Good mental health is important to the wellbeing of adolescents, but what is it and why is it so important?

Well, mental health is a part of everyone’s life. It affects the way we think, feel, and act. 🧠

Mental health is part of everyone’s overall health, just like physical health. It can range from living with a disabling mental health condition to having positive mental health, or falling somewhere in between. No matter where you are, it is important to take care of your mental health. 🤙

Someone who is experiencing positive mental health can:

• Understand their abilities 🏋‍♀️🕺
• Deal with the normal stresses of life in a good way 😁
• Overcome challenges ✅
• Interact and build relationships with other people 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️
• Work and study productively 👩‍🎓
• Enjoy life and contribute to their community 👥

It is 🌟 normal 🌟 to feel difficult emotions when we face challenging situations, disagreements with other people, disappointment, big changes, loss, or just daily pressures like school, money, or even illness 🤒. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• All these experiences are a part of life and our feelings are natural reactions to these experiences. 🍃
• When a challenging situation starts to improve, we usually start to feel better as well. 🌱

Having good mental health can strengthen your ‘resilience’ to cope with difficult situations, not just during your youth but for the rest of your life.

What is resilience?

Everyone faces difficult times or crises; this is a normal part of life. Resilience is the ability to adapt, "bounce back" and return to the same level of ability and activity as before the difficult period. If you are resilient, you can usually learn from difficult situations which helps you to grown emotionally and develop stronger ‘coping mechanisms’ and ‘life skills’.

‘Coping mechanisms’ and ‘life skills’ are the strategies we use when we are faced with difficult times and which help us manage painful or difficult feelings and overcome problems. Having healthy and positive coping mechanisms and life skills protects our mental health and helps us get the best out of life!

And the great news: all young people have the ability to strengthen their coping and life skills, resilience and mental health.

This page will give you lots of useful advice and tips on how to do this but first, let’s check your knowledge on mental health in our quiz below.