Emotional and mental health is important because it’s a vital part of your life and impacts your thoughts, behaviors and emotions. Being healthy emotionally can promote productivity and effectiveness in activities like work, school or care-giving. It plays an important part in the health of your relationships, and allows you to adapt to changes in your life and cope with adversity.

Absolutely! Mental and physical health are equally important components of overall health. For example, depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long-lasting conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Similarly, the presence of chronic conditions can increase the risk for mental illness.

While mental health is always there and may be positive or negative, mental illness affects a person’s ability to function over a long period of time.

Mental illness is not the same as feeling sad, unhappy or stressed because of difficult situations such as the death of a loved one, job loss or breakup with a partner (although these events can contribute to mental illness). People with mental illness feel distressed regularly and may not feel in control of their lives.

The vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to be violent than anyone else. Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%–5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population. You probably know someone with a mental health problem and don't even realize it, because many people with mental health problems are highly active and productive members of our communities.

If you think that you may have a mental health problem, get help. Talk therapy and/or medicines can treat mental disorders. If you don't know where to start, contact your primary care provider.