Lesson One - What is Mental Health?

Mental health is constantly changing. Life events, or things that happen in your life, are continually impacting your mental health. One of the most significant factors that affects your mental health is stress; both your personal and workplace or school stress. Lifestyle, genetics, exposure to poverty or trauma, unemployment, and economic hardship have also been shown to be connected to mental health.

When these factors really start to affect mental health is when there are more demands on a person than what they can cope with. The person may not have the proper resources or coping abilities for the particular demand being placed on them, making their stress levels increase and their mental health decrease.