Mental health continuum

[lleeea]

hey peeps,

what is the mental health continuum and how does it fluctuate overtime?

[Poet]

Hi!

The mental health continuum is just a sort of graph (a continuum) that ranges from ‘mentally well’ to ‘mentally unwell’. Think of it like a switch on a sound board- it can slide from unwell to well and back again, or stay in the middle. As we go about life, our mental well-being will get better or worse depending on situations, relationships, body image, etc. This is the fluctuation.

[lleeea]

Hi!

The mental health continuum is just a sort of graph (a continuum) that ranges from ‘mentally well’ to ‘mentally unwell’. As we go about life, our mental well-being will get better or worse depending on situations, relationships, body image, etc. This is the fluctuation.

Hope this was helpful.

Yes it was helpful. Thankyou for taking out your time to respond

[Bri MT]

Hi!

The mental health continuum is just a sort of graph (a continuum) that ranges from ‘mentally well’ to ‘mentally unwell’. As we go about life, our mental well-being will get better or worse depending on situations, relationships, body image, etc. This is the fluctuation.

Hope this was helpful.

To expand on this, in VCE psych we examine it as ranging from mental healthy > mental health problem > mental health disorder
It's important to realise that there are no definite boundarys between these categories, but you should familiarise yourself with the descriptions associated with each. Eg. if a person is feeling down for a few days and isn't being very productive after  relationship breakup this alone wouldn't be sufficient to catergorise them as having a mental health disorder, but if weeks after the break up they have withdrawn from their family & friends, still aren't being productive (not going to work/school) low mood etc. then they may have a mental health disorder. (Note: VCE psych does not teach you diagnostic criteria, and certainly doesn't qualify anyone to cary out diagnosises)

As Poet said, our positions on the continuum fluctuate overtime