TAKEAWAYS:

WEEK 1
Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which a person is able to cope with the normal stresses of
life, work productively, realize their potential and contribute to the community. Positive mental health
encompasses many aspects of life, which can be divided into emotional, psychological, and social
wellbeing. Positive Psychiatry seeks to understand and promote wellbeing in people who have, or
are at risk of developing mental or physical illness. Also, window of tolerance which states that
human beings, like other animals, like to operate within a comfortable zone a lot of the time. When
we get out of our comfort zone, the stress begins to dramatically rise, and then we find situations
distressing.
The misconceptions about positive psychology is that positive psychology is just about
happiness. What positive psychology is about is about the scientific study of human flourishing and
of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and organizations and communities to thrive.
Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life worth living. Happiness is much more
than just feeling good. Happiness means living a rich, full, and meaningful life and sometimes that's
painful.

WEEK 2
Body movement is a fundamental component of human health, evolution, and development.
Physical activity is defined here as any type of body movement that uses up energy . Yoga is often
seen as exercise and stretching, but it is a contemplative practice. It's often described as a moving
meditation. The postures themselves, called asanas, are only one of those limbs. The last five limbs
are dedicated to levels of meditation. From pranayama, focus on the breath, to deeper levels of
concentration and meditation leading to samadhi. Samadhi is a state of alertness and being fully
conscious in the world. 
The other postulated benefits of yoga come through it facilitating the mind-body connection by
top down cognitive processes, bottom up physiological processes. In particular, it is thought to
balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous systems to facilitate adaptive
responses to stress most exciting area of research in yoga is in prevention and early intervention.

Sleeping well plays a vital role in mental health. Insomnia is an extremely common sleep disorder.   
the insomnia also causes problems in the daytime, such as tiredness, poor concentration, or irritable
moods. The essence of insomnia is that the person feels unsatisfied with the amount or quality of
sleep. So much so that it leads to significant distress or an inability to function in important areas of
life. This can affect the person's relationships, work, education, social life, or other important areas. 
Three common misperceptions regarding sleep
- good sleepers sleep through the night and do not wake until the morning, then they wake
refreshed.
- Number two, we start the night in light sleep and finish sleep in deep sleep. So if the sleep
period is shortened, in any way, then sleep will be severely compromised.
- Number three, rapid eye movement sleep is deep sleep.
- The onset of sleep is triggered by increasing darkness that causes the brain to produce
melatonin.
 Melatonin causes sleep
 Light causes waking
- strategies for managing sleep patterns.
 Bed/ sleep restriction therapy -  reducing the time spent in bed but either
going to be later or getting up earlier. This can improve the length and
quality of a sleep.
 Avoiding unhelpful cues associated with the bed, such as using
computer screens or television in the bedroom,
  Paradoxical intention is a strategy that involves putting the effort into
staying awake.
 It is also important to have exposure to early morning light, regular
exercise, and a healthy diet. Avoiding caffeine or alcohol close to bed
time can also be useful. 
 If depression is an issue, managing your mood in conjunction with
changing sleep behaviors and thoughts is both effective and useful.
 Relaxation and mindfulness strategies help to reduce anxiety and can
promote sleep

Nutrition: Prevention

Due to globalization - instead of traditional dietary patterns in different countries, people are more
increasingly eating foods that are highly processed. But it's also given rise to really a tidal wave of chronic
illness, such as heart disease and diabetes. And in fact, unhealthy diet is now the leading risk factor for early
death. people who eat the healthier diet reduced risks for these disorders.those who eat more of the the
unhealthy and processed foods are more at risk

Relaxation

Our body has developed this response to stress over time as a survival mechanism. physiological
responses are meant to prepare us to fight, run away, or to freeze when we sense threat. Here are
some different relaxation techniques: Deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation; Deep
breathing activate the parasympathetic system which calms us down and puts the brakes on our
stress response; progressive muscle relaxation - bringing attention to the tension we're carrying in
our body, and focusing on relaxing that tension.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment without judgement. It is being aware of how
we're feeling, what's happening in our mind and body and around us at any given moment. It's not
about controlling or stopping these thoughts. But instead not allowing ourselves to get caught up in
them. The two most widely studied structured mindfulness programs - mindfulness based stress
reduction or MBSR and mindfulness based cognitive therapy or MBCT

WEEK 3

Attachment and mental health

Attachment as a theory of human development and functioning in positive psychiatry. Modern
medicine and psychiatry now promote the idea of treating the whole person in an integrated
way. Attachment theory is one model that provides an explanation for health and well-being and
what happens when they break down. It affirms the interconnections between
biological, psychological, and social factors and can guide recovery. They achieve a balance of
strategies for managing life under the stresses and strains. This is attachment security And such an
individual is called secure in their attachment style. This style promotes our active meaningful way of
being connected to ourselves and others, and buffers us against the effects of stress and trauma. It
is associated with health and flourishing in many contexts. However, insecure Attachment – a
person can turn away from help and feel that they have to manage alone, termed an avoidant or
dismissing strategy. They can feel unconfident in their own coping and can tend to anxiously or even
angrily rely on others, termed an anxious ambivalent or preoccupied strategy.
So attachment describes our organization of attention, feeling, thinking, and behavior towards
ourselves and others to manage stress. The three main attachment strategies are also known as
states of mind. These states can also affect body functions such as sleep, eating, and sexuality. 
The last important pattern of attachment happens when people have gone through a loss or
traumatic experience that breaks down the normal organized way of coping and being. Our thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors become disorganized. This occurs naturally when people are grieving or
have experienced a trauma. They can feel shocked, numb, or feel very intensely and
might experience disturbances of sleeping and eating and energy, and an unusual sense of
confusion, disorientation, disconnection that don't feel like their normal selves. new experiences like
personal and therapeutic relationships can shift attachment templates. We can move towards
security. And move to reorganize after loss and trauma towards feeling safe almost settled, resilient,
and more flexible in our sense of self and our relationships with others.

Creative selves

The sense of self arises through the experience of feeling during communication and
exploration. A sense of self is a positive achievement reflecting a sense of value in the
individual. Zone of Proximal Development - sense of value in the infant, establishing a space
for learning from others that humans grow inside a world of language as well as the physical
world. They are able to participate emotionally and physically from the very beginning. Feelings and
emotions are a component of all human experience, acting as an in-built value system that allows
the infants and adults to asses their experience, selecting interactions that promote aliveness and
growth. Can described as using your gut feeling or instinct or intuition. A sense of aliveness is
central to well-being and the development of mental life. A sense of meaning is not fixed or external
to individuals but is created through communication, relationships, and building skills.

Autonomy and connection

Autonomy - People need to be able to make decisions about their own life. Meanwhile, connection is
one important thing to be really mentally healthy, you need to be strongly and socially connected.
Real humans exist in real social groups, small world networks, to be highly connected, both with
their parents, their children, their friends, their family, their workplace, the people they live close to,
highly embedded.

Social and economic participation

When people develop mental health problems, the big impact is actually on their social and
economic participation, dropping out of school, dropping out of employment, not being out and an
effective part of a community on an ongoing basis. If you develop mental health problems, you tend
to progressively fall out of that and have the costs associated with it

 A country's really wealthy economically, socially, and in fact in terms of these days, security
and its functioning, when it has high mental wealth, when the members of that community are
operating at their best in terms of their cognitive function, their everyday behavior

Consumer communities
 Consumer communities fight against human experiences being categorized
and medicalized.
Consumer communities seize the slurs that are used against them, like mad, nutter, and psycho,
and reclaim them to be used with pride. Consumer communities have taken inspiration from other
groups who have been marginalized by society. Consumer Place - It is a space where diverse
consumer perspectives are shared and respected.

Work and mental health

good work - balances the interest of the individuals, the employers, and society in order to
deliver performance, engagement and fairness so that individuals are productive in a sustainable
way and can remain in employment in a healthy way over time.

Job quality - one of the key issues is around whether employees have what's called
autonomy which is the idea that you have some degree of control over your work or some degree of
control over how you do your tasks at work. The reason why good job quality is important is that-
poor quality jobs are associated with a reduction in well-being and a reduction in mental health.

Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are the most common of all the psychiatric disorders. anxiety disorders can
be quickly and effectively treated, and so we're able to provide a lot of hope to our patients. Anxiety
disorders occur on a spectrum from normal to abnormal, or what we call pathological. Anxiety can
even have positive effects, such as making as more prepared to face adverse event, being more
cautious, protective, being better workers, and being better achievers.

Depression

Depression is a normal human emotion - It is a key symptom of a disabling, but treatable

clinical disorder, clinical depression or, to use the technical name, major depression.

Clinical depression differs from normal depression in a number of ways. The low mood will
last for much of the day every day and will persist for more than two weeks. It is accompanied by
other symptoms such as sleep and appetite disturbances, and it causes significant impairment. it is
in fact a major cause of disability worldwide, as it is often a chronic are reoccurring illness.

Addictions

Addiction is the psychiatric disorder with the highest odds of recovery. the odds of recovery
increase with age unlike many other chronic conditions. recovery is that it occurs with social support
not an isolation. It's not just physical, because addiction can affect people's thinking,
judgement, emotions, and behaviour.

Some people need medical help to safely manage their withdrawal symptoms. Most
withdrawal symptoms, whilst uncomfortable and unpleasant, can be managed without being in
hospital or detox, as they're not life threatening or medically dangerous.

Bipolar disorder
 Firstly, while bipolar disorder can run in families, there is no single gene for this condition. 
Secondly, bipolar disorder is described as a mood disorder, but really it's a disorder of energy and
drive. The best way to describe it is by thinking of the clock that sits in our brain.  This brain clock
sets our sleep and wake times and regulates the amount of activity we do. Early treatment involves
improving sleep and activity patterns. Helping people to maintain regular exercise and social
routines reducing and managing stress and recognizing the triggers for episodes. Sleep deprivation
changes, change of season, life events.  Drugs and alcohol infections or travel can trigger an
episode. 

INSIGHT

The goal of Positive Psychiatry is not only to treat psychiatric symptoms, but also to enhance
the wellbeing of those with mental or physical illness. The field of Positive Psychiatry looks at
research on positive character traits and social factors that enhance mental health. One of which is
resilience or the quality that makes people cope well with stress, adversity, or trauma with this
people are able to learn or grow through difficult experiences, and this is known as post-traumatic
growth. This course also talks about stress regulation and stress management are essential part of
positive psychology and positive psychiatry. In addition, a highly influential approach to mental
health care is based on the concept of personal recovery. It focuses on the ability of a person to live
the life they want to live, a life with meaning and purpose, regardless of whether they are
experiencing signs of distress. Personal recovery is about realizing personal identity and cultural
identity. Intense distress has meaning and validity just like other human experiences. Personal
recovery is achievable for everyone. But, we must take care not to turn a person's diagnosis into
their identity.

Moreover, this course put emphasis on mindfulness which has been shown to reduce levels
of stress and burnout, as well as improve job satisfaction and engagement. Mindfulness also has a
role in approving the quality of life for people with chronic physical health conditions. The strongest
evidence to date, is in people living with cancer, but has also benefits for chronic pain, arthritis,
reducing the risk of heart disease, and improving quality of life in the palliative care setting. The
individual mind is dependent on communication through language, using symbols to understand and
participate in the world. From the beginning of life, humans have the ability to communicate

Psychotherapy seeks to use this model of affective development, emotional development, to

provide a containing and responsive relationship where the patient can be recognized, validated,
and responded to. It's important to believe people can and do lead productive fulfilling lives despite
experiencing mental health issues. Recovery is best described as a way of living a
satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with the limitations caused by illness.