Emotional Intelligence for Positive Mental Health

If you were to ask five friends if health and fitness is important, how many would say, “Yes!”? If you asked them, “Other than going to a doctor, do you have ways to improve your physical health?” — how many would say, “Yes!”?

What if you asked the same questions about mental health?

Unfortunately, when it comes to mental health, many people don’t know the value, don’t know they can take action, or how. As partners with MTV for the first-ever Mental Health Day of Action, it’s time to rethink mental health as a resource for thriving, and learn how emotional intelligence can help us create full vitality.

by Joshua Freedman, MCC

Mental Health is Health

There are many complex reasons why it’s harder to even ask that question, and talk about the answers — but one basic issue is that, for many, the term “mental health” means the same thing as “mental illness.” Looking at the World Health Organization website, I was surprised to see that while they say, “Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders,” they still explain that what determines mental health is the absence of impacts (such as trauma, poverty, or abuse). That’s like saying, “if your arm isn’t broken, it must be strong.”

This deficit-oriented thinking leaves us in a problematic binary where you’re either ill or healthy. And since mental illness has been so poorly understood and so painfully stigmatized, that binary thinking leaves us without the nuance to describe the middle ground. Even saying, “my mental health isn’t optimal today” sounds scary for some people, because in this binary system, we’re reduced to either, “I’m fine,” or, “I’m ill” — and neither label is particularly helpful.

Mental Health is Health

There are many complex reasons why it’s harder to even ask that question, and talk about the answers — but one basic issue is that, for many, the term “mental health” means the same thing as “mental illness.” Looking at the World Health Organization website, I was surprised to see that while they say, “Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders,” they still explain that what determines mental health is the absence of impacts (such as trauma, poverty, or abuse). That’s like saying, “if your arm isn’t broken, it must be strong.”

This deficit-oriented thinking leaves us in a problematic binary where you’re either ill or healthy. And since mental illness has been so poorly understood and so painfully stigmatized, that binary thinking leaves us without the nuance to describe the middle ground. Even saying, “my mental health isn’t optimal today” sounds scary for some people, because in this binary system, we’re reduced to either, “I’m fine,” or, “I’m ill” — and neither label is particularly helpful.

Shifting to a Continuum of Emotional Health

The obvious antidote to this binary label is a continuum where we acknowledge a wide range of the human experience. Searching for such a model, there are many structures for “continuum of care” that focus on the clinical side. But what about the HEALTH side? Just as physical health might go from “barely survive a car crash” to “ready to run an ironman,” what words might we use for a continuum of mental health? At one end is the abject despair and devastation of crisis. At the other is a radiance and vitality of full capacity.

One of the principles of linguistic anthropology is that a wide range of words shows that a concept is important in a particular culture. The classic example is that Inuktitut has over a dozen distinct words to describe kinds of snow. What does it tell us that in English we have so many words for money and so few for mental thriving? Here is an example of a continuum that is expanding the vocabulary for positive mental health.

Another continuum comes from the US military; the Bureau of Medicine was charged to confront this challenge of binary thinking about mental health in relation to stress. PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, is a significant mental health challenge for this community. In the past, soldiers were either “fit” or “broken,” and this binary blocked people from getting help. Increasingly there’s recognition that stress can be considered like an injury. Around 2010, various parts of the US Department of Defense began adopting a “stress continuum” with four levels:

As shown in the graphic above, a key feature of this model is the recognition that there are aspects of mental health that require medical intervention, but there are other aspects that are the responsibility of the individual and command. Variations on this graphic are widely available, this one is from the US Navy & Marine Corps’ Combat and Operational Stress First Aid: Responder Training Manual 2011.

What Comes Before and After Clinical Care?

Just as we can develop a continuum to understand a more nuanced view of mental health, mental health care can also be considered on a continuum – like in the DoD Stress Continuum model. In terms of physical health, more acute illness is treated by doctors, and as we move into wellness there is a wide range of people with varying levels of training to support people… from physical therapists to physical education teachers in schools, from yoga instructors to fitness coaches, from nutritionists to the person working in the health food store. There are also a wide range of places to work on this non-clinical side of health… gyms, clubs, even VR games. Collectively, we can call these options “community based” because they’re part of our day-to-day living.

What about in the space of mental and emotional wellbeing? While community-based mental health isn’t as well developed, we still have some options. Many items from the physical-health “menu” also apply to mental health, because exercise, being outside, and being in positive relationships are all drivers of mental health. Spiritual and religious practices have also been shown to improve wellbeing. So in this community-based mental health space we have people such as EQ coaches, teachers specializing in social emotional learning, clergy, and people who care. It’s also essential to remember, that just as with all aspects of health, each of us plays an essential role for ourselves, as do family and friends.

(click the image to enlarge)

One of our goals in building the world’s community of emotional intelligence practitioners is to equip more people with the tools, skills and support for these community-based mental health roles.

Action Steps for Positive Mental Health

As mentioned previously, WHO offers a definition of mental health that’s positive, but the solutions are all about addressing deficits. If we shift to an asset-based approach, what are the determinants of mental health? In developing our key topic page on mental health and wellbeing, I found that the European Psychiatric Association reported an asset-based model — one pillar of which is, the “ability to recognize, express and modulate one’s own emotions, as well as empathize with others” — which sounds a lot like a definition of emotional intelligence!

Often lost in complex theory, the foundation of emotional intelligence is a simple idea: Emotions are data that we can learn to use to make more effective decisions. Literally, be more intelligent through our emotions. Not, “control emotions,” or “fix,” but tune into feeling as something useful. In terms of mental health, what if feelings are signals that exist to guide us toward that “full vitality” end of the continuum? A radically helpful view of emotions is to consider that all feelings are allies – and the first step to accessing the support of our own emotions is to learn the language, to enhance our emotional literacy.