The disconnect between physical health and mental health

I am fascinated as to how we think about mental health compared to how we think about physical health.  Where our physical health is concerned, we have no problem accepting that, during our lives we are likely to have periods were our physical health is not good.

Occasionally we will experience some periods of poor physical health. But when we do, what happens. We TALK to our friends, our colleagues, Goodness me, when it comes to our physical health, WE LOVE TALKING ABOUT OUR ACHES AND PAINS.
We talk to HR and take some time off to recover. Go home, get some rest. Feel better soon

Contrast that with how we view mental health. Ours and others.  If we recognize that we are experiencing poor mental health, and often we do not. So, we do not talk about it. We see it as a weakness and something to be ashamed of.

If we do get to the point where we must take time off, what are people going say? How are they going to react? And what is it like coming back to work when people know the reason you were off?  Your colleagues do not quite know what to say. Should they speak to you? Should they just leave you be?

Unless you work with some amazing, well rounded, well informed, caring, and compassionate work colleagues (Which I am sure you all do). You are unlikely to get a welcome back that is relaxed and positive. At the very least there is likely to be some degree of awkwardness.

So why the disconnect? Our health is our health, whether it be our physical health or our mental health. They are both on a spectrum. Just as we experience periods of good and poor physical health, so we can find ourselves experiencing periods of poor mental health. It should not be a surprise to us. Yet it is.