We pretend a lot about the state of our mental health. For example, when we pretend that emotional pain doesn't exist, we send a message to our brain that whatever the emotion is, it is in some way harmful or dangerous.

Mental health is like physical health: everybody has it, and you need to take care of it.  Good mental health means being generally able to think, feel and react in the ways that you need and want to live your life. But if you go through a period of poor mental health, you might find the ways you're frequently thinking, feeling or reacting become difficult, or even impossible, to cope with. This can feel just as bad as a physical illness or even worse.

Mental health is a topic people are avoiding. As a result, they lack basic knowledge and understanding about the spectrum. Mental health problems affect around one in four people in any given year. They range from everyday situations, such as depression and anxiety, to rarer problems, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Experiencing a mental health problem is often distressing, confusing and frightening –particularly at first. If you become sick, you may feel that it's a sign of weakness or you're losing your mind. These fears are often strengthened by the negative and often unrealistic way people experiencing mental health problems are treated in society.

The opinion, behaviour, and stigma of others can stop you from talking about your problems or seeking help. And there is every likelihood this will increase your suffering and sense of loneliness. However, in reality, mental health problems are a shared human experience.

Remember, you're not alone, and you don't have to struggle in silence. What your mental health need is more honesty, more sunlight and more unashamed conversation.

The negative discriminatory attitudes towards those experiencing mental illness are well documented.

Public stigma involves the negative or discriminatory attitudes that others have about mental illness.

Self-stigma refers to the negative attitudes, including internalised shame, that people with mental illness have about their own condition.

Institutional stigma is more systemic, involving government and private organisations' policies that intentionally or unintentionally limit opportunities for people with mental illness.

Stigma directly affects individuals with mental illness and the loved ones who support them, often including their family members. Stigma and discrimination can contribute to worsening symptoms and reduced likelihood of getting treatment.

A recent extensive review of research found that self-stigma leads to adverse effects on recovery among people diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. Effects can include:

•    reduced hope
•    lower self-esteem
•    increased psychiatric symptoms
•    difficulties with social relationships
•    reduced likelihood of staying with treatment
•    more difficulties at work

Several studies show that stigma usually arises from lack of awareness, lack of education, lack of perception, and the nature and complications of the mental illness, for example, odd behaviours and violence. People fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer. They don't know how to relate. It threatens their security, their existence, their career, and their image. They feel threatened when they see the odd behaviour of those expressing mental illness. They tag them as being mad.

Stigma is unhealthy. It is a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. It is a mark of shame that sets a person apart from others. When people are labelled by their mental illness or other types of sickness, they are no longer seen as individuals. Instead, they are stereotyped to be something less important. They are treated with negative attitudes creamed with discrimination.

Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, God loves us perfectly. Therefore, God commands you to love everyone as he has loved you.

The importance of self-love cannot be overstressed. Until you can love yourself, you are unable to love your neighbours. Self-love is one of the best tactics for healthful living. Self-love is more than accepting your body and feeling beautiful. The importance of self-love goes way further than your body image. Self-love is vital to being healthy.

In this toxic world, it is now essential more than ever how we eat, move, and live. The dictionary emphasis that being kind is being good, benevolent, considerate, helpful, and humane. Kindness is gentle, loving, and affectionate. Most people believe in kindness but hardly talk about it in connection to our health. The most significant thing you can do for your health is to love yourself.

Self-love is essential. When kindness is forgotten, you begin sabotaging the essence of a healthy body through self-hate, body shaming, critical judgment, and unrealistic ideals. In other words, you lose joy. You don't feel happy. No matter how fitting and trimmed you are, you are not healthy if you are not happy.

Mental health can affect everyone, irrespective of age, financial status, and class. Unfortunately, you are not immune to mental illness because of your success in life. It is too easy to link success with happiness and happiness with sound mental health. This is not the case. This is not always straightforward as it seems. A mind that is unhealthy will sooner or later manifest itself into a sick body.

Mental health disorder puts enormous strain on personal relationships. It wrecks relationships when people lack understanding and are unable to support the person suffering. It weakens family and friendship bonds. It drains one's life. People are isolated as a result when their symptoms worsen.

Your most significant responsibility is to love yourself and to know you are enough. To love yourself and the person you are, you cannot hate all your experience in life that has shaped you. You must, without doubt, make yourself a priority once in a while. It is necessary. It is not a selfish act.

The average mind is focused on the future and paralysed by fear. The wise mind is focused on the present and moved by love. You either control your mind, or it controls you. Once you realise that you have the power of your mind and that the events or circumstances you encounter in life do not have any iota of control over your mind, it is the moment you become powerful and find strength.

This is a fundamental truth; you live in your mind. You are the only one with the power over your mind. When you fail to apply that power, it will drift away with the forces of the day. Unfortunately, it can lead some people to believe that outside forces and outside events control their minds. Focus on what you can control, and don't let outside forces dictate your life.

No matter what you encounter in life, it is essential to realise that you have a choice. The moment you understand the power of your choice, you are halfway there. The hard part comes next, the thinking. To make it work, you must find out the facts, analyse the facts, and compare the facts to your values and then decide.