Mental Health

& coping

 Mental Health
 Successful performace of the mental function and the results in
o Productive activities
o Fulfilling relationships
o Ability to cope with life challenges ( Donatelle, 2010)

 Involves effective function in daily activities resulting in

o Productive activities
o Healthy relationships
o Ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity

 State of well-being in which every individual

o Realizes his or her own pontential
o Can cope with the normal stresses of life
o Can work productively
o Able to make contribute to the community

 Categories within which mental health could be represented

o Attitude Towards Self
 Mental health is indicated by the attitudes of the individual towards
themselves
o Growth and Development
 Mental health is expressed in the individual’s style and degree of growth,
development or self-actualization
o Relation to Reality and Enviroment
 Mental health is based on the individual’s relation to reality in terms of
autonomy, perception of reality, and environmental mastery.
o Integration of Aspects of Self
 Mental health is the ability of the individual to integrate developing and
differing aspects of themselves over time.
 Characteristics of Mentally Healthy person
1. Realistic
2. Accepting
3. Autonomous
4. Authentic
5. Capable of intimacy
6. Creative
7. Good self-esteem
8. Have value and purpose for living
9. Optimistic
10. Comfortable being alone
 Factors affecting mental Health

1. Self-Esteem
o Value we place on ourselves
o Positive self-image and sense of worth
o People with this have a positive outlook and are statisfied

2. Feeling Loved
o Kids who feel loved and accepted by their parents are likely to have a good self-
esteem
o Feel more comfortable, safe and secure
o Better to communicate and develop relationships with others.

3. Confidence
o Kids should be Encouraged to discover their own qualities and have confidence to
face challenges.
o People who have confidence have a positive attitude.

4. Family breakup or loss

o Finding ways to cope and adjust to the changes brought by these events is critical for
everyone, but particularly for youth.
o How grief is handled can affect young people negatively for years to come.

5. Difficult Behavior
o When people are unhappy, they either internalize their unhappiness or act out
o The latter usually appears as bad or difficult behaviour, such as using abusive
language, being aggressive or violent, damaging property, stealing, lying, refusing to
comply with requests or expectations at school or home, or displaying other
inappropriate actions.

6. Physical ill health

o Diseases, injuries and other physical problems often contribute to poor mental
health and sometimes mental illness.
o Some physical causes (such as birth trauma, brain injury or drug abuse) can
directly affect brain chemistry and contribute to mental illness.
o More commonly, poor physical health can affect self-esteem and people’s ability
to meet their goals, which leads to unhappiness or even depression.

7. Abuse
o Abused children are more likely to experience mental disorders during childhood
and into adulthood.
o Abuse may be physical, sexual, psychological or verbal.
 o Abuse can cause feelings of low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, depression,
isolation, anger, and all feelings that impair a child’s chance to lead a happy life.
 Why Mental Health is Important?
1. Mental Health is the foundation of:
o Thinking
o Communication
o Learning
o Resiliency
o Self-Esteem

2. Mental Health is key to:

o Relationships
o Personal well-being
o Emotional well-being
o Contributing to community

 Mental Health Law Highlights:

o Secure the rights and welfare of persons with mental health needs and mental
health professionals
o Provide mental health services down to the barangays;
o Integrate psychiatric, psychosocial, and neurologic services in regional, provincial,
and tertiary hospitals;
o Improve the country’s mental health care facilities; and,
o Promote mental health education in schools and workplaces.
  Mental Health & Coping

 World Health Organization Definition of HEALTH

o “a state of complete physical, mental & social well being & not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity”

 Mental Health Promotion

o The World Health Organization defines mental health as: "A state of well-being in
which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal
stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a
contribution to his or her community

 Illness Behavior
o Defines a social role with expectations for both the sick person and the healer.
 Disease
o Refers to a physical condition of the body.

 Health
o Health is the absence of disease. But one could be free of disease and still not enjoy
a full, wholesome & satisfying life.

 Health Behavior
o About 50% of premature deaths are a result of lifestyle risks
o Health behavior may include reducing or eliminating high-risk behaviors such as
smoking, poor diet or unprotected sex

 Diathesis Stress Model

o Views psychological disease as the result of the interaction between a person's
vulnerability for a disorder and stress.

 The Predisposition
o The diathesis or vulnerability to a psychological disorder lies quiet until a person
encounters stresses in his environment
 Diathesis factors
1. Genetics
o such as having a family history of a psychological disorder that might be related
defective genes
2. Biological Factor
o such as oxygen deprivation at birth or poor nutrition during early childhood
3. Childhood experiences
o such as isolation, loneliness or shyness that creates a distorted view of the world

 Stress Factors
o Stress factors that can interact with a person's predisposition for psychological
disease can range from mild to major stressors.
o Minor daily stress in home or external environment
o Life events such as a family death, a divorce, starting school
o Short-term factors such as a school or a work assignment
o Long-term stress such as chronic pain or an ongoing illness

 Modifying Protective Factors

o Protective environmental factors can modify the interaction between diathesis and
stress. Your protective factors, or resilience, can prevent a mental illness
o Family nurturance
o A protective social environment (eg. friends)
o Health Self Esteem
o These protective factors can dampen negative interactions between stressors and
vulnerability in an individual.

 Psychopathology
o The diathesis–stress model of mental illness suggests that some people possess an
enduring vulnerability factor (a diathesis) which, when coupled with a proximal
(recent) stressor, results in psychological disorder.
o Neither the diathesis nor the stressor alone is enough to lead to symptoms – both
must be present.

 Developmental psychopathology
 According to the diathesis-stress model, psychopathology is best understood using a lifespan
development approach.
 This approach considers how the negotiation and attainment of earlier developmental tasks
affects people’s capacities to manage later tasks (e.g. Cicchetti, Rogosch & Toth, 1994).
 Stress and Related Disorders
o Acute Stress Disorder
 is characterized by the development of severe anxiety, dissociation and
other symptoms that occurs within a month after exposure to an extreme
traumatic stressor (e.g. witnessing a death or serious accident)
 Diagnosis Caution
o For acute stress disorder to be diagnosed, the problem
must be clinically significant distress or impairment in
social, occupational or other functions.
o Disturbance must be at least minimum of 3 days and a
maximum of 4 weeks and must occur within 4 weeks if the
traumatic events.

o Adjustment Disorders
 abnormal and excessive reaction to an identifiable life stressor. The
reaction is more severe than would normally be expected and can result
to significant impairment in social, occupational, or academic functioning.
 Symptoms must arise within three months of the onset of the stressor
and lasted no longer than six months after the stressor has ended.
 Responses can be linked to single events (flood, fire), or multiple events
(marital problem, financial) .
 Stressor can be recurrent ( verbal abuse of the parent) or continuous (a
child witnessing parents constantly fighting.

o Diagnosis Caution
 The reaction clearly follows a life stressor. Within three months of
stressor onset, emotional and behavioral development to stressor
 Symptoms seems excessive compared to what would normally be
expected in relation to stressor and or symptoms significantly impaire
occupational, schoool and social functioning
 Symptoms do not last longer than six months after end of the stressor.

o Post Traumatic Stress Disorders

 PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event-
either experiencing it or witnessing it.
 Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmare, and severe anxiety.
 People who go through traumatic events may have temporarily difficulty
adjusting and coping, but with time and good self care they get better.
  If symptoms get worse, lasting for months even years, and interfere with
day to day functioning, that can be inferred as PTSD.

 Other Stress and Related Disorders

o Depression
o Anxiety discover
o Manic-depressive disorder
o Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD)
o Alcoholism
o Sexual dysfunction
o Personality disorders
o Eating disorders

Mental Health & Coping

 Coping
o anything people do to overcome the negative effects of stressful events; it is a
way to prevent, delay, avoid, or manage stress.

 Problem-Focused Coping
o efforts to act on the source of stress to change the person, the environment, or
the relationship between the two
o -will not work in any situation where it is beyond the individual’s control to
remove the source of stress
 changing the situation
 redefining the problem
 looking at alternative solutions
 evaluating the implications of the alternatives
 choosing the best one to act on

 Emotion Focused Coping

o Coping efforts that are directed toward regulating emotional states to decrease
emotional distress
o -may be the only realistic option when the source of stress is outside the person’s
control.
 Cognitive response
 Denial/avoidance
 Distraction or minimization
 Wishful thinking
 Self-control of feelings
  Seeking meaning
 Self-blame
 Expressing/sharing feelings

Happiness and wellbeing

In positive psychology happiness and wellbeing often get used interchangeably. What this
research actually has looked at when it talks about ‘happiness’ is;

Positive and
Satisfaction with
+
Negative feelings
about your own life
SUBJECTIVE
your own life
= WELLBEING
PERMA= Wellbeing Model

 Positive Emotion
 Engagement
 Relationships
 Meaning
Accomplishment
Positive psychology looks at


questions
of these such
are present in someone’s as;
This is A model of wellbeing, not everyone agrees with it but the suggestion is that when all five
life they report greater levels of wellbeing.
• What leads
So what does happiness researchtotell us?
some people
experiencing positive
o Positive Psychology is interested in finding out about what causes happiness as
this might help us to think about how to improve it.
growth
o Researchersin the
have measured face
something
is used interchangeably with ‘happiness’.
of
called ‘subjective wellbeing’ a term which

trauma?
o Some people wonder if the research doesn’t just tell us things which are obvious,
and sometimes it does for examples;
• What makes o Childrensomeare happier whenmore
their parents get on well

resilient and better able to

o Unemployment is a major source of unhappiness

deal with repeated

Before World War II psychology’s chology set- Positive Psy

backs?were;
objectives
1.• Are Tothese ‘cure mental characteristics illness’
2. able To make to be people defined, in general