I'm having to take a mental health course for work and every time it defines mental illness it always includes "impairment of work performance," (they, without fail, always put work performance first on the list) "relationships, or participating in usual activities" and I really feel like we're not going to get anywhere with mental health awareness if we keep obstinately refusing to acknowledge the importance of people's internal realities and experiences - you know, the actual mental health part
When you tell people the important thing is not how they feel, but how they externally function, they will bury their feelings and focus on appearing outwardly mentally healthy until they destroy themselves from the inside out
Mental health isn't important because it makes people more productive. It's important because people deserve to live happy and fulfilled lives. Telling people that their happiness is only relevant insofar as it impacts their productivity is so harmful
