Mental Health Awareness

• Key Focus: Psychological Health and Personal Development

Learning Targets

• Learners should interpret mental health and psychological well-being through everyday observations on mental health problems during adolescence.
• Learners should identify their vulnerabilities.
• Learners should create a mind map on ways of achieving psychological well-being.
• Learners should develop a plan to stay mentally healthy during adolescence.

Values and Attitudes

• Learners should practice healthy coping mechanisms.
• Learners should take care of their mental health and well-being.
• Learners should recognize their best selves and learn about self-actualization.

Mindset Matters

• Contentment and starting the day right depend significantly on your psychological health.
• Creating good routines promotes mental health.
• Gradually practicing habits helps improve mental health.

Psychological Well-Being

• Hedonic Well-Being: Happiness is about increasing pleasure and minimizing pain.
• Eudaimonic Well-Being: Happiness is about finding your purpose in life.

Components of Psychological Well-Being

• Self-acceptance
• Positive relations with others
• Autonomy
• Environmental mastery
• Purpose in life
• Personal growth

Success Tips

• Teenagers experience several life changes and may have difficulty coping.
• Approaches teenagers can use are acknowledging emotions, focusing on values, reflecting on experiences, shifting perspectives during tough times, and being more compassionate towards themselves.

Risk Factors That Affect Mental Health

• Peer Rejection: Happens when perceived peers decline or accept you based on beliefs, behavior, attitude, physical features, or other characteristics, potentially leading to loneliness and aggression.
• Bullying: Involves an imbalance of power and repetition.
• Verbal bullying: Using spoken or written words.
• Social bullying: Damaging a person's social relationship or reputation.
• Physical bullying: inflicting physical pain or damaging possessions.
• Cyberbullying: Bullying that takes place on social networks.
• Adverse Traumatic Events in Childhood: Verbal and physical abuse encountered during childhood.
• Death of Someone Close to You: Affects various psychological aspects.
• Socioeconomic Factors: Financial difficulties, nutrition, education, and the ability to afford treatment and medication.

Signs of Poor Mental Health

• Personality changes occur
• Emotional changes come about
• Experiencing Social withdrawal and isolation
• Lack of self-care
• Problem with sleep begin to occur
• Participation in Risky behaviors
• Feeling a sense of hopelessness or feeling overwhelmed happens
• Prominent physical symptoms appear
• One's academic performance declines

Addressing Mental Health Concerns

• Have good communication.
• Seek an understanding of mental health disorders.
• Be sensitive and attentive to others

Coping With Mental Health Issues

• Group discussion can include the following topics; peer rejection, bullying, adverse traumatic events in childhood and conflict and post-conflict scenarios, death of someone close to you, and socioeconomic factors.

Success Tips

• Practice self-care instead of self-destructive habits, maintaining good physical and mental health.
• Eating well, exercising, getting adequate sleep, limiting social media, spending time with nature, and being kind to yourself are few suggestions.

Psychological Conditions That Adolescents Are Prone To

• Depression is classified as a mood disorder
• Depression is a combination of persistent feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and lack of desire.
• Anxiety Disorder classifies as nervousness, fear or apprehension
• Anxiety manifests in different ways
• Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders: Abuse of and dependence on any substance.
• Common substances are alcohol, tobacco, and methamphetamine.

Cognitive Distortions

• Filtering: Ignoring the positive aspects and focusing on the negative.
• Overgeneralization: Using a single incident as the sole evidence for broader conclusions.
• Fallacy of Change: An irrational way of thinking that happiness depends on the actions of others.
• Catastrophizing: Expectations that the worst will happen at some point.
• Personalization: Believing you have a role in bad things that happened outside your control.
• Emotional Reasoning: Concluding that something is true based on your emotional response.
• Blaming: Assigning fault to an external entity.
• Shoulds: Setting implicit rules on how to behave and getting disappointed when broken.

Padesky's 5-Part Model

• Padesky's 5-Part Model is a framework developed by Christine Padesky, used in Therapy (CBT) to understand how thoughts, emotions, behaviors, physical reactions, and environments interact.
• The framework helps individuals identify patterns that contribute to psychological distress and develop healthier ways of thinking and behaving.
• Consists of 5 stages:
• Thoughts
• Moods
• Behavior
• Physiological reactions
• Environment

Brain Fog

• According to Arlin Cuncic, brain fog commonly experienced describes the sluggishness of cognitive functions (i.e., learning), implying that one can struggle with thinking and experience a mental slowdown.
• Can also affect staying focused, decision-making, problem-solving, and memorization.
• Can be challenging to complete tasks at work or carry on social conversations.

Planning for Mental Health

• Look after physical health.
• By moving, eating, avoid drugs and alcohol, prioritize sleeping
• Improve Self-Esteem to boost confidence
• Practice self-affirmations everyday.
• Avoid hollow positive affirmations.
• One should identify their areas of strength.
• Show capabilities
• Accept positive feedback.
• Generate Positive Thoughts by thinking positively.
• Cope with changing Situations because lives differ from day to day.
• Build Positive Relationships with people you love.
• Do volunteer work.
• Find peer support.
• Find Time for Yourself to rest and meditation.

Word Bank

• Mental Hygiene: Activities & actions allow equilibrium with the sociocultural environment.

This module explores the fundamentals of mental health, covering strategies for maintaining well-being, understanding disorders, and identifying cognitive distortions. It also addresses substance abuse, bullying, and adverse childhood experiences, offering insights into mental health decline and the impact of trauma.