Understanding Mental Instability

How to Know Someone is Mentally Unstable

• Disconnected from reality
• Adversely affected daily functioning
• No longer in control of feelings or impulses
• Exhibits social withdrawal
• Experiences speech and behavioral impairments

Additional Notes

• DSM-5: Psychologists' "bible," containing signs and symptoms for various disorders
• Etiology: Causes and origins of disorders
• Depression: Multifactorial, involving biological (physical body, especially the brain), psychological (theories explaining depression), and sociocultural (relationships with family, friends, and society) factors
• Psychology and psychopathology: Synonymous terms
• Mental illness: 50% chance of being hereditary, but heredity does not fully explain an individual's situation
• Schizophrenia: Considered the worst mental disorder because it affects all aspects of functioning
• Hypochondriasis: Old term for Illness Anxiety Disorder

Mental Health

• Defined by WHO as a state of well-being where individuals realize their potential, cope with normal stresses, work productively, and contribute to their communities

Categories Representing Mental Health

• Attitude Toward Self: Indicated by individual's attitudes towards themselves; self-care is the greatest love of all
• Growth and Development: Expressed in style and degree of growth, development, or self-actualization; progression as we grow is important
• Self-actualization: Satisfied with all other aspects of life
• Relation to Reality and Environment: Based on individual's relation to reality in terms of autonomy (being in control of decisions), perception of reality (how we interpret sensation), and environmental mastery (being in control of surroundings)
• Integration of Aspects of Self: Ability to integrate developing and differing aspects of themselves over time

Characteristics of a Mentally Healthy Person

• Realistic: Conscious of flaws, grounded in reality
• Accepting
• Autonomous
• Authentic: Real to oneself and others
• Capable of intimacy: Mutual understanding, achieved through vulnerability/self-disclosure; ability to stay committed
• Creative
• Good self-esteem
• Has value and purpose
• Optimistic
• Comfortable being alone

Factors Affecting Mental Health

• Self-Esteem: Value we place on ourselves, positive self-image, and self-worth
• High self-esteem leads to positive outlook and satisfaction
• Social comparison can lead to inferiority complex and mental disorders
• Feeling Loved: Children who are loved, trusted, and accepted are more likely to have good self-esteem, feel comfortable, safe, and secure, and communicate and develop positive relationships
• Unconditional positive regard
• Confidence: Encouraging youth to discover unique qualities and face challenges promotes positive attitudes and productive lives
• Helicopter parents may hinder identity development
• Family Breakup or Loss: Separation, divorce, or loss of a parent or sibling can be painful
• Coping and adjusting to changes is critical, especially for youth
• Grief handling affects young people negatively
• Professional help is recommended for children struggling to cope
• Childhood experiences are vital parts of one's life
• Difficult Behavior: Unhappiness can be internalized or acted out (e.g., displacement)
• Acting out manifests as abusive language, aggression, violence, property damage, stealing, lying, refusal to comply, or other inappropriate actions
• Serious and persistent behavior might require professional help
• Physical Ill Health: Diseases, injuries, and physical problems can contribute to poor mental health and mental illness
• Physical causes, like birth trauma, brain injury, or drug abuse, directly impact brain chemistry
• Poor physical health affects self-esteem and ability to meet goals, leading to unhappiness or depression
• Mind-body connection
• Abuse: Abused children are more likely to experience mental disorders
• Types of abuse: Physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal abuse
• Abuse causes low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, depression, isolation, anger, and impairs a child's chance to lead a happy life

Why Mental Health is Important:

• Mental health is the foundation of thinking, communication, learning, resiliency, and self-esteem
• It is key to relationships, personal well-being, emotional well-being, and contributing to the community

Mental Health Act (Republic Act No. 11036)

• Signed into law July 24, 2017 by President Rodrigo Duterte
• Established a National Mental Health Policy for integrated mental health services, protecting people utilizing psychiatric, neurologic, and psychosocial health services, and appropriating funds
• Highlights: securing rights and welfare of individuals with mental health needs and professionals, providing services down to the barangays, integrating psychiatric, psychosocial, and neurologic services in hospitals, developing a comprehensive national mental health care system, improving facilities, and promoting mental health education

World Health Organization Definition of Health

• A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Illness vs Disease

• Illness Behavior: Defines a social role with expectations
• Disease: Refers to a physical condition of the body

Health and Lifestyle Risks

• Health extends beyond the absence of disease to encompass a robust and fulfilling life
• Mental health entails quality valuations of physical soundness & mental vigor
• Health behaviors: Relate to being healthy, can include reducing or eliminating high-risk behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, or unprotected sex
• Premature deaths: About 50% result from lifestyle risks

Diathesis Stress Model

• Psychological disease results from interaction between vulnerability (diathesis) and stress
• Diathesis: Vulnerability that lies quiet with genetic factors family history or biological oxygen deprivation
• Stress Factors: Range from mild to major, including minor daily stress in home or external environment

Modifying Protective Factors

• Alter the interaction between diathesis and stress and prevent mental illness
• Includes family nurturance, protective social environment (e.g., friends), health, and self-esteem
• These factors dampen negative interactions between stressors and vulnerability

Psychopathology

• Mental illness: Results from enduring vulnerability factor (diathesis) coupled with a recent stressor; both must be present

Developmental- Psychopathology

• Best understood using lifespan developmental approach, with early developmental tasks affecting later management abilities
• Considers interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors at every stage of life

Stress and Related Disorders

• Acute Stress Disorder
• Adjustment Disorders
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Acute Stress Disorder

• Characterized by severe anxiety, dissociation, and other symptoms within a month after extreme traumatic stress
• Diagnosis Caution: Requires clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other functions
• Disturbance must be: At least a minimum of 3 days and a maximum of 4 weeks and must occur within 4 weeks of the traumatic events

Adjustment Disorders

• Abnormal and excessive reactions to identifiable life stressors, causing impairment in functioning
• Symptoms: Arise within three months of the stressor and last no longer than six months after it ends
• Responses link to single or multiple events; stressors can be recurrent or continuous
• Diagnosis Caution: The reaction clearly follows a life stressor, the reaction seem excessive compared to what would normally be expected in relation to the stressor, and symptoms do not last longer than six months after the end of the stressor.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Triggered by a terrifying event experienced or witnessed
• Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety
• Recovery possible with time and self-care
• Worsening symptoms lasting months or years may indicate PTSD

Other Stress-Related Disorders

• Depression
• Anxiety disorder
• Manic-depressive disorder
• Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD)
• Alcoholism
• Sexual dysfunction
• Personality disorders
• Eating disorders

Coping

• Aimed at overcoming negative effects of stressful events by preventing, delaying, avoiding, or managing stress
• Defense Mechanism: (old term for coping) a way for the ego to protect itself from threatening stimuli from the environment and attitudes of individuals towards themselves
  • Id - Wishes, desires, and instincts.
  • Superego - Morality, conscience, and idealism.
  • Ego - Executive function and reality principle. In order to have a healthy ego, one's id and superego must be balanced.

Major Coping Strategies

• Problem-Focused Coping
• Emotion-Focused Coping

Problem-Focused

• Focus on resolving the stressor by looking at the bright side; make a plan of action; use time management; set priorities; anticipate what's coming; change the situation; change how you view the situation; double your effort in handling the stress; concentrate on your next move or action; work on finding a solution; step back and put things into perspective; Struggle to resolve the stressful situation; make the best of what you have; focus on facts; avoid work overload; ask for support; evaluate assumptions about the stressor; prepare a schedule; tackle the source of stress head-on; convince self that things are not that bad.
• Useful for stressors that can be changed or removed

Emotion-Focused

• Directed at regulating emotional states to decrease emotional distress with napping, visualizing, talking, creating, breathing, listening, cuddling, forgiving etc.
• Useful when source of stress is uncontrollable

Problem-Focused Coping Benefits

• Reduces/resolves stressful situations, increasing productivity, empowering, yielding faster results, motivating positive change
• How to practice: Create a to-do list, prioritie and accomplish tasks

Emotion-Focused Coping Benefits:

• Improves emotional regulation, reduces stress and negative emotions, allows for clear thinking and expression
• How to practice: Journal, go for a walk, mediate etc…

Lazarus and Folkman (1984)

• Made a distinction between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, highlighting the importance of determining how a response is directed

Mandala in Psychology

• Geometric figure representing the universe that is a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity

Psychopath

• Should not be confused with psychotic entails having lost touch with reality.
• Characteristics - Lack of empathy, superficial charm, impulsivity, shallow emotions etc...

Pathologist

• Healthcare provider who assess bodies and body tissues to help providers reach a diagnosis and performs an autopsy
• Modern pathologists use genetic studies and gene markers to diagnose a hereditary condition

Keyterms

• PATHOLOGY: From 'pathos'= suffixing, and 'logos'= study. Study of the essential nature of disease
• DISEASE: DIS-EASE= 'dis' opposite of -Not at east -Impairs functioning.
• ABNORMAL:Away from ('ab') or deviating from the normal or average

Psychopathology

• Psyche in Greek : means "essence of life” -Synonymous to ,spirit, souls and ghost
• Reference abnormal mental conditions science of diseases.

Abnormal Psychology

• Scientific study of psychological and mental disorders, including etiology, progression, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment (APA).

Importance of Abnormal Psychology

• Awareness and Self-Understanding -Gaining insights into thoughts, feelings, behaviors; identifying patterns with distress
• Reduce discrimination
• Psychosocial Support -Studying empowers in supporting individuals dealing with mental challenges
• Opportunities -Knowledge of abnormal are advantageous for those pursuing a career in mental health
• Improve Well-being - Recognizing importance maintaining oneself wellbeing
• Understanding -Gaining awareness and in insights of human behaviour.

Prevalence of Mental Disorders

The Philippe Context

• Philippine is an autonomous republic as with 10 million people
• The study has shown high percentages of neurological
• Anxiety depression

Specific in the Mental Resources Allacation

• The spends small budget due to health conditions of their
• Poor amount of facilities and equipment

Shortage of Mental Health Professional

• 1 doctor for every people
• The breakdown is low compare to similar countries.

Barriers to Assessing Treatment

• Limitations to health care
• Factors due to medical facilities
• Little access facilities

Types of Mental Disorders

• Psychiatry medical the Philippines
  • 47 and week and half for medical

The Global Context

• Studies hows with people increase from million

Global Challenges

• The average psychiatrists is per people

anxiety

• Experienced by 300 million including children and adolescents types generalized, and social.

Factors include

• Self or and types depression
• People disorders are high with risk suicide

Depression

• Experienced by 230 million and

Schizophrenia

• Affects to million people including people year general

Eating disorder

• Experienced by include eating, nervous

Types of disorders

• Conduct and behavioural
• Arice development including social and motor.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

• Disorders that arise early in development, which affects cognitive, social, and motor functions like Autism, Attention -deficit

Mental Health Professional

-Psychiatrists
-Clinical -Social workers
-Psychiatric

Specialities: neuro

Scientist Practitioner

• Evaluates methods
• Scientific methods based

Important Terms

• Somatogenic from the meaning body and meaning.
• Identifies functioning of either the brain or with imbalance
• Psychogenic - From what's important meaning mind or.
• Focuses on thoughts, stressful experiences.

Syphilis

• Preventable and bacterial transmitted.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Physical Symptoms and Mental Symptoms

Hypothalamus

• Regulation process

Amygdala

• Processes with emotion recognition.

The hippocampus

Groups and crucial.

Biopsychosocial

Physical and behaviour.

Model Health

• Thriving,
• Surviving,
• Struggling,
• In crisis.

4-Ps continuum

• Predis- positions and of
• Precipitation

Factors Socials

• Protective
• Perpetuation

Psycopathology

• *- Chief Complaint and Family History
• Identify

Diagnosis

• Before medicals

Preveance

• Represent people of with time number

• Point/Period
• Medical: Having the ability for treatment after medical with
• Statistical: If individuals act and feel you are then it's normal

Approach: Mental Health

• As Above
• Resilience: conscious

Abnormality

• Deviance/Dysfunction

Historical View

-Cultural: the standard of expectations -Statistical/Number: Number and values/rates

• Distressed -Disorders: Problems to functioning -Thomas : Against psychologicals
• Improves practice medical behaviour