Mental health

is the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is
"functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment".[1] From the perspectives of
positive psychology or of holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to
create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience.[2] According to
the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-
efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one's
intellectual and emotional potential, among others".[3] The WHO further states that the well-being of
an individual is encompassed in the realization of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of life,
productive work, and contribution to their community.[4] Cultural differences, subjective assessments,
and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health".[3][5]

Mental health and mental illness Edit

According to the U.K. Surgeon Journal (1999), mental health is the successful performance of the mental
function resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and providing the
ability to adapt to change and cope with adversity. The term mental illness refers collectively to all
diagnosable mental disorders—health conditions characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or
behavior associated with distress or impaired functioning.[6][7] Mental health and mental illness are
two continuous concepts. People with optimal mental health can also have a mental illness, and people
who have no mental illness can also have poor mental health.[8]

Mental health problems may arise due to stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety, relationship problems,
death of a loved one, suicidal thoughts, grief, addiction, ADHD, self-harm, various mood disorders, or
other mental illnesses of varying degrees, as well as learning disabilities.[9][10] Therapists, psychiatrists,
psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners, or family physicians can help manage mental illness
with treatments such as therapy, counseling, or medication.

History Edit

See also: History of mental disorders

In the mid-19th century, William Sweetser was the first to coin the term mental hygiene, which can be
seen as the precursor to contemporary approaches to work on promoting positive mental health.[11]
[12] Isaac Ray, the fourth president[13] of the American Psychiatric Association and one of its founders,
further defined mental hygiene as "the art of preserving the mind against all incidents and influences
calculated to deteriorate its qualities, impair its energies, or derange its movements".[12]
Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) was an important figure in the development of the "mental hygiene"
movement. Dix was a school teacher who endeavored to help people with mental disorders and to
expose the sub-standard conditions into which they were put.[14] This became known as the "mental
hygiene movement".[14] Before this movement, it was not uncommon that people affected by mental
illness would be considerably neglected, often left alone in deplorable conditions without sufficient
clothing.[14] Dix's efforts caused a rise in the number of patients in mental health facilities, which
resulted in these patients receiving less attention and care, as these institutions were largely
understaffed.[14]

Emil Kraepelin in 1896 developed the taxonomy of mental disorders which has dominated the field for
nearly 80 years. Later, the proposed disease model of abnormality was subjected to analysis and
considered normality to be relative to the physical, geographical and cultural aspects of the defining
group.[citation needed]

At the beginning of the 20th century, Clifford Beers founded "Mental Health America – National
Committee for Mental Hygiene", after publication of his accounts as a patient in several lunatic asylums,
A Mind That Found Itself, in 1908[15] and opened the first outpatient mental health clinic in the United
States.[16]

The mental hygiene movement, similarly to the social hygiene movement, had at times been associated
with advocating eugenics and sterilisation of those considered too mentally deficient to be assisted into
productive work and contented family life.[17][18] In the post-WWII years, references to mental hygiene
were gradually replaced by the term 'mental health' due to its positive aspect that evolves from the
treatment of illness to preventive and promotive areas of healthcare.[19]

Marie Jahoda described six major, fundamental categories that can be used to categorize individuals
who are mentally healthy. These include: a positive attitude towards the self, personal growth,
integration, autonomy, a true perception of reality, and environmental mastery, which include
adaptability and healthy interpersonal relationships