Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

Why is mental health important?

27 Apr 2021 · 4 min

Watch on YouTube

3:43

In this solo educational video, Dr. Jameca Cooper, a psychologist specializing in urban and geriatric mental health, explains why mental health matters, especially in the context of 2021’s heightened stress levels. She outlines three primary reasons: (1) mental health influences cognitive functions such as focus, concentration, and memory; (2) it shapes emotional experience and interpersonal relationships, affecting the range and expression of feelings; and (3) it determines how individuals cope with stress, with depression and anxiety leading to maladaptive coping strategies like avoidance or denial. Dr. Cooper provides brief physiological explanations (e.g., anxiety raising heart rate) and cites research indicating poorer coping among those with mood disorders. She concludes by urging viewers to prioritize their mental health throughout the year and invites them to return for more content.

Chapters

Hi, my name is Dr. Jameca Cooper. To give you a little bit of background on me, I'm a psychologist based in St. Louis, Missouri, and I specialize in urban mental health and geriatric mental health. Today we are going to talk about why is mental health important. So in the year of 2021, we've all dealt with different levels and different issues related to stress and mental health. I'm going to tell you about the 3 reasons why we should all be focusing on mental health right now. The first reason is that mental health affects how we think. What does that mean? It means if our mind and if our brains are alert every day, if we are ready and prepared to do whatever job it is we need to do, It also relates to focus. Can we focus and concentrate on the task that we need to focus on? It also has a great deal to do with memory. So when individuals are depressed, they have, um, deficient type of memory. They have problems storing certain memories into the brain and retrieving those memories as well. So we want to make sure that we're not anxious either. Some of the patients that I've seen in therapy have a hard time concentrating and remembering things when they're more anxious. Because what happens when you're anxious? Your heart rate increases, you have palpitations, sweating, shaking, and for those of us who have panic attacks, you could even pass out. So all those things would definitely impact your memory. The second reason why mental health is important is because it impacts how we feel. So it impacts our emotions. In other words, do we feel sad? Do we feel happy? Do we feel glad? Do we feel excited? All of those wide range of emotions that we need to experience on at least a weekly basis. But when people are depressed or anxious, they don't have the full range of emotions. So one of the things you can also think about for mental health is your emotions impact how you relate to others. So typically, if you're feeling sad, you're not bubbly, you're not extroverted, you're not engaging with those around you. So it really impacts how you feel and how you relate to other people. The third reason why mental health is important is because it impacts how we handle stress. That's a big part of how we all feel right now based on the pandemic and other factors. So we need to focus on how we handle stress and what can make that process better. So when we are depressed or when we're anxious, we tend to not handle stress in the same ways. In fact, research has shown that those who suffer from depression, trauma, or anxiety have some of the, the most deficient types of coping mechanisms, such as suppressing issues that need to be dealt with, denying issues that need to be dealt with. I've even heard of people saying that they will just choose to sleep it off or ignore it or deal with it later. And sometimes the later means next year, sometimes later means 2 to 3 years from now. So in other words, they don't handle stress very accurately. So today, so far, we've talked about the 3 different reasons why mental health is important, and I want to make sure that you focus on yourself and you focus on these reasons all of the rest of this year. If you have any questions, come back for more videos.