helen Sampson I The Uncouple Coach
- May 1
- 3 min read
Exploring the need for a societal shift around mental health - to prioritise it, reduce the stigma and improve our overall health.
One of my recent posts was selected by LinkedIn as an expert piece ahead of Stress Awareness Month in April. The title of this blog post was inspired by one of the comments and the commentor's thoughts around potentially renaming mental health because for him there was a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in using the word mental.
"The stigma and heaviness that comes with the tag "mental", doesn't seem to help the individuals that are suffering. Yes, it brings awareness, but there is a real risk of it causing more anxiety." Akanimo wrote.
My response? I completely understood the thought, the frustration and the desire to change the word. Saying that, I didn't feel as though this would truly solve the issue. By changing a word, we accept that it's not fit for purpose and continue the stigma.
Instead I suggested that as a society we change our thoughts around the word 'mental', given that it was society that stigmatised it in the first place. I know this will take time but eventually we'll get there.
To be clear, I'm not saying that mental health is the same as physical health and that we should just name it all health. However, there's a reason one has a stigma attached to it and the other doesn't, when in reality, they're both just as important and I would even argue that mental health is more important.
As explained in my LinkedIn post, the mind controls everything in the body. It sends signals all over, like the body's puppet master. So why do we treat our mental health as lesser than? Why do we feel shame for talking about it? We wouldn't leave a bone sticking out of our body if we broke it, so why should we not ask for help when our minds are begging for support? It's ludicrous, yet the majority of us still do it.
If we lived in a society that didn't just accept but made mental health the priority, not only would our collective mental health improve but also our physical health. The theme for Mental Health Awareness week this May is 'the power in community', so I ask us all as a community to come together and work towards making mental health a priority. Let's ditch the stigma and do better for the greater good.
Mental Health UK say, "We believe that everyone has a part to play in creating a supportive network that promotes good mental health" and I couldn't agree more.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.
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