Everyone has physical health: it's the state your body is in.
Everyone has mental health too: it's the way you feel in your mind, or the state your feelings are in.
But your physical health and your mental health are very individual to you - what feels 'normal', healthy and good for one person doesn't necessarily feel 'normal', healthy and good for another.

Physical health changes all the time because it depends on so many things like…
* Whether you're eating and sleeping well
* Whether you have a virus or an infection
* Whether you're doing a lot of exercise
* How you're feeling in yourself

Mental health also changes all the time and it depends on all kinds of different things too, like…
* Whether you're feeling good about yourself
* Whether you're getting on with your family and friends
* Whether there are lots of things stressing you out
* Whether you're feeling physically well
* Whether you're sleeping and eating well Some people may feel great without doing much exercise, others need to do lots of activity to feel healthy.

Some people can cope with loads of stress without feeling under pressure - they may even enjoy it! But other people begin to feel anxious and unhappy if they have a lot of stress to cope with.
There are lots of things in life which can be stressful, and there are different ways of coping with these. A certain amount of stress can be useful in giving you energy, and if there weren't any stresses at all, we'd end up as vegetables. But generally speaking, the more stresses of different kinds which you have to cope with, the more likely you are to feel anxious, or down, or not 'normal' for you.

When should I worry about my mental health?
Some things in life are great, and exciting and pleasurable, and other things difficult and hard to deal with. Your moods and emotions are ways of showing how you're feeling and coping with the things you're going through. Because of this its not surprising that sometimes your moods may be 'up and down'. You'll probably recognise this in your friends and family too, particularly if they're going through difficult times.
Most of the time, you'll probably be able to carry on with everyday life even when things are difficult - but you may find different ways of coping and dealing with things until life gets easier, and these ways may not always be helpful in the long run.

For example

* you may be sleeping more or less than usual
* eating more or less than usual
* not able to concentrate like you normally do
* you may be short tempered or angry
* you may feel you want to drink or smoke more
* you may want to escape from the difficulties by avoiding other people, or getting drunk or stoned, or having lots of sex
* you may be feeling very anxious and panicky about things
* you may lose your self confidence and worry about things which normally wouldn't bother you.
* you may be spending more and more time 'in your head', and finding it hard to get back to reality

There may come a time when you find that these ways of coping become problems too
You may also feel so stressed or worried that you can't carry on doing the things which you normally have to do.
If you recognise this, it will help to talk to someone about the things which you're going through. It may not feel easy to do this, but sharing your difficulties, or getting more information, will help you to feel less on your own.
You could…

* Talk to a friend or someone in the family
* Talk to someone at college or university (a tutor, or a counsellor, or a mentor)
* Talk to your GP * Find out more information about your difficulties and what could help you with them - use the information on this web-site, or contact the numbers given.
* Talk to a helpline
Content provided by www.d-stress.org.uk/mh.htm