7 Signs Of Emotional Health

Teen Space

- Dr Shefali Batra

“You’re doing alright? Your health is okay?”

“Oh yes! I ran three miles this morning and had a good workout. My body finally looks in shape and even though I haven’t been sleeping due to assignments, I feel quite alright. I’m doing great. Thanks for asking.”

This is what 97% of the world believes about health —not being physically ill. The World Health Organization (WHO) clarified many decades ago that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of pain, disease or illness. And yet to the vastest majority of us, health is physical. It’s not surprising that young people stay blinded to mental and emotional health.

Symptoms and signs of emotional troubles are invisible. Unlike a pimple on the cheek or wart beneath the eye that grabs your immediate and complete attention,your emotional health can be waning — sadness brewing, anxiety tormenting, self-confidence dipping; and yet you might not have the slightest inkling that there’s any problem at all.

“I’m a real-world logical person. If I don’t see a problem, then it’s just not there.”

Emotional health comes into the spotlight only when it’s more obviously evident by its absence. When concerns and apprehensions have transformed into anxiety and panic, discouragement and disappointment have translated into dysthymia and depression; and when shyness and timidity have transmuted into low self-esteem and social phobia.