PSYCHOLOGICAL

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PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH
B.W. Findley, M.Ed. Health Concepts
Strategies
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Psychological Health

• What It Is Not
• a matter of normality
• conformity
• seeking or not seeking help
• specific, constant symptoms
• appearance
  
  

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Defining Psychological Health

• Being aware of your own potential
  (self-actualization)
• Realistic - deal with the world as it is and
  recognize what can be changed and what can not
• Positive self-concept - realistic view of
  self-worth
• Autonomous - inner directed (finding guidance
  from their own beliefs and values

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Defining Psychological Health (cont)

• Capacity for intimacy - share thoughts and
  feelings with others
• Live creatively - open to new experiences, find
  uncertainty attractive

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Abraham Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being
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How Do We Grow Up Psychologically?

• Develop an adult identity
• Evolves through interaction
• Learning to live intimately with others
• Finding a productive role in society

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Achieving Healthy Self-Concept

• Self-esteem is grounded in positive experiences
  and love received in childhood. Self-concept is
  integrated resulting in a new individual
  personality.
• Those who do not have a stable self-concept have
  conflicting, polar views of themselves, which
  makes it impossible to see themselves and others
  realistically.

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Achieving Healthy Self-Concept (cont)

• When self-concepts are challenged
• acknowledge something went wrong and start over
• deny anything went wrong and blame someone else
  (psychological defenses)
• develop lasting negative self-concept (feel bad,
  unloved, ineffective, demoralized)

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Achieving Healthy Self-Concept (cont)

• It is possible to fight demoralization by
  recognizing and testing ones own negative
  thoughts and assumptions.
• It is possible to change behavior pattern of
  jumping to negative conclusions by making
  thoughts as logical and accurate as possible.

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Defense Mechanisms

• Allow people to rearrange thoughts and resolve
  conflicts
• Dead ends - repression, denial (make solutions
  impossible)
• Useful - humor, sublimation
• Maintaining honest communication with yourself
  and others is a critical step toward being
  psychologically healthy.

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Psychological Disorders

• Anxiety Disorders
• Simple phobias
• Social phobias
• Panic disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

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Psychological Disorders (cont)

• Feelings of sadness and hopelessness
• Loss of pleasure in usual activities
• Poor appetite and weight loss or overeating
• Insomnia or disturbed sleep, trouble
  concentrating
• Restlessness or fatigue
• Thoughts of worthlessness or guilt, death/suicide

• Mood Disorders
• Depression

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Psychological Disorders (cont)

• Mood disorders (cont)
• Mania
• Bipolar Disorder

• Excessive elation, irritability, talkativeness,
  inflated self-esteem, expansiveness
• Alternating periods of depression and mania

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Psychological Disorders (cont)

• Severe/debilitating or mild/hardly noticeable
• not rare (1/100)
• Disorganized thoughts, inappropriate emotions,
  delusions, auditory hallucinations, deteriorating
  social and work functioning

• Schizophrenia-
• disturbance in thinking and in perceiving
  reality

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Risk Factors for Suicide

• History of substance abuse or eating disorders
• Serious medical problem
• Social withdrawal and isolation
• Sudden lightening of mood

• History of previous attempts
• Suicide by family member or friend
• Readily available means
• Expressing a wish to be dead

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Getting Help

• Psychiatrists
• Clinical Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Licensed Counselors
• Clergy

• Self-help
• Peer counseling/
• support groups
• Professional help

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Healthy People 2010

• Reduce suicides to no more than 10.5/100,000
  (Baseline 11.7/100,000).
• Reduce to 1.8 the incidence of injurious suicide
  attempts among adolescents age 14-17 (Baseline
  2.1).
• Increase to at least 20 the proportion of people
  age 18 and over who seek help in coping with
  personal and emotional problems (Baseline 11.1).