Main Factors Influencing Personality

Concept of Mental Health

• Mental health is an aspect of healthcare, involving disease control, and practical application of psychosocial and behavioral skills.
• WHO defines mental health as the capacity of an individual to form harmonious relationships with others and participate constructively in the social environment. This involves adjusting to the world and other people effectively and happily.
• Mental health includes rational thinking, communication, resilience, self-esteem, and emotional well-being.
• High levels of mental health often correlate with satisfaction in achievements.
• Mental health is characterized by self-motivation, desires, and self-actualization, maintaining an integrated and balanced personality.
• A person considered mentally healthy efficiently uses their abilities to create a satisfactory life that is in harmony with the environment, though not all mentally healthy individuals experience the same level of adjustment.

Definition of Mental Health

• Positive mental health is often related to mental illness, as well as physical health.
• There is no clear cut difference between mental health and mental illness, rather it exists on a continuum.
• Coping mechanisms can range from mild disturbances to requiring professional help.
• Mental health aims to promote overall well-being, not solely the treatment of illness.

Mental Illness

• Mental illness is a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome.
• Characterized by distress, disability, or risk of suffering.
• Not simply a cultural expectation.
• It results from problems in brain function or dysfunction, not necessarily from cultural factors.
• Mental illness can be the culmination of unsuccessful reactions to life events and long-term failure to adapt.
• It is often expressed as changes in thinking, mood, or behaviors causing distress or impairment.

Emotional Well-being of Individual, Family and Community

• Emotions are defined as strong feelings of love, joy, hate, fear, and grief, associated with positive or negative evaluation of something good/bad, favorable/unfavorable, beneficial/harmful.
• Emotions are a key factor in shaping behavior and influence, learning and thinking processes.
• Individual differences in emotional experience and expression often exist.
• Emotional health needs of individuals, families, and community are increasingly important.

Developing Sense of Identity

• Self-concept is a person's understanding of who they are, especially in relation to others.
• Effective communication is vital for relationships and well-being.
• Intimate relationships (e.g., friendships, family bonds) significantly aid emotional wellness.
• Assertive behavior involves expressing feelings and desires openly, while defending one's rights.

Emotional Health Needs of The Individual, Family, and Community

• Emotional health needs include basic emotional necessities and psychological requirements resulting from interaction with others and the environment.
• Security and love, independence, self-concept development, and communication are crucial factors in the growth of a healthy individual.
• Variety of experience is necessary to overcome life monotony.
• Guidance is beneficial in acquiring knowledge about life.

Mental Health Laws and Acts

• There's a growing awareness of mental health rights, influencing interactions between psychiatry and the law (e.g., compulsory detention, treatment).
• Laws related to mental health concern both ordinary patients and mentally irregular offenders.
• Psychiatrists should have knowledge of these laws in order to manage patient's care and properly advocate for patients interests.

Civil Law

• Property, inheritance and contracts are major considerations in civil law.
• Psychiatrists are often involved when patients have issues related to competency, decision-making, or fitness to be involved in these legal processes.
• A mental disorder does not nullify a contract made; however it must have been made when the person was healthy.

Criminal Laws

• Mentally-ill individuals may commit criminal acts due to delusions, hallucinations, substance abuse, or other underlying conditions.
• Psychiatric evaluation is needed to determine criminal responsibility and/or the appropriate level of care for the offender.
• Mental health and physical factors can contribute to violent or aggressive behaviors as well.

Mental Health Promotion

• Development of a mental health team that includes clinicians, psychologists, and others.
• Activities of the team include counseling and rehabilitation.
• Improving mental health outcomes through promoting and understanding mental health.
• Efforts to expand mental health resources for individuals and broader communities are necessary.

Classification of Mental Disorders

• Psychiatric disorders are characterized by disturbances in thoughts, actions and feelings.
• Difficulties arise in classifying mental illnesses due to the variety and complexity of symptoms.
• Methods of classification are based on characteristics of the illness. Classification systems are important for diagnoses and treatment.

Major Signs and Symptoms of Mental Disorders

• Symptoms can emerge suddenly or gradually (acute or insidious) causing varied severity.
• Hallucinations, disorders of perception (illusory perceptions of real things) and disturbances in thinking (loss of reality) can be signs of mental disorder.
• Emotional and behavioral disturbances can be signs of a disorder (e.g., aggression, withdrawal).
• Other physical signs (e.g., changes in posture, speech, and movement) can also be signs of mental disorder.

Disorders of Consciousness

• Altered levels of awareness, e.g., confabulation (false recollections of events) and disorders related to confusion.

Additional Factors

• Genetic and biochemical factors are some contributors to mental illness, as are psychological and social factors (e.g., loss and stress).
• Psycho-social factors can exacerbate or lead to mental illness.

Adaptive Processing

• Strategies employed by individuals to adjust to stresses.
• These techniques range from healthy, like problem-solving techniques, to unhealthy, like denial, suppression and repression.

Other Adaptive Processes

• These processes involve changing primitive desires to activities that society accepts, including creative outlets.
• Automatic absorption of feelings and ideas from others around the individual and the way they dress or behave are identified ways of adapting to external influence.

Other Ways to Categorize Mental Disorders

• Systems used to classify disorders, based on underlying causes, include biological, psychosomatic, and psychological factors.
• Psycho-social factors, environmental and social factors, and genetic elements all affect an individual's mental health status.