The Philosophy of Mental Health

Philosophical thoughts on mental health:

What is mental?

Mental. Your mind. To think. Thinking health.

What is mental health?

Thinking health. Health is strength. To have a strong mind.

What weakens our mind?

This question is very interesting to me. What causes our minds to weaken and atrophy?

Some theories:

Physical health deterioration: Alzheimer’s as type 3 diabetes. Sometimes also sexually transmitted diseases can cause mental illness (syphilis).
Too intense hormonal cascades: Watching the news, following the news and social media as physiologically bad for you. Too much stress hormones too frequently throughout the day. For example too much dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, cortisol, etc.

How stress hormones affect our body and physiology

For norepinephrine:

norepinephrine increases heart rate and blood pressure, triggers the release of glucose from energy stores, increases blood flow to skeletal muscle, reduces blood flow to the gastrointestinal system, and inhibits voiding of the bladder and gastrointestinal motility.

If you’ve ever been stressed about something — for example, seeing your portfolio drop 20% in a single day — you will get an adrenaline “fight or flight” response. Dilated pupils, increased breathing, sweat, fear hormones, etc. Now imagine seeing your portfolio go up and down hundreds of times in a given day. Isn’t that going to wreck your body and bodily physiology health?

Mental health is bodily health

The body came before the mind. Then doesn’t it make sense when we think about “mental health” we should think “bodily health”? Or physiological health?