Culture, Racism and Mental Health

Influence of Culture

• Culture includes beliefs, arts, norms, values, and symbols passed down to provide a framework for living.
• Mental health problems are culturally defined and may be seen as weakness in some cultures, making it difficult to seek help.
• The DSM-5 is a reference book for mental health and brain-related conditions created in Europe, published in 2013.
• Cultural bias is the tendency to interpret things based on personal cultural views.
• Cultural bias can affect the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, leading to misinterpretations.
• Communicating with spirits may be considered hallucinating or schizophrenia, according to the DSM.

Impacts of Racism on Mental Health

• Racism involves behaviors and actions causing inequalities for different groups; this includes limited opportunities based on culture, religion, and ethnicity.
• Negative health outcomes linked to racism include increased health issues and mortality rates among ethnic groups.
• Prejudice can result in negative behaviors like smoking, alcohol abuse, and drug misuse.
• Racism can lead to poor physical and mental health, negative behaviors, and an unbalanced life structure.
• Cultural competence for doctors involves programs to increase knowledge, translators, and diverse staff.
• Racism impacts people through limited opportunities and inequalities based on culture, religion, and ethnicity.

Cultural Backgrounds in Healthcare

• Differences between doctor and patient cultural backgrounds can lead to misunderstandings due to unfamiliarity with backgrounds and beliefs.
• A doctor that isn't familiar with the patients cultural background, may misinterpret communicating with ancestors as mental illness.
• Having a more diverse medical staff allows doctors to consult each other when cultural backgrounds are unknown.

Social Media

• Over 95% of teenagers use social media.
• Social media enables self-expression, access to networks, engagement with information, and skill learning.
• Communication is enhanced through social media by connecting people worldwide.
• Negatives of social media are addiction, lowered self-esteem, FOMO, and academic distraction.
• Social media addiction is linked to dopamine release, mirroring feelings from other enjoyable activities.
• Addiction involves obsessive thoughts, relationship impacts, inability to stop, and life disruption with mental health is affected.

Behavior Modification

• Behavior modification is an intervention to change harmful behavior patterns through ones peers, TV, or role models.
• Rewards on social media can incentivize posting, while lack of attention can discourage it.
• Operant conditioning uses rewards and positive reinforcement to modify behavior, but avoids punishment.
• Behaviors that are rewarded are likely to be repeated.
• Baseline monitoring is the first step and collects data before implementing strategies.
• Realistic goals and being aware of the clients goals needs to be set.
• Step three involves an agreed schedule with rules and rewards, while step four rewards improvements.
• Rewarding the person keeps them motivated to stick to the behaviour modification programme

Behavior Modification: Removing Rewards and Ethical Considerations

• Rewards should be gradually removed to ensure new behaviors stick.
• Participation should be voluntary, with informed consent and no harm, and maintain confidentiality with honest debriefing.
• Changing behaviors can cause harm, especially when removing coping mechanisms like phones.

Sleep and Its Effects

• Common feelings from lack of sleep are lack of motivation, low concentration, irritation, slow reactions, and poor judgment.
• Reduced academic performance is associated with sleep deprivation, especially in teenagers.
• Sleep allows brains to recharge, process daily events, regulate emotions, and reduce stress.
• Regulating emotions and stress improves mental health.
• Long term consequences of not getting enough sleep increase stress and anxiety, and low health, which impacts the immune system.

Sleep Theories

• Impaired sleeping can result in poor mental health and reduce motivation.
• Repair and restoration theory involves bodily repair processes during sleep, which helps to restore energy lost during the day.
• Biological processes during sleep include increasing cellular division, growth hormone levels, and protein production.
• Evolutionary theory states that animals sleep when less effective to conserve energy.
• Humans conserve approximately 10% less energy when sleeping.
• Information consolidation theory focuses on memory consolidation by strengthening brain connections.
• REM sleep is important in storing information into long term memory.
• Clean-up theory refers to fluid flow in the brain that acts as a waste removal process.
• The clean-up process removes neuronal waste products.

Sleep Quality and Conditions for Enhanced Sleep

• Sleeping early can improve the immune system, maintain a healthy weight, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and improve focus, decision-making, and wellbeing.
• Sleep hygiene involves following the body clock by waking up and not ignoring tiredness while maintaining good sleep environments, which include temperature, lights, and sounds.
• Personal factors influencing sleep include illness and pain, while societal reasons include family and job stress, or sleep apnea.
• Improving sleep involves optimizing the environment, light, food, temperature, and technology use.
• Messy rooms and daytime lights can increase brain activity, leading to reduced sleep quality.
• Consuming food before sleep can activate the digestive system, increasing body temperature while cooler temperatures associate the brain with night-time.
• Relaxation activities like meditation, and pre-sleep routines along with a consistent sleep schedule is beneficial.

Stress

• Stress can be regulated if this is acknowledged as a neutral response to challenging situations.
• The fight or flight response involves adrenaline release from the adrenal glands.
• The fight or flight response lasts 20-60 minutes and increases heart rate, breathing, and oxygen flow to muscles.
• Symptoms of long-term stress include lack of energy, fatigue, feeling helpless, and constant headaches.
• Cortisol increases heart rate, blood flow, and glucose production, while weakening the immune system.
• Physical responses to stress include increased heart rate, altered breathing, and slowed digestion.
• Physiological responses to stress can result in mood changes.
• Difficulty focusing, feelings of helplessness, and uncontrollable emotions can be indicators of stress.
• Stress can improve memory during exams.

General Adaptation Syndrome

• Seyle's General Adaptation Syndrome involves alarm, resistance, and exhaustion stages.
• The alarm stage releases adrenaline as an initial response to stress.
• The resistance stage reduces the initial shock, and the body repairs itself, which can lead to poor connections and frustration.
• The exhaustion phase occurs after long periods of stress and can cause anxiousness, tiredness, and fatigue.

Mental Health Factors: Anxiety, Depression and Adolescents

• Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, biological, and social wellbeing, impacted by genetics, neurotransmitters, trauma, and living conditions.
• Adolescents are more prone to mental health disorders.
• Nature links neurotransmitters to mental health, while nurture links upbringing to mental health.
• Overcoming mental health disorders include Medications, and Cognitive behaviour therapy.
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) identifies and replaces negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected and affect each other.
• CBT programs can last up to 6 months to change attitudes through journaling, relaxation, or role-playing.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

• CBT modifies behaviors, emotions, and thoughts when experiencing negative thoughts.
• Participants are required to follow a set sleeping schedule (with or without white noise).
• Paperwork is required for the participants to document their sleep, recording is to be done at the same time each day.
• Data results were to be analysed, timing each mazes and snowflakes were to be recorded.
• Participants are required to identify struggles and use training to alleviate feelings.

Anxiety, Phobias, and Systematic Desensitization

• A phobia is an irrational fear and can develop from negative experiences.
• Systematic Desensitization reduces anxiety when exposed to fear.
• Step one in Desensitization is learning relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and counting.
• Step two involves writing down fears from least to worst, and step three involves attempting to overcome these fears, starting with the least scary.
• Attempts can be either through imagery or actual exposure, and it should continue until fear is desensitized in a state of relaxation.

Maintaining Boundaries and Ethics

• To maintain ethics with clients, do no harm and ensure the patient does not leave in a worse condition than when they entered the programme.
• Participants/Patients must be aware of their right to withdraw without unwanted consequences.
• Treatment should be voluntary with informed consent regarding any side effects.
• Confidentiality must be maintained by anyone gathering patient information.

Protective Factors Against Mental Stress

• Protecting against mental stress involves resiliency; which refers to a person’s ability to bounce back from a difficult situation.
• Internal factors involve the individual's emotional and mental state, while external factors are outside influences.
• Internal factors include optimism, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, regulation, and behaviors like physical activity and sleep.
• External factors include friendships, economic conditions, education, accessibility to resources, and the environment.
• Being resilient can protect against mental health conditions, reduce stress-related illness, helps to ensure success at work, although everyone responds differently.
• Resilient people have protective factors to help them overcome difficult situations. Example: high self-esteem, optimism and the ability to remain calm under pressure..
• Having good emotional support systems, self-sufficiency, and being action-oriented are also other qualities of the people that are seen as resilient.
• Developing resiliency involves building connections, knowing goals, accepting change, avoiding unsolvable problems, and seeking self-discovery.
• Additional factors include viewing oneself positively, practicing self-care, exercising often, eating healthy, and finding hobbies.

Social Media Protective Factors

• Social media can provides support, communication, community, and awareness, which helps to improve mental health.
• Social media addiction can contribute to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem due to social comparisons.

Utilizing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

• CBT addresses social media addiction by shifting mindsets and reduces negative thoughts.
• CBT can be an advantage over medication, which is a temporary fix for the way a user perceives things.

Treating a patient

• A physician should research the culture, avoid discrimination, and aware of ones attitude towards illness when treating a patient.
• Mental health is affected due to family history of low levels of sertonions and dopamine. Also by complex work which and social commitments may contribute to sleep deprivation.
• A theory of sleep needs that allows the body to repair is the repair and restoration theory.