The terms behavioral health and mental health services are often used interchangeably, frequently describing the same thing. But both of these have different connotations, backgrounds, and meanings, which is what forms the cusp of discussion in the words of this piece of writing. Let’s begin this discussion while keeping in mind the debate of behavioral health vs mental health:
Defining Behavioral Health vs Mental Health
When it comes to the meanings of mental health vs behavioral health, mental health describes the overall psychological state of a particular individual. While, on the other hand, the term behavioral health encompasses the psychological state of a particular individual but also how the physical condition of that individual is affected due to the changes or impairment in their psychological state. While these terms can be used interchangeably due to their overlapping and underlying meanings, the difference between mental and behavioral health is as big as it is for mathematics and algebra. Is behavioral health the same as mental health is a question that is on the tip of the tongue of many people in the debate of behavioral health vs mental health, which is why we have highlighted the difference between behavioral and mental health one by one below:
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Behavioral Health
To put it in a better way, behavioral health is a broader term that essentially covers the actions, behavior, and habits that impact or at the very least influence one’s overall being. It would be akin to looking for something like ADHD or PTSD, which affects more behavior than mental capacity or cognitive processes. There are three key components that make up behavioral health:
- Physical health: Behavioral health recognizes how physicality is part of overall health and how good physical health contributes to an individual’s overall well-being. In that way, things like nutrition, physical exercise, and sleep are integral to a person’s behavioral health.
- Lifestyle choices: If you are living a hedonistic lifestyle, for example, substance abuse, having a bad sleep pattern, smoking, and all that. These choices contribute to the bad impact one can have on one’s life and essentially their behavioral health.
- Social aspects: Social determinants such as relationships, societal pressures, and the impact of societal institutions such as marriage all contribute to the societal aspects of behavioral health.
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Mental health
When talking in terms of behavioral health vs mental health, mental health also needs attention for elaboration. Mental health is more focused on the emotional and cognitive aspects of our overall health, perhaps, something like bipolar. As it refers to your psychological state, It involves topics like:
- Identity through focusing on mental issues like DID
- Perception, which can be affected by something like schizophrenia
- Emotions and moods such as these are affected by mood disorders like borderline personality disorder
- Ethics and morality
- empathy and the ability to connect with others
- resilience
- Personality traits
- Internal brain health
- cognitive functioning
- mental health disorders such as depression
- your feelings, perceptions, and thoughts
And while mental health can and does affect your behaviors via mental disorders, it isn’t a part of behavioral health. The main difference between behavioral health and mental health can also be highlighted by listing the main components of mental health, which you can see below:
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- Emotions first approach: Extensive focus is put on how emotions, mood, and the ability or inability to cope with stress or anxiety have an impact on mental well-being.
- Cognitive processes: Mental health also talks about cognitive functioning and related processes, for example, it covers topics that relate to mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychosis.
- Behavioral patterns: Unlike behavioral health, which focuses on a broad range of behaviors, mental health specifically focuses on behaviors that are more rooted in psychological state.
The Link Between Mental Health and Behavioral Health
We can say mental health is a sub-topic of behavioral health, as they often provide the answers to the “why” certain behavioral patterns exist. For example, it was found that positive mental health features like high self-esteem predicted more beneficial behavioral outcomes among low-income inner-city youth in a 2010 study (Kim et al., 2018).
Another example relating to the link that comes between the debate on behavioral health vs mental health is a study that has shown that inadequate sleep significantly increases the odds of experiencing regular mental distress (Blackwelder et al., 2021).
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Conclusion
If you are looking to end the debate of behavioral health vs mental health by trying out therapies of the field, for example, MAT (Medication Assisted Therapy) for behavioral therapy or psychotherapy for mental, both of these are available at Solid Foundation Psychiatry, and other flexible options such as telehealth psychiatry for treating a variable range of mental and behavioral illnesses such as insomnia. Look forward to meeting you!