We’ve seen major strides in recent years in how our culture views and talks about mental health. More and more people are openly speaking about issues such as depression, mental illness, therapy, and medication. We’re beginning to understand the critical importance of taking care of our spirits as much as our bodies, and the stigma against mental illness is diminishing. 

That being said, there is a lot of work left to do. While better than it once was, the way we talk about mental health as a society still gets in the way of our ability to approach it correctly. In particular, the very idea of two separate realms of health, mental and physical, is at its very core erroneous and problematic.

After all, mental health is a physical, embodied phenomenon. The brain is an organ made of tissues and cells that resides within our physical bodies. By referring to mental health as something separate from “physical health,” we’re reinforcing an idea that these are two different, separate facets of our well-being. They are not. Indeed, the World Health Organization says it best: “There is no health without mental health.” The mental and physical aspects of our wellness go hand in hand to create an overall picture of an individual’s health. One cannot be separated from the other. 

Now, more than ever is the perfect time to begin rethinking how we see and treat mental health, as well as how we tackle the mental health stigma that remains with us. The Coronavirus pandemic has affected each and every one of us both collectively and individually. In a very real way, we’re all suffering – as people, as families, as teams, as countries, and as an international human community. In the absence of the ability to go about our daily routines, see our loved ones, work our jobs, and leave our homes, not to mention the disease, death, and economic collapse we’ve all born witness to and been touched by, this issue is more pressing than ever. 

We’d be remiss not to ask ourselves what this pandemic means for our well-being and health – both mental and physical. How is it affecting us as individuals? How is it impacting our global population? What will happen to the nation’s health moving forward toward the much-fantasized dream of “going back to normal”? 

If we’re honest with ourselves, there is no normal to go back to. Our world is forever changed and even the reopening of public spaces and the ending of lockdowns will not be a panacea for our wellness. It’s likely we’ll be dealing with the repercussions of COVID-19 for years, even decades.

That being said, we can also see this as an opportunity to make some much-needed changes in our cultural conversation. We can begin viewing health holistically instead of separating it out into arbitrary, constructed categories. We can become aware of the ways in which each and every one of us is a living organism vulnerable to hurt. We can use this understanding as an impetus to be kind and compassionate to one another and to ourselves, supporting each other in the continuous journey toward living as healthfully as possible. We can start today.