Mental Health Quiz: Languishing and Wellness

PSE8 - Stress, Mental Health and Wellbeing

• Stress is defined as a physical and mental response to a stressor.
• A stressor is a force acting on a biological system.
• Distress is the psychological reaction to a stressor, which can be emotional, cognitive, or behavioral.
• Stress is an imbalance in physiological systems. This activates physiological and behavioral responses to restore balance.

Psychosocial Diagnoses and Mental Disorders

• One in three athletes is affected by mental illness.
• 16-34% of active and inactive athletes experience mental health issues.
• Higher incidence rates of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, self-harm, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts in athletes compared to the general population.

WHO Official Mental Health Definition

• Mental health is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life.
• Can work productively and fruitfully, and make contributions to his or her community.
• Ability to adapt and respond when encountering physical, mental, or social challenges.

The Mental Health Spectrum

• Keyes (2004) recognizes the state of recognizing personal strengths and capacities to support mental health.
• Languishers are at high risk of depression and physical disorders.
• Languishing is prevalent among young people, with 11% of the US population considered languishing.

Health as a Continuum

• Active mental illness, sub-syndrom illness, normal, good mental health, and peak performance are represented on a continuum.
• This relates to the level of psychological wellness/distress and effective/reduced functioning.

Classification Systems of Diseases

• WHO uses the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and related health problems (ICD-10) for classifying diseases and mental disorders.
• APA uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to diagnose mental disorders.

What is Wellbeing?

• Psychological wellbeing includes feeling good and functioning effectively.
• It is not solely feeling good all the time.
• It encompasses positive emotions, engagement, confidence, affection, and control over one's life, with a sense of purpose and positive relationships.

Drivers of Wellbeing

• Personality is the strongest predictor of usual emotional style, with extraversion associated with positive emotional characteristics and neuroticism with negative mood.
• Demographic factors such as gender effect ill-being but little well-being, while U-shaped relationship between age and mental well-being exists.
• Marital status is linked to higher life satisfaction and lower psychological ill-being.
• Socioeconomic factors such as income and socioeconomic status have a positive influence on well-being and higher educational qualifications provide some protection against mental health issues. However, relationships are not always consistent.

Theories and Models of Stress and Coping

• Stimulus-oriented approaches: Life-event theory (negative or positive life changes leads to changes in health), Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures the intensity and duration of life events.
• Reaction-oriented approaches: General Adaptation Syndrome (response of body to a demand).
• Cognitive approaches: Transactional Model of Stress (relationships between person and environment), Conservation of Resources.

Coping Strategies of Athletes

• Gender differences in coping strategies may exist with female athletes displaying a tendency towards emotion-focused coping in response to stressors than in males.
• Performance-level differences in coping strategies may result, differing between elite and non-elite athletes who demonstrate either approach or avoidance behaviors to stressors in their competitive environment.
• Coping strategies including problem-focused and emotion-focused coping are linked to anxiety and neuroticism.

Coping During Competitive Suffering Episodes

• Negative feelings about goal attainment moderately predict problem-focused coping use.
• Negative feelings about goal attainment strongly predict problem-focused coping use.
• Avoidance coping use decreases over time.

Theories and Models on how Physical Activity Affects Stress

• Physical activity (PA) is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that result in energy expenditure above resting.
• Exercise is a planned, structured, repetitive subset of PA. The aim of exercise is to improve or maintain physical fitness.
• Stress and exercise have a bidirectional effect on each other, and they can be positively or negatively correlated.
• Exercise might buffer against the health-damaging effects of stress.

Cross-Stressor Adaptation Hypothesis

• Regular exercise leads to adaptations in the stress response systems that reduce the physiological response to psychological stressors.
• Exercise helps regulate bodily systems like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS).
• Those adaptations to physical activity, translate to adaptations in psychosocial demands.

Physical Activity/Exercise and Affect

• PA and exercise are consistently linked to positive mood and affect.
• Aerobic exercise can improve vigor but, to a lesser extent, reduce fatigue, confusion, depression, anger, and tension.

Physical Activity/Exercise and Depression

• Inverse curvilinear association between PA and depression; most benefit is gained from transitioning from inactivity to moderate activity.
• Accumulating activity equating to 2.5 hours of brisk walking weekly results in a 25% decrease of depression risk.
• Only minor additional benefits are gained at higher levels of PA.

Psychological Antecedents of Sport Injury

• Physical factors are the main cause of sport injuries, but psychological factors may also play a role.
• The relationship between sport injury and psychological factors is often stress-related.
• A stressful situation, resulting from increased anxiety, can lead to changes in focus, attention and subsequently muscle tension, thereby, increasing the risk of injury.

Psychological Responses to Sport Injury

• Injured athletes experience a range of emotional responses, with a consistent 5-stage model being observed; disbelief, denial, isolation, anger (inward/outward), bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
• There are variations in reactions to emotional and psychological trauma.
• Injury-related information processing, emotional upheaval and reactive behavior, and a positive outlook and coping.

Substance Use (Disorder)

• Substance use disorders (SUD) represent a problematic pattern of substance use that leads to clinically relevant impairment or distress.
• DSM-5 replaced substance abuse and dependence with substance use disorders with 11 criteria, covering areas like impaired control, social impairment and risky use.
• The severity of SUDs is classified as mild, moderate, or severe.

Psychological Antecedents of Sport Injury- Empirical Evidence, and GSU Studies I and II - Practical Implications

• Psychological states, such as stress and anxiety, are associated with the risk of injury in different sports
• Athletes who have low self-esteem, low in hardiness, and high trait anxiety experience more injuries.
• Perceiving one’s physical health as poor is also a factor in injury rates, while feeling sociable is also associated with a higher risk of injuries.
• Short-term strategies can be used to aid athletes at a higher injury risk.
• Intervention strategies can be based on relaxation techniques or focusing on physical preparation.

Sport and Physical Activity as an Intervention

• Sport/physical activity can be associated with lowering loneliness.
• This effect is greater if engagement in sport is combined with social support, positive relationships, and quality experiences.
• Loneliness can reduce the likelihood of participation in sport or physical exercise, suggesting a negative relationship.

Sport as a Treatment for Depression (Movement Therapy)

• Movement therapy in treating depression is founded on the principle that mind and body are interwoven.
• Movement therapy may focus on addressing issues such as activation, awareness, fear, aggression and tension, and emotional regulation.
• Movement therapy may incorporate techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, breathing, autogenic training, and mindfulness based stress reduction.
• The ABC of movement therapy incorporates actions and experiences, reflection, and transfer to create change.
• Clinical movement therapy utilises diagnostic, indication, intervention, and evaluation principles.

Depression in Elite Athletes

• Approximately 10% of athletes experience depression.
• Athletes may report back pain associated with stress and depression.
• Intervention strategies may target short-term stress reduction but are most effective when part of a larger long-term sport-psychology strategy.
• Psychological issues are prevalent in high-performance athletes who possess low levels of self-esteem, low in hardiness, and high trait anxiety, and/or who experience chronic stress.
• Depression in athletes may be linked to injury risk, multiple concussions, higher prevalence in individual than team sport, history of prior mental issues, stress, and the desire for psychological support, not always followed by actual support.

Eating Disorders/Disordered Eating

• Eating disorders encompass a spectrum of problematic eating behaviors.
• Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a low body weight, often achieved through extreme dieting, excessive exercise, and/or purging behaviours, as well as distorted body image.
• Individuals with eating disorders often manifest a need for control, resist treatment, and display body image disturbances. They may also demonstrate restricted emotions, obsessiveness/perfectionism around food, hyperactivity, and avoidance of social interaction.

Anxiety Disorders (in Athletes)

• Symptoms of acute anxiety/panic may include muscle tension, palpitations, shortness of breath and/or choking sensations.
• It can also include feelings of dizziness and light-headedness.
• Anxiety disorders result from negative thoughts and feelings about oneself, the environment and future events, and can be associated with avoidance behaviours, distorted information processing, and social consequences.