Mental health involves your thoughts, feelings, actions, and social connections. Just like taking care of yourself physically, it matters how well you are doing psychologically. It is a great idea to understand your mental health whether you decide to get therapy or not.

Here are several questions you can ask yourself if you want to gauge your mental health:

Thoughts: Do your thoughts make sense to you? Are they generally organized and connected? Or are they more disorganized, or all over the place?

Emotions: Do you know what you’re feeling from moment to moment? How do you react when you feel something pleasant? What do you do when you feel distressed?

Behaviors: Are your actions generally good for you, or not so much? Do you feel in control of your choices? Are you falling into habits you can’t seem to stop?

Social Contacts: How connected are you to people around you? Are you lonely or isolated? Do you hate everybody?

Therapy can address all of those questions.

As you think about your mental health, please remember that mental illness is not the same thing as mental health. Everyone’s mental health falls on a range from very healthy to not healthy at all. But how can you tell where you fall on that range?

Here are some signs to watch for: The “Four Ds” of mental illness.

(1) Distress: One of the first warning signs of poor mental health is feeling distressed more often or more intensely than before. This might involve feeling sad, anxious, angry, or numb more often than usual. This might involve behavioral changes that you’re surprised by: putting yourself down, yelling at others, losing your temper.

(2) Dysfunction: Your mental health might be getting worse if you’re struggling in some of the major areas of your life: socially, at school, at work, etc. Maybe you’re more withdrawn than usual. Your interactions with people might not be going well in general. You might struggle to complete tasks or stay on top of your obligations. Or, you might complete your responsibilities, but with a lot more difficulty.

(3) Danger: A big warning sign is putting your life at risk through your actions, or inaction. Drunk driving is one example. Not taking your medication could be another. Choosing to take unnecessary risks tends to be more concerning than one off accidents or mistakes. The more often you make dangerous choices, the more that may damage your mental health, or put your life at risk.

(4) Deviance: Committing crimes and breaking social norms aren’t always a sign of poor mental health. Some crimes are better understood as failures of society, e.g. the family that wracks up medical debt and struggles to feed themselves. But sometimes, people will do illegal things that feel out of character for them. Or a sudden change in behavior, such as being out of control and attacking someone, can be a warning sign that mental health is worsening. You may also be distressed by the social pressure to be like everyone else, even if that doesn’t work for you.

Hopefully these questions and examples give you some food for thought about how well you are doing psychologically. If you would like to more precisely figure out how well you are doing, please reach out to a therapist for support.