Personality and Mental Health

What is mental health? Mental health concerns feelings, attitudes, and abilities. It is the way a person reacts to other people and situations. A per — son’s mental health may be judged by two criteria , or tests. The first is the person’s ability to "fit in," or adjust, to different situations. The second is the person’s ability to accept or change situations which cause frustration. Perhaps this ability to accept situations which cause feelings of discouragement is the more difficult of the two. Both these abilities not only reflect a person’s mental health, but also are reflected in his personality.

Think for Yourself
Do you think that a person with good mental health always has good physical health?

What  is  personality?  There are many definitions of personality. Most people use the word to mean the total impression a person makes on other people. It is the reflection of your hab­its, traits, feelings, abilities, and even your appearance. Part of your person­ality was formed by the time you were born. Part of it has not yet been formed. It is affected by your environment,   or   surroundings,   and  may change from time to time.
Often, people say, "He has a cheer­ful personality," or, "She has a quiet personality." These people are describing obvious personality traits. Actually, no one’s personality is simple enough to be described in a word, or in even a thousand words. Whole books, for instance, have been written about one person’s greed, temper, or dedication. You know that any of these qual­ities could form only a fraction of a person’s total personality.

Health of your personality. Have you noticed that mental health and personality are closely related? In a sense, your mental health is the health of your personality. Because your emotions, abilities, habits, and attitudes affect both, your attempts to improve one will probably improve the other. For example, if you improve your personality by becoming more tactful, you may find that you are bet­ter able to enjoy parties and social occasions as a result. In that case, your attempt to improve your personality would have improved your mental health, also.