There are different definitions for describing mental health and mental wellbeing. World Health Organization defines mental health as the mental situation in which a person can deal with intellectual powers like reasoning, thinking, ability to decide. S/he can deal with a stressful situation and can constructively use his/her ability. Good Mental Health is important for a person at an individual level, societal level, and organizational level. The mental health of a person depends on different factors like social, psychological, and biological. So, poor mental health is the situation where s/he cannot use her/his mental ability properly. A person with poor mental health might get easily stressed, easily gets emotional, might have decreased work productivity, has the habit of overthinking and symptoms of anxiety as well.

Factors Affecting Mental Health

Status of society, gender inequality, too much work pressure, poor physical condition, refusal by society, social and family violence are some of the reasons that might lead a person toward poor mental health. Pilgrim.D, defined positive mental health as the good state of psychological wellbeing or people who seem to be completely sane. Whereas people with negative mental health seem to have problems in their sound mental state . Negative mental health is also known as mental illness. Mental illness may affect a person’s thinking capacity, level of his/their concentration, thinking capacity, level of happiness, and behavior. Symptoms like change in behaviors, stress, feeling of loneliness, decreased level of happiness, change in social interaction, change in eating behaviors, low self-esteem, addictive to digital devices, alcohol, and drugs, feeling of loneliness, are some examples of factors that lead a person towards mental illness like anxiety and depression.

Mental Wellbeing

Mental wellbeing is also defined in different ways. BBC defines mental well-being as a state where a person can have better physical health, can perform better in his/her work, can tackle stressful situations, have good interaction with members of society and family, and can utilize his/her intellectual power in a better way .

Chartered Accountants Benevolent Association (CABA) of UK defines mental wellbeing as amental state of a person where s/he is a high level of self-esteem, can make a relationship With others, they can think critically and can work effectively and efficiently. It is also an ability to tackle complicated and stressful situations in an easier way.

Anxiety

Anxiety can be seen as a feeling of uneasiness, nervousness, and worries caused by the fear of activities that might happen either for external reasons or internal reasons. Several factors can increase the probability of growing anxiety-like trauma, personality, use of drugs or alcohol, stress because of illness, family problems, and so on. In the current context, over and regular social media usage is also becoming the emerging factor for developing anxiety among the youth social media users. surveyed to find out the relationship between anxiety and social media usage among adults and young adults of the USA. It was found that there is a high probability for young users to have anxiety disorder those who consume social media daily for more time.

Depression

An article published by WHO defines depression as a condition of a person if s/he symptoms like depressed mood, decreased self-esteem, decreased power of concentration, decreased energy level, self-blaming, overthinking, and problems in sleeping and eating habits . Depression is a common problem that can be seen because of social, individual, biological, and psychological factors . Several studies have shown that over social media usage is also a contributing factor for depression among youths. A systematic literature review conducted by concluded that positive use of social media like positive interaction, social support, and communication can help a user to reduce the level of depression and anxiety whereas negative use of social media like social comparisons, addictive use, negative social interactions can lead to an increased level of anxiety and depression.

As we mentioned above, in the definitions of anxiety and depression several factors are affecting the sound mental health and wellbeing of a person such as family background, environment, addiction, behaviors, social factors, and biological factors . In our study, we are assuming other factors constant and taking social media addiction as one of the most active factors for causing mental illness to the adult in the present situation.

An Example of how mental health issues may arise differently in different people

Research shows mental health issues may arise differently in different people. It is based on the age, gender, community s/he lives in, food, job type, and so on. The AI algorithms used in social media can be seen in the form of low self-esteem, PTSD, anxiety, and even depression because of activities like cyberbullying, fear of missing out, stranger danger, social comparison, and body image dissatisfaction. The negative consequences affect the mental health of youth and teenage users.

This example demonstrates the reasons for mental illness can be different for different people based on age, sex, community, daily habits, and other external factors. 

Useful tips to maintain Mental Health and Wellbeing :

Hands-On America Services is always there for the community to promote awareness of mental health and well-being. We continuously promote awareness by participating in community events, offering online consultations, publishing blogs, engaging on social media, and forming collaborations.