October is Youth Substance Use Prevention Month and Substance Misuse Prevention Month.

• Prevention strengthens protective factors and reduces risk factors ― in individuals, families, schools, communities, and across society.
• Prevention science, and decades of community-based experience and scientific research, shows that prevention works.

What is Mental Health?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act, and helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.

Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Over the course of your life, if you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behavior could be affected.