What I meant was that it is very important for a person to believe in themselves and in the picture of mental health that they and their professional have formulated. Sometimes the opinion of non-experts can be harmful, whatever the good intentions. Actually, this is a good topic for a post, and I’ll be putting it on my list. But it’s too much to try to explain in a paragraph!

Thank you again for pointing this out. I think the post is stronger without it.

I think I gave a false impression about the evaluation of mental health. Certainly, it is of the utmost importance that a mental health professional help a person evaluate their mental health. The post is worded badly, and I think I will correct the wording.

Thanks for pointing this out!

I’m also relieved that you don’t need to meet all the criteria on that list. :-) I’m not very good with relationships – I think it’s because I’m too good at another item on the list – independence …

It’s interesting that you think it’s more important for an individual to assess how well he is rather than a professional. I can see this being true in some instances but from my own personal experience the person in question insisted he was fine and stopped taking medication until everything came crashing down. I wish professionals had been listened to more in this case.