Mental Health

Having a positive outlook, being comfortable with yourself and others, and being able to meet life’s challenges and

demands

Signs of Good Mental Health

• Realistic about strengths and weakneses• Responsible for personal behavior• Avoid high risk behaviors, tobacco, drugs• Open-minded and flexable• Fun loving, able to relax alone or with others• Respect both your needs and other’s needs• Respect everyone’s value as a human being-including

their own• Express emotion in such a way as not to hurt themselves

or others• View change as a challenge and an opportunity

Roadblocks to Mental Health

• All- or-nothing thinking

• Expecting the “worst” in others or yourself

• Being a perfectionist

• Letting your actions or words betray your values

Self-Esteem

The confidence and worth that you feel about yourself

Feedback

• Messages from others that indicate who they think are or what they think you are like

• Sources: parents, siblings, extended family, teachers, coaches, friends, and your peers

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (pyramid)

• At the bottom are your physical needs (hunger, thirst, sleep)

• The next level are emotional needs (to belong, love, be loved, achieve, to be recognized)

• The next level are Aesthetic or artistic needs (to know, understand, explore)

• At the top- Self-actualization (trying to be the best you can be)

Emotions

• Love

• Empathy

• Fear

• Anger

• Guilt

Fears

1. Speaking before a group (#1 fear)2. Heights3. Insects and spiders4. Money problems5. Deep water6. Sickness7. Death8. Flying9. Loneliness10. Dogs

Phobias• Irrational fears that can get in the way of leading a normal life.

• Having a phobia may produce the following signs and symptoms:

• A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity or situation. • An immediate response of uncontrollable anxiety when exposed to the

object of fear. • A compelling desire to avoid and unusual measures taken to stay away from

what you fear. • An impaired ability to function at normal tasks because of the fear. • Often, the knowledge that these fears are out of proportion with the stimulus. • When facing the object of your phobia, an experience of panicky feelings,

such as sweating, rapid heartbeat, avoidance behavior, difficulty breathing and intense anxiety.

• In some cases, anxious feelings when merely anticipating an encounter with what you fear.

Defense MechanismsStrategies used to deal with strong or stressful emotions and situations

are called.

• Repression• Suppression• Rationalization• Regression• Denial• Compensation• Projection• Idealizaton

Positive ways of Dealing with

• Emotions

• Fear

• Anger

• Guilt

Qualities that can help Emotional Health

1. Your outlook on life

a. pessimist

b. optimist

2. Resiliency ( the ability to bounce back or recover from disappointment, difficulty, or set-backs

Stress

• Distress - state in which a person is unable to adapt completely to stressors. Stress can be created by influences such as work, school, peers or co-workers, family and death.

• Eustress - a positive stress that motivates people.

Kinds of stressors

• Biological (chemical imbalance, mental or physical illness, disabilities, injuries

• Environmental (poverty, pollution, crowding, noise, natural disasters)

• Cognitive or thinking (Perceive or expect from a situation)

• Personal behavior (tobacco, alcohol, drugs, not exercising

• Life situations (death of friend or pet, divorce, peer relationships

Your body’s stress response

• First stage – Alarm – hypothalamus, adrenaline

• Second stage – Resistance – body repairs itself and goes back to its normal state

• Third stage – Fatigue

1. Physical

2. Pathological

3. Psychological

Personality Types

• Type A (high achieving)

• Type B (laid back)

Stress (Mind-Body Connection)

• High Blood Pressure• Headache• Asthma• Immune Response• Ulcers• Psychosomatic Response (mind causes

something physically wrong in the body) examples: skin disorders, stomachaches, digestive problems and headaches.

Managing Stress

• Planning

• Rechanneling Energy

• Laughing and relaxing

• Support group

• Time management

Kind of Losses

• Stages of LossStage 1 – DenialStage 2 – AngerStage 3 – BargainingStage 4 – DepressionStage 5 – Acceptance

Closure and grief response

Mental Disorders

• Illness of the mind that prevents us from leading a normal and productive life.

• Two General Types

1. Organic - A disorder that is clearly caused by a physical illness or an injury that affects the brain such as a brain tumor or stroke

2. Functional – No physical cause is present or can be found

Organic Disorders

• Brain tumors

• Alcoholism

• Stroke

• Inherited chemical imbalances

Functional Disorders

• Anxiety

• Somatoform

• Affective

• Personality

Anxiety Disorders

• Definition: An illness in which real, imagined, or persistent fears prevent a person from enjoying life.

• Phobia

• Obsessive-Compulsive disorder OCD

• Panic Disorders

• Post-traumatic stress Disorder

Somatoform Disorders

• Definition: Illness in which a person complains of disease symptoms, but no physical cause can be found.

• Hypochondria

Affective Disorder

• Defintion: Mood swings that last a long time

• Clinical Depression

• Bipolar Disorder

Personality Disorders

• Definition: Psychological condition that affect a person’s ability to get along with others

• Antisocial personality Disorder

• Passive-aggressive Disorder

• Schizophrenia