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I’m not really sure what “mental health” is in that, perhaps, such categories are useful as general assessment tools, but really can only be defined on a case-by-case basis. Are health and wellness determined by how one thinks, what one feels or how one behaves? Perhaps what one person deems to be healthy, another would deem unhealthy. Is “mental health” an endpoint or an ongoing project of sorts? If mental health, as Martin commented, is to be approximated in the way one would physical health, then it implies a baseline level of self-care and an ability to participate in life without self-harm or harm to others. If one argues that the individual in her environment ultimately shapes reality, then mental health in that context is the flexibility to maintain “balance,” within certain indefinable bounds, that are somewhat unique to that given reality.

I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts.