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Mental Health: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
What Mental Health Is
Mental health is about how we think, feel and cope. Like physical health, everyone has it, and it can go up and down over time.
Key fact
About 1 in 8 people worldwide live with a mental health condition.
Stress
Stress is the body’s response to pressure. A little can help you focus, but stress that lasts a long time can affect sleep, mood and health.
Key fact
Stress releases the hormone cortisol and speeds up your heartbeat.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear. It’s a normal response to danger, but when it’s intense and long-lasting it can become a condition, and treatment helps.
Key fact
Anxiety conditions are among the most common mental health conditions.
Looking After Your Mind
Sleep, movement, time outdoors and talking to people you trust all support mental health. Even a short walk can lift your mood.
Key fact
Talking about how you feel is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Depression
Depression is more than a sad day: it’s a low mood lasting weeks that affects daily life. It’s common, and it can be treated with talking therapies, medicine or both.
Key fact
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness means paying calm attention to the present moment, like noticing your breathing. Studies suggest it can help reduce stress for many people.
Key fact
Slow breathing can calm the body’s stress response.
Getting Help
When things feel too hard, reaching out helps: a friend, family member, teacher, doctor or helpline. Needing support is common and nothing to be ashamed of.
Key fact
Mental health conditions are treatable, and support works.
Fun facts
The World Health Organization’s 1948 definition of health already included mental and social well-being, not just freedom from disease.
The phrase “fight or flight” for the body’s stress response was coined by physiologist Walter Cannon in 1915.
The “butterflies” of nerves are real: anxiety shifts blood away from your gut, towards your muscles.
Some doctors in the UK and Canada prescribe time in nature, like walks or gardening, to support mental health.
Winter depression, called seasonal affective disorder, is often treated with bright light therapy.
Mindfulness courses were brought into Western medicine by Jon Kabat-Zinn, in 1979.
Many countries have free, confidential helplines open day and night.
Story: The Teacher Who Visited Jails
The Teacher Who Visited Jails
1841, Massachusetts. Teacher Dorothea Dix goes to teach a Sunday class in a jail, and finds mentally ill people in freezing cells.
She spends two years visiting jails and poorhouses and taking notes, then puts a searing report before the state’s lawmakers.
Her campaigns led to dozens of hospitals built to treat people rather than lock them away.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Everyone has mental health, just as everyone has physical health.
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True. It’s part of being human.
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Question 2 of 10
Short bursts of stress can help you focus.
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True. Like before a race or an exam.
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Question 3 of 10
Some anxiety is a normal part of life.
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True. It helps us notice and prepare for risks.
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Question 4 of 10
Physical activity can help lift mood.
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True. Even a short walk helps.
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Question 5 of 10
Depression is treatable.
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True. Many people recover with the right support.
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Question 6 of 10
Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment.
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True. Without judging it.
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Question 7 of 10
Asking for help is a healthy step.
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True. It’s often the first step to feeling better.
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Question 8 of 10
Mental health never changes over a person’s life.
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False. It shifts with life, stress and support.
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Question 9 of 10
Stress affects only the mind, never the body.
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False. It affects the heart, sleep, digestion and more.
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Question 10 of 10
Anxiety conditions can never be treated.
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False. Therapy and other support help many people.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Mental Health has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- World Health Organization — Mental health fact sheets
- NHS — Every Mind Matters
- Mind (UK mental health charity) — Information and support
- U.S. National Institute of Mental Health — Health topics
- Harvard Study of Adult Development
- NHS — Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- White et al. (2019), time in nature and health and wellbeing, Scientific Reports 9
