we are apt to miss what an extraordinary  and complicated achievement it is to feel  

mentally well. A mind in a healthy state is,  in the background, continually performing  

a near-miraculous set of manoeuvres that underpin  our moods of clear-sightedness and purpose.

To appreciate what mental health might be  

(and therefore what its opposite  involves), we might take a moment  

to consider some of what will be going on in  the folds of an optimally-functioning mind:

First and foremost, a healthy mind is an  editing mind, an organ that manages to sieve,  

from thousands of stray, dramatic, disconcerting  or horrifying thoughts, those particular ideas and  

sensations that actively need to be entertained  in order for us to direct our lives effectively.

Partly this means keeping at bay punitive  and critical judgements that might want to tell  

us repeatedly how disgraceful and appalling we  are - long after harshness has ceased to serve  

any useful purpose. When we are interviewing  for a new job or taking someone on a date,  

a healthy mind doesn't force  us to listen to inner voices  

that insist on our unworthiness. It allows us  to talk to ourselves as we would to a friend.

At the same time, a healthy mind  resists the pull of unfair comparisons.  

It doesn't constantly allow the achievements  and successes of others to throw us off course  

and reduce us to a state of bitter inadequacy.  

It doesn't torture us by continually comparing  our condition to that of people who have,  

in reality, had very different upbringings and  trajectories through life. A well-functioning  

mind recognises the futility and cruelty of  constantly finding fault with its own nature.

Along the way, a healthy mind keeps  a judicious grip on the faucet of fear.  

It knows that, in theory, there is an endless  number of things that we could worry about:  

a blood vessel might fail, a scandal might erupt,  the plane's engines could sheer from their wings…  

But it has a good sense of the distinction between  what could conceivably happen and what is in fact  

likely to happen - and it is able to leave us in  peace as regards the wilder eventualities of fate,  

confident that awful things will either not  unfold or could be dealt with ably enough  

if ever they did so. A healthy mind avoids  catastrophic imaginings: it knows that there  

are broad and stable stone steps, not a steep and  slippery incline, between itself and disaster.

A healthy mind has compartments with heavy  doors that shut securely. It can compartmentalise  

where it needs to. Not all thoughts belong at  all moments. While talking to a grandmother,  

the mind prevents the emergence of images of  last's nights erotic fantasies; while looking  

after a child, it can repress its more cynical  and misanthropic insights. Aberrant thoughts about  

jumping on a train line or harming oneself with  a sharp knife can remain brief peculiar flashes  

rather than repetitive fixations. A healthy  mind has mastered the techniques of censorship.

A healthy mind can quieten its own buzzing  preoccupations in o rder, at times, to focus on  

the world beyond itself. It can be present and  engaged with what and who is immediately around.  

Not everything it could feel has to be felt  at every moment. It can be a good listener.

A healthy mind combines an  appropriate suspicion of certain people  

with a fundamental trust in humanity.  

It can take an intelligent risk with a stranger.  It doesn't extrapolate from life's worst moments  

in order to destroy the possibility of  anything good emerging with a new acquaintance.

A healthy mind knows how to hope;  

it identifies and then hangs on tenaciously to a  few reasons to keep going. Grounds for despair,  

anger and sadness are, of course, all around. But  the healthy mind knows how to bracket negativity  

in the name of endurance. It clings to  evidence of what is still beautiful and kind.  

It remembers to appreciate; it can - despite  everything - still look forward to a hot bath,  

some dried fruit or dark chocolate, a chat with a  friend, or a satisfying day of work. It refuses to  

let itself be silenced by all the many sensible  arguments in favour of rage and despondency.

Outlining some of the features of a healthy  mind helps us to identify what can go awry  

when we fall ill. We should acknowledge the extent  to which mental illness is ultimately as common,  

and as essentially unshameful,  as its bodily counterpart.  

True mental health involves a frank acceptance  

of how much ill health there will have to be in  even the most ostensibly competent and meaningful  

life. And we should be no more reluctant to  seek help than we are when we develop a chest  

infection or a sore knee - and should consider  ourselves no less worthy of love and sympathy.