What is optimum mental health anyway? Does anyone have it?
A. A greeting card I once read, said “The only people who are normal are those you don’t know very well yet”. Probably not totally true, but it is the case that anyone surviving a trauma or dysfunctional family, or a normal but severe life event like a breakup or job loss, may benefit from some counseling or therapy. There are some benchmarks for good mental health, however. Here is a significant but not exhaustive list: resilience in the face of adversity, the ability to self modulate emotion so one is not overwhelmed by circumstances, the ability to use information in a rational way and yet retain a balanced access to one’s emotional self, the capacity to sustain some degree of anxiety and not resort to self-destructive or mood altering avoidance strategies, the ability to maintain goal directed activity and not be governed by poorly thought out impulsivity, the ability to empathize and connect with other human beings in a deep and intimate way, the ability to self reflect and self c
