People often have the misconception that health and wellness have the same definition. This misconception can often lead to confusion amongst writers and readers when the two terms are used interchangeably even though they have two different meanings. A basic understanding of the difference between the two terms should suffice for most fiction writers while non-fiction writers who write health or wellness-related topics will likely need a deeper understanding of the terms to correctly convey their knowledge to their audience.  

Health vs. Wellness 

Health is a state of complete well-being, including physical, psychological, spiritual, social, intellectual, and environmental dimensions of health, and not merely the absence of disease, infirmity, and symptoms (Hales, 2013). While wellness is a set of deliberate and desirable lifestyle choices characterized by personal responsibility and optimal enhancement of physical, mental, and spiritual health that apply to the domains of a person’s life, such as financial situations, personal relationships, and physical health (Prilleltensky, 2013). 

The Dimensions of Wellness  

There are in fact a total of eight dimensions of wellness. These dimensions are: emotional, physical, occupational, intellectual, financial, social, environmental, and spiritual (Prilleltensky, 2013). The dimensions of wellness are in many ways all intertwined with how having a low level of one of the dimensions of wellness could affect all the other dimensions negatively as well. For instance, the knowledge of the wellness model states that the occupational and spiritual dimensions are directly related to the meaning and purpose of a person’s work-life balance (Opatz, 1986). In fiction, a writer could use the model and its explanation to justify why a character's spiritual problems have been causing them to suffer with regard to a poor work-life balance. 

Deeper Understanding Needed for Nonfiction Writers 

While a basic understanding of the difference between health, wellness, and the wellness dimensions is suitable for most fictional writers, it may not suffice for non-fiction writers.  Non-fiction writers may need to have an understanding of how different disciplines have different views towards how wellness is evaluated and viewed to be able to write about the topic or topics effectively.  

For example, a psychological perspective would involve evaluating the individual's mental health. A health psychologist might use the biopsychosocial model to evaluate a person's wellness based on the “biological, psychological, and social factors are all involved in any given state of health or illness” (Taylor, 2015, p. 316). Lastly, a sociologist might evaluate a person’s wellness based on their place in society, how society influences the individual, and how the individual has influenced society.  A writer planning to cover health or wellness topics in their writing would need to carefully consider not only the differences between health and wellness but also which perspective they would use in regard to their writing. 

References 

Hales, D. (2013). Invitation to Health: Live It Now (16th ed.). Cengage Learning. 

Opatz, J. P. (Ed.). (1986). Wellness promotion strategies: Selected proceedings of the eighth annual National Wellness Conference. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. 

Prilleltensky, I. (2013). Wellness without fairness: The missing link in psychology. South African Journal of Psychology, 43(2), 147–155. 

Taylor, S. (2015). Health Psychology (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.