Mental Health

- is a state of emotional, psychological & social wellness evidenced by satisfying interpersonal relationships, effective behavior & coping a positive self-concept & emotional stability.

Components of Mental Health
- Autonomy & independence
- Maximizing one’s potential
- Tolerating life’s uncertainties
- Self-esteem
- Mastering the environment
- Reality orientation
- Stress management

Factors influencing a Person’s Mental Health can be Categorized as:
1. Individual Factors
- Person’s biologic makeup
- Having a sense of harmony in one’s life
- Vitality
- Finding meaning in life
- Emotional resilience/hardiness
- Spirituality
- Positive Identity

2. Interpersonal Factors
- Effective communication
- Helping others
- Intimacy
- Maintaining a balance of separateness & connection

3. Social/Cultural Factors

Age, Growth & Development - A person’s age can affect how he or she copes with illness or expresses illness

Genetic & Biologic Factors – Not under our control & are a result of our biologic makeup

Physical Health & Health Practices
– The healthier a person is, the better he or she can cope with strss or illness
- Personal health practices can have an impact on the clients response to illness
Self-Efficacy – Belief that personal abilities & efforts affect the events in our
lives

Hardiness – Person’s ability to resist illness when under stress

Resilience – Defined as having healthy responses to tressful circumstances or risky situations

Resourcefulness – Involves using problem-solving abilities & believing that one can cope with adverse or novel situations.

Spirituality – involves the essesnce of a person’s being & his or her beliefs about the meaning of life & the purpose for living.

Social Factors
– Sense of community
- Access to adequate resources
- intolerance of violence
- Support of diversity among people

Sense of Belonging
– Feeling of connectedness or involvement in a social system or environment of which a person feels an integral part.
- Involves of both feelings of value & fit

Social Networks – Groups of people whom one knows & with whom one feels connected

Social Support – emotional sustenance that comes from friends, family members, & even health care providers who help a person when a problem arises.

Family Support – Source of social support can be a key factor in the recovery of
clients with psychiatric illnesses.

Mental Illness – Seen as a medical problem with symptoms causing dissatisfaction with one’s characteristics, abilities & accomplishments; ineffective or unsatisfying interpersonal relationships; dissatisfaction with one’s place in the world; ineffective coping with life events; & lack of personal growth.

A Person should be Able to Do the Following:
1. S – self-awareness
2. I – Interpersonal relationship
3. R – Reality
4. A – Activities of Daily Living

Factors Contributing to Mental Illness
- Biologic factors & anxiety, worries & fears
- Ineffective communication
- Excessive dependece or withdrawal from relationships & loss of emotional control
- Lack of resources
- Exposure to violence, homelessness, poverty & discrimination

Personality Components
1. Id (More on Pleasurable Desire)
- Part of one’s nature that reflects basic desires, such as pleasure seeking behavior, aggression & sexual impulses.
- Seeks instant gratification, causes impulsive, unthinking behavior & has no regard for rules or social convention.

2. Superego (Moralistic Principle)
- Part of one’s nature that reflects moral & ethical concepts, values, parental & social expectations; therefore, it is in direct opposition to the Id.

3. Ego (Realistic Principle)
- Balancing or mediating force between the id & the superego
- Thought to represent mature & adaptive behavior, which allows people to function successfully in the world.

3 Levels of Awareness

1. Conscious – refers to the perceptions, thoughts & emotions that exist in the person’s awareness.

2. Preconscious – not concurrently in the person’s awareness, but they can be recalled with some effort.

3. Unconscious – the realm of thoughts & feelings that motivate a person, even though he or she is totally aware of them.
- Include most defense mechanisms & some instinctual drives or motivation.

Ego Defense Mechanisms
- Unconscious methods of attempting to protect the self & cope with basic drives or emotionally painful thoughts, feelings or events.

1. Compensation – Overachievement in one area to offset real or perceived deficiencies in another area.

2. Conversion – Expression of an emotional conflict through the development of a physical symptom, usually sensorimotor in nature.

3. Denial – Failure to acknowledge an unbearable condition; faliure to admit the reality of a situation, or how one enables the problem to continue.

4. Displacement – Ventilation of intense feelings toward persons less threatening than the one who aroused those feelings

5. Fixation – Immobilization of a portion of the personality resulting from unsuccessful completion of tasks in a developmental stage.

6. Identification – Modeling actions and opinions of influential others, while searching for identity or aspiring to reach a personal, social, or occupational goal.

7. Introjection – acccepting another person’s attitudes, beliefs & values as one’s own.

8. Projection – Unconscious blaming of unacceptable inclinations or thoughts on an external object.

9. Rationalization – excusing own behavior to avoid guilt, responsibility, conflict, anxiety or loss of self-respect.

10. Reaction Formation – acting the opposite of what one thinks or feels

11. Regression – Moving back to previous develommental stage in order to feel safe or have needs met

12. Repression – excluding emotionally painful or anxiety-provoking thoughts & feelings from conscious awareness.

13. Sublimation – Substituting a socially acceptable activity for an impulse that is unacceptable.

14. Substitution – Replacing the desired grtification with one that is more readily available.

15. Suppression – Conscious forgetting, a deliberate process of thought blocking.

16. Undoing – an attempt to erase an act, thought, feeling or desire.

17. Intellectualization – the feelings use of rational explanations to justify unacceptable behavior.

18. Fantasy – conscious distortion of unconscious feelings or wishes.

Heirarchy of Needs
1. Physiological Needs – food, water, sleep, shelter, sexual expression & freedom from pain.

2. Safety & Security – protection, security & freedom from harm or threatened deprivation
3. Love & Belonging – enduring intimacy, friendship & acceptance
4. Self-esteem – need for self-respect & esteem from others.
5. Self-actualization – highest level; need for beauty, truth & justice