Mental health is health. Just like physical health, it is important to our overall well-being.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, and act.” It is how well we can relate to others, perform day-to-day tasks, handle stress, and enjoy doing our favorite activities.

Mental health is something everyone has. We all experience changes in our mental health from day to day. Even those who are never diagnosed with a mental health condition can struggle with stress, negative thoughts, and life challenges that impact their mental wellbeing. In fact, in 2021, 1 in 4 Coloradoans reported eight or more poor mental health days in the previous month— enough people to fill Empower Field at Mile High over seven times.

Everyone faces challenges with their mental health from time to time, no matter their age, gender, race, income, or religion. It’s important to talk about our mental health with someone we trust and seek professional care when we need it, just as we would with a physical injury or illness. Sometimes, stigma towards mental health makes it hard for us to talk about our challenges or find help.

Mental health well-being:

  • Helps us to feel good about life. This lets us do the things we enjoy, participate in daily activities, and achieve our goals.
  • Is something you can improve. There are many ways to improve your mental health wellbeing, like counseling, medications, diet changes, and exercise. It’s possible to make your mental health better. Treating mental health conditions successfully is more likely with professional care.
  • Can be supported with self-care. This can include creating healthy routines, participating in hobbies, and connecting with people you care about.

A mental health challenge happens when something impacts our life, thinking, emotions, or behaviors. This can include:

  • Stress. Work, family, money, and other causes of stress can wear you down over time. This can disturb your sleep, cause depression, or cause suicidal thoughts.
  • Trauma. Trauma can include natural disasters, abuse, accidents, death, and other events that make you feel unsafe.
  • Biology. Your brain chemistry or genes can create challenges to your mental health. If someone in your family has struggled with a mental health condition, you might be more likely to struggle with the same thing.
  • Mental health conditions. Many mental health conditions can make it harder to have good mental health. Learn more about common mental health conditions.

Statement on Health Inequities

Throughout our lives, multiple individual, social, and structural determinants can combine to protect or undermine our health. When working on and talking about mental health, it is important to consider how systems maintain generational barriers to critical resources and treatment across time, including at present.

People experience mental health differently based on their identities, social and physical factors, place of living, and past experiences. Social conditions like income, the physical environment, access to education and healthcare, and community culture are all factors that influence health. The factors these conditions create come from the history of our society, which has been built on systems of racism, oppression, and discrimination.

Many Coloradans experience barriers to mental health and wellness. People of marginalized racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual identities often suffer poorer mental health outcomes due to multiple factors including lack of access to quality and culturally-relevant mental healthcare, stigma, discrimination, and overall lack of awareness about mental health. Exposure to unfavorable social, economic, geopolitical, and environmental circumstances—including poverty, violence, discrimination, and environmental deprivation—also increases people’s risk of experiencing poor mental health.

According to the 2021 Colorado Health Access Survey, Black or African American Coloradans were less likely to get needed mental health services due to stigma compared to white counterparts. Hispanic or Latinx Coloradans also were more likely to report not getting needed services because they were worried what would happen if someone found out they needed help. Through the Let’s Talk Colorado initiative, the Metro Denver Partnership for Health is committed to addressing the disproportionate stigma these communities and others face.