My True SelfThat’s the question more than 180,000 Danes have been asked. How are you? has been a national ongoing survey since 2010 with quistionnaires every 4th year. And the results are devastating!
Young women feel bad
More than every 3rd woman in the age between 16 and 24 years scores low on the mental health scale. For women in the age of 25-34 years it every 4th that scores low on the mental health scale.
Why Mental Health is Important
A high level of mental health in general is a protective factor for not getting ill. Mental health is important for the quality of our life, for having many good years of life and for the development of mental and physical illness. Conversely, long-term poor mental health has huge consequences for your health and opportunities to live a good life. When you feel good you’re more likely to make clever decisions and be a nice person because you feel good in genrelt.
A good mental health is a resource to deal with the challenges that everyone is faced with at some point. We function best when we enter into meaningful relationships, experience personal development, feel that life has a direction, know how to use the opportunities that are available around us, and thus both experience being part of society and experience contributing to society.
It’s Expensive to Feel Bad
My mom used to say: It’s expensive to be poor! But in the matter of mental health, we can easily say that:
It’s expensive to feel bad
Gitte Petersen
Scientists says, that people with long-term poor mental health use health services more and have a lower level of education and a weaker connection to the labor market. They also have a higher risk of developing several diseases like cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety. And on top of that, they also have a higher risk of dying earlier than citizens with a high degree of mental health.
Mental Health in the Time of the Corona
It is important to state that the questionnaires the results build on were collected during a period when a number of temporary actions and restrictions were introduced in Denmark due to covid-19. Restrictions that prevented us from seeing people – friends, family as well as co-workers – and being the social human beings that we naturally are.
The fact that the results were collected in the time of Corona teaches us a valuable lesson: we need to be social to thrieve. We need to belong, or at least feel that we belong. Feel that someone needs us. That’s important to our mental health.
Facts has Consequneses
I made the program and the True Self Method to share the tools I’ve figured out helps me to be mentally strong. Because I believe the world would be a better place if more people feel good about themselves. I believe we make better desicions, come up with better ideas, and treat other people better when we feel good.
