Thought Literacy

Mental health gets explained like physical health, but for your mind. The analogy isn’t just describing mental health, but dragging a whole set of assumptions and ways of thinking about health with it. A more useful framing is to view mental health as a collection of skills the average person can learn, practice, and improve throughout life.

Definitions of mental health

The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community.” (1)

Well-being means “the general state of being comfortable, healthy, happy, and satisfied with life.” (2)

The American Psychological Association defines mental health as “a state of mind characterized by emotional well-being, good behavioral adjustment, relative freedom from anxiety and disabling symptoms, and a capacity to establish constructive relationships and cope with the ordinary demands and stresses of life.” (3)

A state of mind is a “person’s current mental or emotional condition and how it affects their thinking, mood, and behavior at a specific time.” (4)

The skills of mental health

Both definitions include a list of skills that, when learned, contribute to state of mind and well-being.

• Emotional well-being is a learnable skill that you can strengthen through regular practice and intentional habit building. (5)
• Behavioral adjustment is a learnable skill set that you can develop through structured practice and self-reflection.(6)
• Reducing and managing anxiety is a set of skills you can learn and practice over time. (7)
• Establishing constructive relationships is a learnable interpersonal competency that people can build with practice and deliberate effort. (8)
• Coping with stress is a practical skill that you can learn, practice, and improve over time. (9)

This leaves us with definitions of mental health that tell us that if we learn skills and build them over time, we can have a healthy state of mind. As you can see, there is no mention of genetics, predetermined illnesses from birth, or a chemical imbalance.

My experience with skill building

Like a lot of others, when I went to therapy, I was told I had a chemical imbalance in my brain that was leading to depression, and it was suggested that I go on medication.

The idea that depression and other mental illnesses are caused by a chemical imbalance is now considered a marketing-driven myth and not a proven scientific fact. (10)

While medication can be helpful, it’s an individual’s choice to do what’s best for them, medication didn’t feel like what was best for me. Instead I leaned into two of my lifelong joys, reading and learning.

I read about codependency, controlling parents, why men are abusive, unhealthy thought habits, and how to manage my mind. I also created techniques, some of which are now part of the thought literacy framework, and used my therapist as a mentor to help me learn skills and work skillfully with my thoughts.

These skills could be practiced at home. However, real-life practice was where I saw the most benefit, and the opportunities to practice the skills varied, leading some skills to take longer than others to build.

The result is five years of long-term remission from C-PTSD and depression after 20 years of emotional and physical abuse. So while I was once told it was shocking that I was living a normal, functioning life due to the severity of my mental health, I would no longer be diagnosed with any mental health conditions.

My perspective of mental health as a skill is something I attribute to my success in remission. And I continue to fine-tune my thought management skills, while also now prioritizing learning how to manage happiness and learning how to release prior identities.

The new framing

While it was once suggested I had Bipolar II, my research and experience are primarily focused on mental health ailments like depression, anxiety, and C-PTSD.

I am aware there is no research to support the idea that mental health conditions including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are solely genetically predetermined,(11–12) and there is a strong basis for including these conditions in skill building. However, I don’t know enough about those conditions to comment on whether they can be managed through learning skills.

My suggestion is to focus the skill framing on common mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, and to frame them not as physical health for the mind, but instead as a need for certain skills.

This shift may result in an unhelpful idea that someone who is depressed needs to just try harder, learn more, and is somehow failing. We need to strike a balance by being clear that mental health being skill building means that someone has likely not been taught a necessary skill to live a healthy fulfilling life. They are not responsible for what they weren’t taught, but they are responsible for learning now.

And we need to make it explicitly clear that just like it’s inappropriate to make fun of someone for not being taught how to read, we don’t judge or criticize someone for not being taught the skills for mental wellness.

Where we go from here

The result of learning this information can vary and depend on the person. You are welcome to cry it out and take some much-needed rest knowing that there’s hope and you can learn skills when you’re ready, you might lean into anger and be annoyed you weren’t taught these skills and have to work to accept it (I started here and then went to crying), or you may already be starting from a more neutral perspective, take it for what it is, and start learning these skills (I ended up here).

My hope is that seeing mental wellness as skill building will encourage and push institutions to put a greater emphasis on the skills necessary for mental wellness while removing the stigma and intimidation around mental health, letting people know they may have more control over their mental health than they think.

References

1. World Health Organization. “Mental Health.” September 11, 2026. https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
2. Cambridge University Press. “Well-being.” Cambridge Dictionary. Accessed September 17, 2026. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/well-being
3. American Psychological Association. “Mental Health.” APA Dictionary of Psychology. Updated April 19, 2018. https://dictionary.apa.org/mental-health
4. Dictionary.com. “State of Mind.” Accessed September 17, 2026. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/state-of-mind
5. Tlalka, Stephany. “How Science Reveals That ‘Well-Being’ Is a Skill.” Mindful, February 5, 2016. https://www.mindful.org/science-reveals-well-skill/
6. Soto, Christopher J., Nathan W. Hudson, Christopher M. Napolitano, Madison N. Sewell, Hee Jun Yoon, Brent W. Roberts, et al. “Practice Makes Perfect: A Behavioral Challenge Intervention to Develop Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills.” European Journal of Personality 40, no. 3 (2026): 599–613. First published online November 3, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070251392639
7. Kabrick, Siri. “11 Tips for Coping with an Anxiety Disorder.” Mayo Clinic Health System, October 4, 2024. https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/11-tips-for-coping-with-an-anxiety-disorder
8. National University. “Interpersonal Communication: Building Stronger Relationships.” October 23, 2018. https://www.nu.edu/blog/interpersonal-communication/
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Managing Stress.” May 12, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health/living-with/index.html
10. Baughman, Fred. “There Is No Such Thing as a Psychiatric Disorder/Disease/Chemical Imbalance.” PLOS Medicine 3, no. 7 (2006): e318. Published July 25, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030318
11. National Institute of Mental Health. “Schizophrenia.” https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia
12. National Institute of Mental Health. “Bipolar Disorder.” https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder