Mental health is not a switch that flips between health and sickness. It is a spectrum that every person slides up and down throughout life. Sleep, stress, grief, trauma, hormones, relationships, work, money, loneliness, physical health, and life transitions all shape where someone might be on that spectrum at any given time. Moving beyond the term mental illness does not mean pretending serious distress does not exist. It means speaking in a way that is accurate, more hum