# What is more important to you? Emotional/Mental Health or Physical Health?



## Lakigigar (Jan 4, 2016)

Emotional health.

But... like i said, bad emotional health can also bring good things. It can be a source of inspiration . Great writers and directors directed and writed their movies while they had their problems. I doubt a Kurt Cobain will become Kurt Cobain when he was so healthy as a fish.


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## feistyfay (Feb 21, 2016)

Prioritise the mental healt seems to be rather logical or me as if I suffer emotionally, my problems start to be psychosomatic so it basically tranfers to the body...


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## Clyme (Jul 17, 2014)

Emotional health.


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## Vast Silence (Apr 23, 2014)

I rarely get sick but when I do its usually mental


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## bruh (Oct 27, 2015)

Well, not caring about any of the two will eventually lead to death.
If I'm not physically well, I'm anxious, depressed and sometimes fearful (becomes mental)
When I'm mentally unwell, it becomes physical (no proper diet)
Both are equally important, so I don't care about which I choose.


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## Asmodaeus (Feb 15, 2015)

Both are important.


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## igby (Apr 13, 2016)

don't know if this has already been said, but the two are very closely tied a lot of the time. physical activity/making your body feel fitter and healthier can often improve mental health by a lot.


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## cuddlyone (Nov 24, 2015)

For me these 2 things are interlinked. My physical health will often start to deteriorate if my mental health is in a poor state. The same is true for vice versa obviously (when you are physically ill, you emotionally/mentally do not feel well either.)

I would say mental/emotional health is greater priority because the issues with this health can often be far reaching and more insidious than a physical illness which is more obvious to spot & treat.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

I think this is apples to oranges... to pears... It's like three questions tied up in one. 

1. Which is more important _to living_, physical or mental health? 
2. Which is more important _to you_, physical or mental health? 
3. Which would you rather do, take a day off to attend to your physical health (not really sure I understand why financial is slashed in with physical), or to attend to your mental/emotional health?

Speaking of first world privilege, there is also the body-health privilege to not have physical issues to an extent that they _demand_ time and energy. There are real life-impacting problems on all scales: anxiety or depression so bad you can't leave the house; not having any gas to be able to drive to work or money to take the bus or funds to buy the requisite clothing; ailing family members that require caregiving; a blood clot that puts you out of work for months; the flu, mumps, etc. that put you out of work for days. 

In contrast, there are also lower-level problems that you can choose to prioritize at will: feeling particularly stressed emotionally; a run-of-the-mill cold; being behind on your financial paper work; having twisted your ankle. I don't think I would be wrong to say that everyone would rather choose to take a day for their personal purposes rather than be forced to take a day because of a physical, emotional, mental, or financial problem that demands immediate attention. There may well be individual differences at this lower level, however, as to whether someone would rather physically recoup a day or emotionally recoup. Or recoup on paperwork, even.

Anyway, I guess I'm wondering what the original intent of the question was. Is this to see who struggles with what, or to see what preferences are? 

Overall, my guess is that, on this poll, in line with Maslow's pyramid, people will _choose_ to prioritize up the scale if they have the privilege of doing so - and indeed this is in logical keeping with the current 50:9 poll mental/emotionalhysical results. Unfortunately, ultimately, when it comes down to whether you use your day to go to kidney dialysis or to meditate, dialysis is probably going to win (actually, you could probably do both at once!)

Though - interesting to note that there is probably more fluidity and bidirectionally between physiological" and "esteem" on this example of the pyramid than is accounted for in the picture. So it is much more complicated than just physical health or mental health. Both to some extent entail the other.


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## isamanthax (Mar 22, 2016)

In my ninth grade health class I was called out on to make a debate or some crap on how all three 'heaths' were connected, for the other students to debate on. Truly, I do believe they all are connected. I said: "I had a best friend who passed away from brain cancer earlier this year, he was denied any social contact from anyone outside of immediate family. He physically went down (literally, he was blinded, then went paralyzed on his right side, then deaf. He never spoke again.)-then socially-and finally mentally because they put him into an induced coma," because he lived barely a month after he was sent home.
It's all a circle. One gets lopsided and the whole thing isn't correct anymore.
Me being me, I didn't give anyone room to debate on that, I said it as it was.


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## .17485 (Jan 12, 2011)

I would say Mental health


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## strawberryLola (Sep 19, 2010)

This is a tough question. They both inter-relate to one another.


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## sayakacarys (Mar 17, 2016)

Physical health would mean nothing without mental health. Mental health would mean something without physical health. This is my personal opinion.


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## soya (Jun 29, 2010)

Physical and mental health are related to each other; it isn't possible to separate them.


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## lukebtc (Apr 18, 2016)

They can really coincide. I am gluten intolerant, and technically have been my whole life, but it wasn't until I developed digestive issues that I went to a doctor and cut it out of my life completely.

Then my anxiety, depression, and mood swings cleared up dramatically.

Having a sound diet, good sleep, and consistent exercise go a long way in maintaining mental health. Way more than some realize. But due to the defeatist nature of depression, it's hard to think that these things will help, and even harder to establish a habit.


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## Endologic (Feb 14, 2015)

Mental health is more important to me in general, considering psychology is my cup of coffee (fuck tea).
However, I wouldn't stay home instead of go to work just cause I personally feel depressed at the moment. Sleep is usually enough to cure me mentally.
I'd much rather stay home because of physical problems, as they are much harder to deal with, to me at least.
However, I don't do anything for my physical health, and I'm skinny and physically weak as a result.


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## The Guitar Hero (Nov 24, 2013)

Physical health, since your physically condition drastically affects your mental condition. The more healthy, lean and fit you, the better your mental health and state will be. That's generally what happens, at least.


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

@stiletto

It doesn't matter. I'm never going to achieve a balance with either. I'm pretty much broken.


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## Umbraphage (Mar 22, 2016)

I would say they are both equally important to me. Mental health because I want to continue being capable at what I do without breaking down and going to a self destructive mode (I used to be depressed, so I don't want to go through that again). Physical health is a must because I'm a sickly weakling. -.-' I also got that gene from my mom for MSG-, maltodextrin-, and heat-induced migraines. They suck so much that I sometimes would need a whole liter of Mountain Dew just for the caffeine and a nap in complete darkness to take care of it. So, yeah, physical health is pretty important if I can't even function.


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## Kittens Are Awesome (Jun 11, 2017)

Both are equally important to me. Think of it like a door knob. Notice how if you turn one end of the knob the other one turns too? 

Similarly, mental health affects physical health. People who are stressed get tummy troubles, headaches and other physical symptoms such as susceptibility to infection. Pains are common in depression and anxiety. These are known as psychosomatic pains. 

On the other hand keeping good physically helps you mentally. If you exercise, the brain releases chemicals called endorphin's which make you feel happy. If you have chronic illnesses, you are more likely to get mental health issues such as depression. 

Also, mental health issues affect physical chronic illnesses, and physical health issues affect chronic mental health issues.


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## Librarylady (Mar 11, 2017)

Mental health is more important to me. If I get severely depressed, it is hard to even function. However, I have a lot of physical problems, and I still push myself to do things even with them. Easier to ignore.


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## shazam (Oct 18, 2015)

Ment a momotion.


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## Ochi96 (Jun 5, 2017)

Mental health is more important and difficult to manage for me.
But since I love sports, exercising makes me feel better and therefore, it improves my mental health. 
It's all connected.


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## Jaune (Jul 11, 2013)

My mental health is usually going to be fucked, nothing I can do about that. Even if I am feeling mentally shitty a certain day I'll try to put that aside and go through my day in a terrible mood.

Whenever I get sick, I refuse to leave the house, though. As soon as I get a cold, I pretty much refuse to go to school. Also, I'm pretty sure I would no longer want to live if I got some sort of physical disability like having to use a wheelchair or something. So physical health is more important to me, I'd say. I guess I'm in the minority.


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## Tsubaki (Apr 14, 2015)

I generally try to avoid ever letting my health interfere with my day to day life. My mentality on that is basically like "If it is not okay, it has to be okay". Therefore, I never skip exercise because of illnesses as long as I am not unable to move(I broke down at a doctor's office a while ago and still went for a run later that day) and generally don't "allow" my body to be unhealthy.

On the other hand, I deal with any mental health issues on my own and juggle them around most of the time, so I don't actually let a bad mental state affect me. Most "mentally unhealthy" behaviors that I exhibit have been present my whole life, so I couldn't use them as excuses to not do something. 

Of course I like being mentally healthy, but it's still not as essential as having a working body. I am pretty paranoid about my physical health and can feel really down when something is not right.


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## He's a Superhero! (May 1, 2013)

What good is a fit body when you've lost your mind? That being said, the two are connected...If you work on your physical health you are also working on your mental health.


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## Epic Love (Dec 30, 2016)

Physical. I always have soo much going on mentally and emotionally...so well...if something physical happens to me it's just too much. As long as I am physically fine I can deal with the rest. I'm just used to emotional and mental distress but not to physical one/pain because I have a very low like non existing pain tolerance.


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## Wisteria (Apr 2, 2015)

Rather live a short happy life than a long miserable one, so Mental.


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## Winter Queen (May 16, 2017)

This a tough decision. To me health is health, but I'm more likely to use a sick day for physical health. My Te will kick me through an emotionally bad day. Also, if I let things linger I'm more likely to be stressed by them. For me personally, getting something unpleasant behind me is cathartic.


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

I think mental/emotional health is sort of a prerequisite for physical, considering the research on how stress (and mental illness) ultimately has downstream, longer-term effects on the body. 

Also it's hard to care about your physical health if your mental health is shit. It's also hard to get through even a relatively minor physical issue if, say, you have poor resilience and can end up chronically affected psychologically by something that has long passed.

So just for those reasons I would say mental/emotional.


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## Baracuda902 (Mar 26, 2017)

For me, physical health would be a part of emotional and mental health. Exercise is connected to me being energetic and productive, and those are key for my mental health. My mental state would drop if I stopped working out, but it would also drop from other cases like procrastination, irresponsible spending, etc. Mental health takes all.


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## Cal (Sep 29, 2017)

Don't give a ****

A. All of the above.

B. Mental health

C. Physical health



* *




A. All of the above.


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## Mone (May 22, 2017)

Since these two are deeply connected, I choose both. 

Mental state creates nearly 50% of phsysical health. Of course, you can't beat cancer with positive mind only but it contributes to the progress.


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## UberY0shi (Nov 24, 2016)

I wanted to pick mental/emotional health. But I went with physical health because in my experience, if I take care of my body, my mental/emotional well being follow suit. Say... mentally/emotionally feel more like crap if I ate crap or didn't exercise/sleep, etc.


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## soop (Aug 6, 2016)

Good physical health will help improve mental/emotional health.


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## Snowflake Minuet (Feb 20, 2016)

Being that if you do take care of your physical health well, your mental health benefits tremendously, I'd definitely say the former is more important (even if it isn't the one I'm more immediately concerned with).


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## PaladinRoland (Jan 11, 2014)

I'll go with emotional and mental health. :kitteh:
Your physical health also suffers if you aren't happy or sane. :shocked:

heh heh heh :kitteh:


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## Enoch (Feb 5, 2017)

In an ideal world I would want to be a mathematician, it is much easier to engage in mathematics when suffering with the measles rather than a mood disorder.

Unfortunately for me I am quite physically healthy but I am massively mentally and emotionally muddled, so no mathematics for me.


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## master of time and space (Feb 16, 2017)

Its got to be emotional/mental health and well being

What use would a Justin Bieber physique be on a psychiatric inpatient ward?

there is evidence to suggest a causal link between exercise and reduced depression.

If your depressed then exercise is good. for any other issue there is no evidence of any benefit

Lawlor and Hopker (2001) have recently added to the available literature by conducting a very detailed systematic review of exercise as a treatment for depression. By averaging the findings
from 14 studies they found that exercise produced a large decrease on depression scores (effect size 1.1) compared with no-treatment control groups, and that there was no difference between the effect of exercise and cognitive therapy. Good old useless CBT

Despite the substantial literature on depression and exercise, there is an apparent reluctance from psychologists and psychiatrists to acknowledge exercise as a potential treatment model. For example, in the UK, an overview of depression and its treatment did not mention the value of
exercise at all (Hale, 1997)


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## nO_d3N1AL (Apr 25, 2014)

I agree with others in that the two go hand in hand. I'd go further and say good mental/emotional health leads to better physical health because you're less likely to make unhealthy choices when eating, more likely to exercise / go for a walk, sleep better etc. so it's all a virtuous or viscous circle, depending on your state.


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