Psychological health factors. Risk factors for health and disease
We conducted our own research, which was based on the study of correlations of psychological health with other personal characteristics. As a result, the main ten factors of psychological health were obtained. Each of them can be controlled in one way or another. Below are the ten factors, ranked from most to least important.
1. Anxiety
Anxiety greatly reduces the level of psychological health. A person reacts to even minor events in his personal life with anxiety: “What if?..”, “What if?..” Anxiety lowers mood. It destroys activity, forcing a person to constantly be distracted by various kinds of doubts (often irrelevant to the matter). Anxiety instills pessimism (“No matter what you do, it will still be bad”). Anxiety makes you believe more in the bad than in the good. Anxiety makes you avoid people, expecting them to pose a threat.
Anxiety has a lot to do with the inability to control your thoughts and low self-discipline. The world is probabilistic; there is always room for various kinds of dangers. No one is completely immune, for example, from the fact that a meteorite will fall on his head right now, but is it worth fearing?
An anxious person tends to overestimate the likelihood of negative events. Therefore, the fight against anxiety must begin with. It is important to be able to soberly assess the danger.
The second important step is self-discipline. We must learn to distribute our activities over time. If you really want, for example, to worry about your own health, you need to set aside special time for this. At this time, you can worry and think about your health. At other times it is not possible. At other times there are other concerns.
The third important step is to fight your own cowardice. Many anxious people show this cowardice, as they say, out of the blue: “I don’t want to go to work today: they’ll scold me there, but I won’t stand it.” Good advice here is to consistently develop your own courage, do not exaggerate the “psychological harm” you receive.
2. Determination
People with high levels of psychological health are goal-oriented. This manifests itself both in general determination (a person clearly sees what he wants, what he has to overcome), and situational (a person is usually collected, tuned in to activity, it is more difficult to knock him out of this mood).
People with low sense of purpose have less integrity of behavior: today they actively do something, tomorrow they lie in bed and come up with all sorts of excuses. Such people often become victims.
Since a person’s entire life consists of activity, the importance of this circumstance, as they say, is difficult to overestimate. A person with low sense of purpose spends his entire life in internal conflicts, self-justifications, and darting from one extreme to another.
Becoming a purposeful person is not so easy, but it’s not so difficult either. To begin with, you don’t need to expect any drastic changes from yourself. No amount of “cool psychotechnics” will help you become purposeful in an hour. Determination is also a kind of habit. Therefore, we must wait and consistently develop this good habit in ourselves.
How? The same self-discipline, personal standards of behavior. For important things, allocate more time (money, other resources). For non-essential tasks, allocate less time and other resources. Try to completely eliminate tertiary things from your life.
Stop doubting your goals. You have decided - that's it. This is exactly what you will be pursuing. If you still understand that sooner or later you will have to reconsider the goal, then set a specific deadline. Let’s say you can only review your main life goals on New Year’s Day.
Avoid total hedonism. If you need to do something, but don’t want to, do it anyway. After all, as the saying goes, appetite comes with eating. You will get involved in the activity, and it will begin to delight you.
3. Touchiness
Resentment is a very insidious feeling. Energetically it feeds from (delayed, hidden aggression). Resentment forces a person to do something against his own will and reason. Resentment can smolder for years and become even brighter. Your splashed out resentment (in words, in action) can lead to retaliatory resentment, as a result, the relationship with the closest person can be forever damaged. Resentment makes you suspect others of malicious intent. Touchiness can contribute to the formation of paranoid character traits. Chronic resentment leaves a characteristic imprint on a person’s behavior: he becomes irritable, hot-tempered, and angry and repulsive facial expressions predominate. Those who are offended tend to feel their social status is diminished. They, as they say, “carry water.” Those who are offended tend to spend hours on end remembering past grievances and imagining their revenge: how and what they can say, what they can do to punish them. In real life, the offender may not receive even a hundredth part of the words that the offended person says to him in his imagination.
The feeling of resentment, as already noted, can exist for years. It is nourished and supported precisely by experiences about this: the more experiences, different fantasies on this topic, the longer this feeling exists. This is where the key to the solution lies: you just need to stop thinking about your resentment, and over time it will melt away on its own.
It is believed that you can simply forgive a person for all his past misdeeds. There is even a special religious holiday when everyone forgives each other. Forgiving is, of course, good, but it will not change anything if the offended person continues to remember past grievances, past experiences.
If unpleasant images continue to haunt your consciousness, the best thing for you to do is to accustom yourself to the repression formula. At such moments, just give yourself the order to forget the unpleasant and say the key phrase: “Fuck it!”, “I don’t care!”, “I’m tired of it!” or the like. Over time, this repression formula will work better and better.
4. Tendency to neurotic states
Perhaps there really is something wrong with your nervous system. Perhaps the problem is even worse. Do not forget and do not hesitate to contact medical specialists. It is, after all, their job.
If you feel serious deviations in your health, there is no need to self-medicate.
And to prevent neurotic conditions, we can advise you to lead a reasonable, rational lifestyle. You should not torment your nervous system with overload at work or school, alcohol, nicotine, drugs, caffeine, etc. I need to get enough sleep. If you can’t get enough sleep on weekdays, you can at least do it on Sunday. Nutrition should be balanced. Most of the time it is better to remain calm.
5. Exposure to stress
People who frequently experience stress have lower levels of psychological health. This is easily explained: the nervous system is overstrained, out of balance, and becomes uncontrollable.
Stress is related not only to the level of external stress, but also to your own willingness to bear these stresses. To prevent stress, it turns out that the best thing is... to experience stress. You just need to do this in doses and carefully.
Stress can be associated, for example, with work: when, for example, you have to do as much in one day as you did not manage to do in two weeks. A natural conclusion: the load must be distributed evenly.
Severe emotional stress has a huge destructive effect on the psyche: a loved one died, a tram ran over a person before your eyes, a house caught fire, you were unexpectedly fired at work, etc. In many such situations, people simply “lose their heads”; they are unable to regulate their condition. In such situations, it is good if there is someone close to you who will help you survive the event: they will say a few soothing words, distract attention, call a specialist, pour a sedative, etc.
Nevertheless, you can also be prepared for such events. Accustom yourself to calmness, to search for rational ways out of the situation. The most important thing is not to trust your life to emotions. Emotions are based on blind instincts. These blind instincts also often blindly conflict with each other.
6. Self-confidence
Good quality for mental health. Self-confidence helps a person to fully feel his own strength. Self-confidence does not allow you to lose heart in difficult situations. Self-confidence inspires optimism.
What advice can you give to develop self-confidence? Approach life from a position of strength: crying and complaining will not achieve much. Feel the power over your life circumstances. Real, of course, power, not fictitious. Understand what you can change and what you cannot. Consistently accumulate your strength: physical, intellectual, possessive, and social. Don't take on too many things at once. It's better to do one thing, but do it well. Try to find your niche in society. Understand what real benefit you can provide to people so that they give you money or another resource in return.
7. Fatigue
Bad quality for psychological health. Tired people often do not finish what they start, lose interest, etc. This also gives rise to many internal conflicts.
To reduce fatigue, naturally, the first remedy is physical education and sports. You should also not forget about healthy eating, self-discipline and a generally healthy lifestyle.
8. Mood problems
Here we mean two features: a tendency to low mood and a tendency to mood swings.
Also a bad quality for psychological health. In general, a tendency to low mood is more of a symptom of poor psychological health. But nevertheless, it can also be considered as a cause: low mood, like anxiety, destroys activity, communication, makes you rush from side to side, etc.
Depressed mood is largely a consequence of fatigue (see previous paragraph).
Mood problems often arise due to low sense of purpose.
Another reason is problems in relationships with other people, frequent quarrels and conflicts.
9. Social frustration
Also a bad quality for psychological health. Every person needs communication (albeit to varying degrees) and some social status. When he feels like an outcast, his self-concept changes greatly, self-esteem drops sharply, and internal conflicts develop.
Not all communication is equally useful. Here we can advise, on the one hand, to have a good friend (friends) with whom you can discuss any issues of concern. On the other hand, try to engage in social activities, even if they are not very significant. Social activity will expand your circle of contacts and allow you to feel like a full-fledged participant in public life.
10. Sensitivity
Also a bad quality for psychological health. Sensitivity (sensitivity) makes you vulnerable to various types of verbal aggression. People often just say things that come to their mind. Or they just want to have fun for themselves and those around them. You should not react sensitively to everything.
You can say to yourself phrases like this: “I’m behind a concrete wall, this doesn’t concern me.”
Factors that influence mental health are divided into predisposing, provoking and supporting.
Predisposing factors. These factors increase a person's susceptibility to mental illness and increase the likelihood of developing it when exposed to provoking factors. Predisposing factors can be genetically determined, biological, psychological and social.
At present there is no doubt genetic predisposition diseases such as schizophrenia, some forms of dementia, affective disorders, epilepsy.
For example, the risk of schizophrenia for the general population is 0.7-1%, and for monozygotic twins it is 40-50%. If one parent is sick with schizophrenia, then the risk of developing the disease in the child is from 10 to 19%, and if both parents are sick, then 27-60%. The risk of developing an emotional disorder increases to 24-30% if one of the parents is sick, and to 35-44% if both are sick.
The study of the genealogical method (the study of pedigrees) of families of persons suffering from mental illness has convincingly shown the accumulation of cases of psychosis and personality anomalies in them. An increase in the frequency of cases of the disease among close relatives was found for patients with schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis (MDP), epilepsy, and some forms of mental retardation. The summary data is given in the table.
Risk of illness for relatives of mentally ill patients (in%)
When performing genetic analysis, it is important to take into account the clinical form of the disease. In particular, the hereditary risk of schizophrenia largely depends on the clinical form of the disease.
The results of clinical genetic studies help determine the degree of risk of illness or the birth of a mentally handicapped child, outline preventive measures and make a prognosis for the development of mental illness. Establishing the fact of hereditary predisposition also helps in the differential diagnosis of endogenous (hereditary) mental disorders and diseases of exogenous (as a result of external causes) etiology. Solving this problem without data from a clinical genetic study is often difficult. An example is the difficulty of differential diagnosis of microcephaly with mental retardation, which can arise both as a result of a monogenic recessive mutation, and under the influence of fetal intoxication due to maternal alcoholism, when the mother uses teratogenic drugs, or when exposed to x-rays. Medical genetics is not limited to studying the role of hereditary factors in mental illness and the frequency of hereditary diseases. She also studies the patterns that govern their distribution in population groups in various geographical areas, regions, among people of different nationalities and in many other groups, which determine the preservation and change in the genotype of a particular disease as generations change.
Have a certain predisposing significance for the development of mental illness personal characteristics. For example, an individual who is anxious by nature and prone to doubt may more easily develop states of obsessive fears or anxious depression during a traumatic event.
There is the concept of “neuroticism,” which defines the degree of emotional stability - from touchiness, irritability, mood swings at one end of the spectrum to balance at the other. These personality variables are genetically determined. They also talk about “emotional strength,” meaning by this term an even temperament and the ability of an individual to easily cope with stress and unfavorable life situations. A low level of “emotional strength” is typical for people who are passive, hypersensitive, prone to experience unpleasant events for a long time, unsure of themselves, with low self-esteem, and emotionally labile. Such individuals, when faced with life difficulties, are at greater risk of developing a mental disorder.
Personality characteristics can not only have a nonspecific effect on the development of a mental disorder, but also affect the formation of the clinical picture of the disease.
Biological factors that increase the risk of developing a mental disorder or illness include age.
At certain age periods, a person becomes more vulnerable to stressful situations. These periods include: primary school age, in which there is a high prevalence of fears; adolescence (12-18 years), which is characterized by increased emotional sensitivity and instability, behavioral disorders, including drug use, acts of self-harm and suicide attempts; the period of involution - with characteristic personality changes and a decrease in reactivity to the influence of psychological and social-environmental factors.
Many mental illnesses have a pattern of development at a certain age. Schizophrenia often develops in adolescence or young adulthood, the peak of drug dependence occurs at 18-24 years of age, the number of depressions increases at involutionary age, senile dementia is the lot of elderly and old people. In general, the peak incidence of typical mental disorders occurs in middle age.
Age not only affects the frequency of development of mental disorders, but also gives a peculiar “age-related” coloring to their manifestations. Children are characterized by fears of the dark, animals, and fairy-tale characters. Mental disorders of old age (delusions, hallucinations) often reflect experiences of an everyday nature - damage, poisoning, exposure and all sorts of tricks in order to “get rid of them, old people.”
Floor also to a certain extent determines the frequency and nature of mental disorders. Men are more likely than women to suffer from schizophrenia, alcoholism, and drug addiction. But in women, abuse of alcohol and psychotropic substances quickly leads to the development of drug addiction and the disease is more malignant than in men.
Men and women react differently to stressful events. This is explained by their different socio-biological characteristics. Women are more emotional and more often than men experience depression and emotional disturbances.
Biological conditions specific to the female body, such as pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum period, and menopause, carry with them many social problems and traumatic factors. During these periods, women's vulnerability increases and social and domestic problems become more urgent. Only women can develop postpartum psychosis or depression with fear for the health of the child. Involutional psychoses develop more often in women. An unwanted pregnancy is a severe stress for a girl, and if the father of the unborn child left the girl, then the development of a severe depressive reaction, including suicidal intentions, is possible. Women are more likely to experience sexual violence or abuse, resulting in various forms of mental health problems, often in the form of depression. Girls who have been sexually abused are more susceptible to mental health problems later in life.
The hierarchy of social values is different for women and men. For a woman, family and children are of greater importance; for men - his prestige, work. Therefore, a common reason for the development of neurosis in women is trouble in the family, personal problems, and in men it is conflict at work or dismissal.
Even delusional ideas bear the imprint of socio-gender. For example, killing children - as protection from impending disaster or as a weapon of revenge on a spouse - is more common among women.
Women are more inclined to recognize the disease, express psychological complaints and remember psychopathological symptoms. Men tend to “forget” their symptoms.
Mental health has a direct connection with the condition physical health. Physical health problems can cause short-term mental illness or chronic illness. Mental disorders are detected in 40 - 50% of patients with somatic diseases.
Have an important impact on mental health social factors. They can be divided into socio-environmental, socio-economic, socio-political, environmental.
Man is not only a biological being, but also a social one. A child deprived of a social environment cannot become a full-fledged person, he does not master speech, and has no idea about the rules of social behavior. Since a person lives in society, he must obey its laws and respond to changes occurring in social life.
Of all the social factors family - main. Its impact on mental health can be seen at any age. But it is of particular importance for the child, for the formation of his character and behavioral stereotypes in various situations.
Unstable, cold relationships in the family and manifestations of cruelty primarily affect the mental health of the child. This is explained by the fragility of his psyche, immaturity of emotions and a violent reaction to negative events. If a child is unable to cope with the situation, he begins to develop behavioral disorders, a stereotypical pathological reaction to stress is formed, which later, in adulthood, will result in neurotic or psychopathic personality development, aggression, and various psychosomatic diseases.
A lack of parental love often leads to the development of depression in a child. A feeling of insecurity in the family and society is often manifested in a child by various fears, communication disorders, and behavioral reactions (protest, disobedience).
Another pathogenic factor for a child’s mental development is situation of social deprivation, caused by family discord, loss of loved ones or separation from them. Social deprivation leads to mental retardation, emotional disturbances in the form of depression, emotional coldness, decreased will, exhaustion of incentive motives, increased suggestibility, and communication disorders. Such children are easily involved in antisocial and criminal groups and are prone to substance abuse and sexual promiscuity. It was noted that the death of a mother or the divorce of parents quite often provoked the development of fears in children.
Loss and problems in childhood increase an individual's susceptibility to stress and mental disorders, but do not directly lead to the development of a specific mental illness. Nevertheless, children living in dysfunctional families who experience adverse environmental influences are at risk of developing mental illness and should be the attention of not only social workers or teachers, but also psychologists and psychiatrists.
For an adult, family relationships are also important for mental health. In a family with a comfortable psychological climate and emotional support, the negative impact of life events on the personality is mitigated.
If interpersonal relationships in the family are formal, indifferent, then there is a deficit in the emotional sphere and a lack of support in problem situations. Families of this type are risk factors for mental health disorders.
If there are conflicting relationships in a family, cruel treatment of children or a spouse, then such a family itself becomes a factor in the development of mental disorders.
Social factors influencing mental health include: problems related to work, housing, dissatisfaction with the social situation, social disasters and wars.
Foreign researchers have proven that depression occurs more often among representatives of the middle and lower social strata, where the burden of life events and circumstances weighs more heavily.
Depression often develops in people who have lost their jobs. Moreover unemployment is more likely to contribute to the development of depression in those who have lost their jobs in the past. Even after being reinstated, depression can persist for up to two years, especially in those with an unfavorable family climate and lack of social support.
The present time is characterized by such socially determined pathogenic factors as local wars, armed conflicts, terrorist acts, - they lead to persistent mental health problems not only among the direct participants, but also among the civilian population. It is not easy for a person to get used to war - to its dangers and hardships, to a different scale of life values and priorities. Mental disorders are detected in 60-85% of people who have experienced such powerful stress effects.
The modern period of social development is also characterized by increasing contradictions between man and the environment, which is reflected in environmental troubles, in a sharp increase in the number man-made disasters. Natural and man-made disasters change human life and potentiate the development of mental disorders. Their influence on mental health has been proven in the course of transcultural studies, when examining the population in environmentally unfavorable regions, in areas of natural and man-made disasters. An example is the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 10 years after the accident, the mental state of 68.9% of the liquidators corresponded to post-traumatic stress disorder, in 42.5% of cases there were intellectual-mnestic disorders. Every third liquidator was diagnosed with chronic alcoholism; among all those who died during this period, 10% committed suicide.
There is no convincing evidence of the effects of radiation on genetic consequences yet. However, the influence of background radiation on the appearance of mentally handicapped offspring can be indirectly judged from the results of epidemiological studies in regions with long-term elevated levels of radiation. In such regions (for example, in the Semipalatinsk region), 3-5 times more children with mental disabilities are born than the national average.
With environmental distress, there is a coexistence of mental, somatic and neurological changes; the conjugacy of exogenous (external) and psychogenic (personal) reactions.
The effectiveness of mental adaptation to the influence of environmental factors directly depends on the organization of microsocial interaction. Social activity and a wide range of communication connections have a positive effect on the emotional state and increase the ability to withstand stress. Social support is usually sought among close people - family members or friends. Work colleagues can also provide such support. In conflict situations in the family or work sphere, or difficulties in building informal communication, resistance to stress turns out to be worse than with effective social interaction and the presence of psychological support. The narrowing of the circle of confidential communication may explain the fact that housewives are more likely to develop symptoms of mental disorders than working women. The presence of social support, including from social workers, significantly reduces the influence of negative socio-psychological factors and economic difficulties (for example, short-term job loss). This model is called stress buffer model. Social support helps maintain positive self-esteem, optimism about the future, and thereby prevent the development of neurotic and emotional reactions. It is important that the degree of social support correlates with the extent of negative life events.
Provoking factors. These factors cause the development of the disease. Some people who are highly susceptible to mental illness never develop it or stay ill for very long. Typically, provoking factors act nonspecifically. The time of onset of the disease depends on them, but not the nature of the disease itself. Precipitating factors may be physical, psychological or social. Physical factors include medical illnesses and injuries, such as a brain tumor, traumatic brain injury, or loss of a limb. At the same time, physical damage and illness can be in the nature of psychological trauma and cause mental illness (neurosis). Life events can act as both a psychological and a social factor (loss of a job, divorce, loss of a loved one, moving to a new place of residence, etc.).
Socio-psychological factors are reflected in the clinical design and content of painful experiences. Recently, obsessive fears that are associated with reality have become widespread - these are speedophobia, radiophobia, ideas of exposure to neurotropic weapons; children often have fears that reflect the horror films now so widely shown with robots, vampires, ghosts, aliens, etc. . At the same time, we encounter forms of painful beliefs and fears that came to us from the distant past - damage, witchcraft, possession, the evil eye.
Supporting factors. The duration of the disease after its onset depends on them. When planning treatment and social work with a patient, it is especially important to pay due attention to them. When the initial predisposing and precipitating factors have ceased to have an impact, supporting factors exist and can be corrected. In the early stages, many mental illnesses lead to secondary demoralization and withdrawal from social activities, which in turn prolongs the original disorder. The social worker must take measures to correct these secondary personal factors and eliminate the social consequences of the disease.
Questions for self-control
1. List the predisposing, provoking and supporting risk factors for the development of mental illness.
2. What is the role of biological factors in mental health?
Creative group “Psychological health of participants in the educational process” (group leader:).
Composition of the creative team:
Position, subject, experience | Qualification |
|||
Kut-Yakh No. 1 | educational psychologist, work experience in educational institutions - 8 years | |||
Salym secondary school No. 1 | educational psychologist, 13 years old (24 years of teaching experience) | |||
Salym secondary school No. 2 | educational psychologist, teaching experience - 18 years |
Ø K middle level – adaptive – we include people who are generally adapted to society, but who have slightly increased anxiety. Such people can be classified as a risk group because they do not have a margin of safety in psychological health and can be included in group work with a preventive and developmental focus.
Ø Lowest level – this is maladaptive. It includes people who strive to adapt to external circumstances to the detriment of their desires and capabilities, and people who strive to subordinate the environment to their needs. People classified at this level of psychological health need individual psychological help.
Risk factors for psychological health problems
There are two groups of risk factors for psychological health disorders:
1. Objective or environmental factors;
2. Subjective factors determined by individual personal characteristics.
External factors
Objective factors should be understood as unfavorable family factors and unfavorable factors associated with child care institutions, professional activities, and the socio-economic situation in the country. Environmental factors are more significant for the psychological health of children and adolescents than for adults.
· Communication with the mother is most significant for the normal development of the infant’s personality. A lack of communication, an excess of communication, formal communication, alternating overstimulation with emptiness of relationships (mother-student) can lead to various developmental disorders of the child. Disturbances in the interaction of a child with his mother can lead to the formation of such negative personal formations as anxious attachment and distrust of the outside world instead of normal affection and basic trust. Anxious attachment manifests itself in primary school age increased dependence on adult assessments, desire to do homework only with mom. And distrust of the world around us often manifests itself in younger schoolchildren as destructive aggressiveness or strong unmotivated fears, and both are usually combined with increased anxiety. With the help of psychosomatic symptoms (stomach colic, sleep disturbances, etc.), the child reports that the maternal function is being performed unsatisfactorily.
· The relationship with the father is significant for the development of the child’s autonomy. The father must be physically and emotionally available to the child, because: a) he sets an example for the child of a relationship with his mother - a relationship between autonomous subjects; b) acts as a prototype of the outside world, that is, liberation from the mother becomes not a departure to nowhere, but a departure to someone; c) is a less conflicting object than the mother and becomes a source of protection. Thus, a disrupted relationship with the father most often adversely affects the formation autonomy and independence of the child . Undeveloped independence of a child at an early age leads to problems expressions of anger and insecurity issues . The problem can have different symptoms: excessive obesity, fear of growing up and depressive symptoms, sudden, unreasonable outbursts of aggressiveness. Unformed independence can manifest itself more clearly in the problems of adolescence. The teenager will either achieve independence with protest reactions that are not always adequate to the situation, perhaps even to his own detriment, or continue to remain “behind his mother’s back,” “paying” for this with one or another psychosomatic manifestations.
· The absence of one of the parents or conflicting relationships between them can lead to gender identity disorders or cause the development of neurotic symptoms: enuresis, hysterical attacks of fear and phobias. In some children, this can lead to characteristic changes in behavior: strongly expressed general readiness to react, fearfulness and timidity, humility, tendency to depressive moods, insufficient ability to affect and fantasize.
· The most significant risk factor in the family system is the interaction of the “child is the idol of the family” type, when meeting the needs of the child prevails over meeting the needs of other family members. The consequence of this type of family interaction may be impairment of the child’s ability to perceive and take into account in his behavior the states, desires and interests of other people . The child sees the world only from the perspective of his own interests and desires, does not know how to communicate with peers, or understand the requirements of adults. It is these children, often well-developed intellectually, who cannot successfully adapt to school.
· The phenomenon of parental programming has an ambiguous effect on the psychological health of the child. On the one hand, through the phenomenon of parental programming, the assimilation of moral culture and spirituality occurs. On the other hand, due to the extremely pronounced need for love from parents, the child tends to adapt his behavior to meet their expectations, relying on their verbal and non-verbal signals, which interferes with the development of his independence. In general, it will appear absence the most important neoplasm of preschool age - initiative . The child shows increased anxiety, self-doubt, and sometimes expressed fears.
· A risk factor may be an absolute ban on the manifestation of aggressiveness, which may result in the complete repression of aggressiveness. Thus, an always kind and obedient child who is never capricious is “the pride of his mother” and everyone’s favorite often pays for everyone’s love at a rather high price - a violation of his psychological health.
· Excessively strict and rapid teaching of neatness to a small child is a risk factor for psychological health problems. The child is developing fear of punishment for untidiness.
The next group of factors is related to child care institutions.
· It is worth noting the child’s meeting in kindergarten with his first significant stranger – the teacher. This meeting will largely determine his subsequent interactions with significant adults. With the teacher, the child receives the first experience of polyadic (instead of dyadic - with parents) communication. The teacher usually does not notice about 50% of children’s requests directed to her. And this can lead to an increase in the child’s independence, a decrease in his egocentrism, and maybe to dissatisfaction of the need for safety, development of anxiety, psychosomatization child. In addition, in kindergarten, a child may develop serious internal conflict , in case of conflict relationships with peers. Internal conflict is caused by contradictions between the demands of other people and the child’s capabilities, disrupts emotional comfort, and inhibits the formation of personality.
· Relationships between 6.5-7 year old children and their parents begin to be mediated by school. If parents understand the essence of changes in the child, then his status in the family increases, and he is included in new relationships. But more often, conflict in the family increases when the demands placed on the child by the parents do not correspond to his capabilities. The consequences may vary, but they always represent a risk factor for psychological health problems.
· At school, the child first finds himself in a situation of socially assessed activity, that is, his skills must correspond to the norms established in society for reading, writing, and counting. In addition, for the first time, the child gets the opportunity to objectively compare his activities with the activities of others (through assessments - points or pictures: “clouds”, “suns”, etc.). As a consequence of this, for the first time he realizes his “non-omnipotence.” Accordingly, dependence on the assessments of adults, especially teachers, increases. But what is especially important is that for the first time the child’s self-awareness and self-esteem receive strict criteria for his development: academic success and school behavior. Accordingly, the younger schoolchild gets to know himself only in these directions and builds his self-esteem on the same foundations. However, due to the limited criteria, situations of failure can lead to significant decreased self-esteem children. In a situation of persistent long-term failure, a child may become apathetic , purchase deprivation of the claim to recognition. This will manifest itself not only in a decrease in self-esteem, but also in the formation inadequate protective response options. In this case, the active behavior usually includes various manifestations aggression towards animate and inanimate objects, compensation in other activities. Passive option - manifestation of uncertainty, shyness, laziness, apathy, retreat into fantasy or illness. Formed feeling of inferiority .
· Adolescence is the most important period for the development of independence. In many ways, the success of achieving independence is determined by how the process of separation of a teenager from the family is carried out. The separation of a teenager from the family usually means the building of a new type of relationship between the teenager and his family, based not on guardianship, but on partnership. Consequences of incomplete separation from the family - inability to take responsibility for one's life . Therefore, it is so important that parents are able to provide a teenager with such rights and freedoms that he can use without threatening his psychological and physical health.
· School can be considered as a place where one of the most important psychosocial conflicts of growing up occurs, also with the goal of achieving independence and independence.
Internal factors
Psychological health presupposes resistance to stressful situations, so let’s consider those psychological characteristics that determine reduced resistance to stress.
v The following properties of temperament, according to A. Thomas, contribute to the formation of low stress resistance: low adaptive ability, tendency to avoid, predominance of bad mood, fear of new situations, excessive stubbornness, excessive distractibility, increased or decreased activity. The difficulty of this temperament is that it increases the risk of behavior disorders and that it is difficult for adults to apply adequate educational influences.
v Reactivity is a factor influencing psychological health. Reactivity refers to the ratio of the strength of the reaction to the triggering stimulus. Accordingly, highly reactive children are those who react strongly even to small stimuli, weakly reactive children are those with a weak intensity of reactions. Highly reactive children are most often characterized by increased anxiety. Their threshold for fear is reduced and their performance is reduced. A passive level of self-regulation is characteristic, that is, weak persistence, low efficiency of actions, poor adaptation of one’s goals to the real state of affairs. Another dependence was also discovered: inadequacy of the level of aspirations (unrealistically underestimated or overestimated).
Reduced resistance to stress is also associated with certain personality factors.
v Cheerful people are the most psychologically stable; accordingly, people with a low background mood are less stable.
v Externalists, who see most events as the result of chance and do not associate them with personal participation, are more susceptible to stress. Internals cope with stress more successfully.
v Self-esteem is a sense of one's own purpose and one's own capabilities. People with low self-esteem have higher levels of fear or anxiety. They perceive themselves as having insufficient abilities to cope with the threat. Accordingly, they are less energetic in taking preventive measures and strive to avoid difficulties, because they are convinced that they cannot cope with them. If people rate themselves highly enough, it is unlikely that they will interpret many events as emotionally difficult or stressful. In addition, if stress arises, they show greater initiative and therefore cope with it more successfully.
v The relationship between the desire for risk and for safety, for change and for maintaining stability, for accepting uncertainty and for controlling events is a significant risk factor for maintaining psychological health. Only an equilibrium state will allow a person to develop, change, on the one hand, and prevent self-destruction, on the other.
So, we looked at the risk factors for psychological health disorders. However, let's try to imagine: what if a child grows up in an absolutely comfortable environment? He will probably be absolutely psychologically healthy? What kind of personality will we get in the complete absence of external stress factors? Let's talk about this next time.
MENTAL HEALTH is a certain reserve of a person’s strength, thanks to which he can overcome unexpected stress or difficulties that arise in exceptional circumstances.
The level of mental health depends on the interaction of factors, which are divided into predisposing, provoking and supporting.
Predisposing factors increase a person’s susceptibility to mental illness and increase the likelihood of its development when exposed to provoking factors. Predisposing factors can be genetically determined, biological, psychological and social.
At present, there is no doubt about the genetic predisposition of diseases such as schizophrenia, some forms of dementia, affective disorders (manic-depressive psychosis), and epilepsy. Certain predisposing significance for the development of mental illness have personal characteristics.
Personality characteristics can not only have a nonspecific effect on the development of a mental disorder, but also affect the formation of the clinical picture of the disease.
TO biological factors factors that increase the risk of a mental disorder or disease include age, gender, and physical health.
Age. At certain age periods, a person becomes more vulnerable to stressful situations. These periods include:
-junior school age at which there is a high prevalence fears of the dark, animals, fairy-tale characters;
-teenage years(12-18 years old), which is characterized by increased emotional sensitivity and instability, behavioral disorders, including those related to drug use, acts of self-harm and suicide attempts;
-period of involution- with characteristic personal changes and a decrease in reactivity to the influence of psychological and socio-environmental factors.
Many mental illnesses have a pattern of development at a certain age. Schizophrenia most often develops in adolescence or young adulthood, the peak of drug dependence occurs at 18-24 years of age, and at involutionary age the number of depressions and senile dementia increases. In general, the peak incidence of typical mental disorders occurs in middle age. Age not only affects the frequency of development of mental disorders, but also gives a peculiar “age-related” coloring to their manifestations. Mental disorders of old age (delusions, hallucinations) often reflect experiences of an everyday nature - damage, poisoning, exposure and all sorts of tricks in order to “get rid of them, old people.”
Floor also to a certain extent determines the frequency and nature of mental disorders. Men are more likely than women to suffer from schizophrenia, alcoholism, and drug addiction. But in women, abuse of alcohol and psychotropic substances quickly leads to the development of drug addiction and the disease is more malignant than in men. Men and women react differently to stressful events. This is explained by their different socio-biological characteristics. Women are more emotional and more often than men experience depression and emotional disturbances. Biological conditions specific to the female body, such as pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum period, and menopause, carry with them many social problems and traumatic factors. During these periods, women's vulnerability increases and social and domestic problems become more urgent. Only women can develop postpartum psychosis or depression with fear for the child’s health. Involutional psychoses develop more often in women. An unwanted pregnancy is a severe stress for a girl, and if the father of the unborn child left the girl, then it is possible that severe depressive reaction, including suicidal intentions. Women are more likely to experience sexual violence or abuse, resulting in various forms of mental health problems, often in the form of depression. Girls who have been sexually abused are more susceptible to mental health problems later in life. The hierarchy of social values is different for women and men. For a woman, family and children are of greater importance; for men - his prestige, work. Therefore, a common reason for the development of neurosis in women is trouble in the family, personal problems, and in men it is conflict at work or dismissal. Even delusional ideas bear the imprint of socio-gender. Mental health has a direct connection with physical health. Physical health problems can cause short-term mental illness or chronic illness. Mental disorders are detected in 40 - 50% of patients with somatic diseases.
Social factors.
Of all social factors, family is the most important. Its impact on mental health can be seen at any age. But it has special meaning for a child. Unstable cold relationships in the family, manifestations of cruelty affect the mental health of the child.
Social factors influencing mental health include: These include problems related to work, housing, dissatisfaction with the social situation, social disasters and wars. Depression occurs more often among representatives of the middle and lower social strata, where the burden of life events and circumstances weighs more heavily. Depression often develops in people who have lost their jobs. Even after being reinstated, depression can persist for up to two years, especially in those with a lack of social support. The present time is characterized by such socially determined pathogenic factors as local wars, armed conflicts, terrorist acts - they lead to persistent mental health problems not only among the direct participants, but also among the civilian population. The modern period of social development is also characterized by increasing contradictions between man and the environment, which is reflected in environmental problems and a sharp increase in the number of man-made disasters. Natural and man-made disasters change human life and potentiate the development of mental disorders.
Provoking factors. These factors cause the development of the disease. Precipitating factors may be physical, psychological or social.
Physical factors include somatic diseases and injuries. At the same time, physical damage and illness can be in the nature of psychological trauma and cause mental illness (neurosis). Socio-psychological factors are life events (job loss, divorce, loss of a loved one, moving to a new place of residence, etc.), which are reflected in the clinical manifestation and content of painful experiences. Recently, obsessive fears have become widespread, which are associated with reality; there are forms of painful beliefs and fears that came to us from the distant past - damage, witchcraft, possession, the evil eye.
Supporting factors. The duration of the disease after its onset depends on them. When planning treatment and social work with a patient, it is especially important to pay due attention to them. When the initial predisposing and precipitating factors have ceased to have an impact, supporting factors exist and can be corrected.
Norm and pathology of mental processes.
The concepts of “mental health” and “mental norm” are not identical. The concept of normal is necessary for an accurate diagnosis/conclusion. But the concept of normality in our minds is closely related to the state of health. Deviation from the norm is considered as pathology and disease.
Norm is a term that can have two main contents. The first is the statistical content of the norm: this is the level of functioning of the organism or personality, which is characteristic of most people and is typical, the most common. In this aspect, the norm appears to be some objectively existing phenomenon. The statistical norm is determined by calculating the arithmetic mean values of some empirical (found in life experience) data. The second is the evaluative content of the norm: the norm is considered to be some ideal example of the human condition or the state of “perfection”, to which all people should strive to one degree or another. In this aspect, the norm acts as an ideal norm - a subjective, arbitrarily established standard. The standard is accepted as a perfect sample by agreement of any persons who have the right to establish such samples and have power over other people (for example, specialists, leaders of a group or society, etc.). Anything that does not correspond to the ideal is declared abnormal.
The problem of norm-standard is associated with the problem of choosing a normative group - people whose life activity acts as a standard, by which the effectiveness of the level of functioning of the body and personality is measured. Depending on who experts in authority (for example, psychiatrists or psychologists) include in the normative group, different boundaries of the norm are established.
The number of norms includes not only ideal norms, but also functional, social and individual norms.
Functional norms are norms that evaluate a person’s state in terms of their consequences (harmful or not harmful) or the possibility of achieving a certain goal (whether this state contributes or does not contribute to the implementation of goals-related tasks).
Social norms are norms that control a person’s behavior, forcing him to conform to some desired (prescribed by the environment) or model established by the authorities.
An individual norm is a norm that involves comparing a person with the state in which he was previously, and which corresponds to his personal goals, life values, opportunities and life circumstances.
The most important criteria for classification as normal variants:
Psychological clarity;
No excessive fixation that is inconsistent with activity requirements or needs.
There is no impairment of social functioning and correction is possible;
Relatively expedient in nature;
Certain periods.
It is also necessary to evaluate the nature of changes in dynamics and correlate them with personality characteristics.
Questions regarding the boundaries between mental norm and pathology have not been fully studied to date. At the initial (preclinical) stages of the disease, mental changes are often transient and not syndromatically defined. This is where concepts such as “pre-disease” and “pre-nosological mental disorders” arose, which are characterized by the absence of clear boundaries between psychological reactions and mental disorders, between the norm and the pathology of the individual.
Most people can be classified as having pre-morbid mental disorders or pre-nosological disorders, etc. and consider them as non-pathological manifestations. These include nonspecific, most often asthenic phenomena, character accentuations and personality disorders, neuroses and neurosis-like conditions.
In the presence of pathology of mental processes, in order to bring together the characteristics of the diagnostic thinking of a doctor and a clinical psychologist, based on the results of clinical observations, pathopsychological syndromes were identified. The first such attempt was made in 1982. I.A. Kudryavtsev, and in 1986 V.M. Bleicher described a number of pathopsychological register syndromes that have a generalized meaning, their characteristics are closer to nosological ones, and their identification marks the stage of preliminary diagnosis of the disease. A clinical psychologist can operate in his diagnostic conclusions with such a set of pathopsychological register syndromes as:
Schizophrenic. It is characterized by a violation of the purposefulness of thinking and meaning formation (reasoning, slipping, diversity, etc.), emotional-volitional disorders (flattening and dissociation of emotions, hypo- and abulia, parabulia, etc.), the development of autism, alienation, etc.
Oligophrenic. It consists of primitiveness and concreteness of thinking, inability to form concepts and abstraction (or significant difficulty in doing so), lack of general information and knowledge, increased suggestibility, emotional disorders, difficulty/inability to learn.
Organic (exo- and endogenous). It consists of memory impairments, the collapse of the system of previous knowledge and experience, symptoms of decreased intelligence, the operational side of thinking (decrease in the level of generalizations), instability of emotions (affective lability), decreased critical abilities and self-control (in the clinic it corresponds to exogenous-organic brain damage - cerebral atherosclerosis, consequences of traumatic brain injury, substance abuse, etc., true epilepsy, primary atrophic processes in the brain).
Psychopathic (personally abnormal). It consists of inadequacy of the level of aspirations and self-esteem, disturbances in thinking of the catathymic type (“affective logic”), disturbances in forecasting and reliance on past experience, emotional-volitional disorders, changes in the structure and hierarchy of motives (in the clinic it corresponds to accentuated and psychopathic personalities, due largely least abnormal soil psychogenic reactions).
Affective-endogenous(in the clinic it corresponds to bipolar affective disorder and functional affective psychoses of late age).
Psychogenic-psychotic(in the clinic - reactive psychoses).
Psychogenic-neurotic(in the clinic - neuroses and neurotic reactions).
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The topic of experimental work at the Novo-Peredelkino Center for Medical and Social Sciences:
"Transdisciplinary approach to creating
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Psychological health: risk factors for impairment
and optimal conditions for its formation.
In 1979, the World Health Organization coined the term “mental health.” It can be defined as “a state of mental activity, which is characterized by the determinism of mental phenomena, a harmonious relationship between the reflection of the circumstances of reality and the individual’s attitude towards it, the adequacy of the body’s reactions to the social, psychological and physical conditions of life, thanks to the individual’s ability to control his behavior, plan and carry out his life path in the micro- and macrosocial environment.” Unlike the concept of “mental health,” the term “psychological health” is not yet used often.The appearance of this term is associated with the development of the humanitarian methodology of human knowledge. It was named among the basic concepts of a new branch of psychological research - humanistic psychology, an alternative to the mechanistic approach to man transferred from the natural sciences.
Today, the problem of psychological health is relevant and is being developed by a number of researchers (V.A. Ananyev, B.S. Bratus, I.N. Gurvich, N.G. Garanyan, A.N. Leontyev, V.E. Pakhalyan, A.M. Stepanov, A.B. Kholmogorova, etc.). The works of I.V. Dubrovina, V.V. Davydov, O.V. Khukhlaeva, G.S. Nikiforov, D.B. Elkonin, etc. are devoted to the problem of psychological health of children.
R. Assagioli described psychological health as a balance between various aspects of a person’s personality; S. Freiberg - between the needs of the individual and society; N.G. Garanyan, A.B. Kholmogorova - as a process of personal life, in which reflexive, reflexive, emotional, intellectual, communicative, behavioral aspects are balanced. There is a widespread understanding of psychological health within the framework of the adaptation approach (O.V. Khukhlaeva, G.S. Nikiforov).
In the concept of modernizing the education system, an important role is given to health-saving technologies, psychological support for children in educational institutions, and the preservation and strengthening of mental health. Today, children whose condition can be described as borderline relative to the norm and qualified as “not mentally ill, but psychologically no longer healthy” continue to remain outside the field of vision and positive intervention.
Psychological health is a state that characterizes the process and result of the normal development of subjective reality within the limits of individual life; the maxim of psychological health is the unity of the vitality and humanity of the individual.
“Psychological health” characterizes the personality as a whole (in contrast to “mental health”, which relates to individual mental processes and mechanisms), is in direct connection with the manifestations of the human spirit and allows us to highlight the actual psychological aspect of the problem of mental health.
Psychological health is a necessary condition for the full functioning and development of a person in the process of his life. Thus, on the one hand, it is a condition for a person to adequately fulfill his age, social and cultural roles, on the other hand, it provides a person with the opportunity for continuous development throughout his life.
In other words, the “key” concept for describing psychological health is “harmony”. And first of all, this is harmony between the various components of a person himself: emotional and intellectual, bodily and mental, etc. But it is also harmony between a person and the people around him, nature. At the same time, harmony is considered not as a static state, but as a process. Accordingly, we can say that “psychological health is a dynamic set of mental properties of a person that ensure harmony between the needs of the individual and society, which are a prerequisite for the orientation of the individual towards fulfilling his life task” (O.V. Khukhlaeva).
At the same time, a person’s psychological health is closely related to physical health, because The very use of the term “psychological health” emphasizes the inseparability of the physical and mental in a person, the need for both for full functioning. Moreover, recently a new scientific direction has emerged as health psychology - “the science of the psychological causes of health, the methods and means of its preservation, strengthening and development” (V.A. Ananyev).
The next point that needs to be considered to meaningfully fill the concept of psychological health is its relationship with spirituality. I.V. Dubrovina argues that psychological health should be considered from the point of view of the richness of personality development, i.e. include in psychological health a spiritual principle, an orientation towards absolute values: Truth, Beauty, Goodness. Thus, if a person does not have an ethical system, then it is impossible to talk about his psychological health. And we can completely agree with this position.
Having understood what psychological health is, it is also necessary to pay attention to the factorsrisk of psychological health problems. They can be divided conditionally into two groups: objective, or environmental factors, and subjective, determined by individual personal characteristics. Environmental factors (for children) mean unfavorable family factors and unfavorable factors associated with child care institutions. In turn, family adverse factors can be divided into risk factors coming from:
- type of parent-child relationship (lack of communication between parents and child, overstimulation of the child, overprotection, alternation of overstimulation with emptiness of relationships, formal communication, etc.),
- family system (interaction like “child is the idol of the family”, the absence of one of the parents or conflicting relationships between them).
At primary school age (from 6–7 to 10 years), relationships with parents begin to be mediated by the school, because For the first time, a child finds himself in a situation of socially assessed activity and gets the opportunity to objectively compare his activities with the activities of others, which can lead to a significant decrease in children’s self-esteem. In addition, if a child perceives educational results as the only criteria of his own value, sacrificing imagination and play, he acquires a limited identity, according to E. Erikson - “I am only what I can do.” There is a possibility of developing a feeling of inferiority, which can negatively affect both the child’s current situation and the formation of his life scenario.
But if we consider the development of psychological health only from the point of view of risk factors, questions arise as to why not all children in unfavorable conditions “break down”, but, on the contrary, sometimes achieve success in life, and why we often encounter children who grew up in a comfortable external environment, but at the same time in need of some kind of psychological help. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the optimal conditions for the development of human psychological health:
- the presence in a child’s life of difficult situations that cause tension corresponding to the age and individual capabilities of the children. At the same time, the task of adults is not to help in overcoming difficult situations, but to help in finding their meaning and educational impact;
- the presence of a positive background mood in the child (the presence of mental balance in the student, i.e. the ability to come to a state of inner peace in various situations, optimism and the ability of the child himself to be happy). A good mood increases a person’s effectiveness in solving certain problems and overcoming difficult situations;
- the presence of a child’s constant fixation on progress, positive changes that relate to both educational and extracurricular activities;
- presence of social interest (the ability to be interested in other people and take part in them).
But the important thing is that the selected conditions can only be considered in probabilistic terms. With a high degree of probability, a child will grow up psychologically healthy in such conditions; in the absence of them, he will grow up with certain mental health disorders.
Thus, summarizing everything said above, we get a “portrait” of a psychologically healthy person. “A psychologically healthy person is, first of all, a spontaneous and creative person, cheerful and cheerful, open and aware of himself and the world around him not only with his mind, but also with his feelings and intuition. He fully accepts himself and at the same time recognizes the value and uniqueness of the people around him. Such a person places responsibility for his life primarily on himself and learns from unfavorable situations. His life is filled with meaning, although he does not always formulate it for himself. It is in constant development and, of course, contributes to the development of other people. His life path may not be entirely easy, and sometimes quite difficult, but he adapts perfectly to rapidly changing living conditions. And what’s important is that he knows how to be in a situation of uncertainty, trusting what will happen to him tomorrow” (O.V. Khukhlaeva).
In general, we can conclude that psychological health is formed through the interaction of external and internal factors, and not only external factors can be refracted through internal ones, but also internal factors can modify external influences. And once again it must be emphasized that for a psychologically healthy person the experience of struggle, crowned with success, is necessary.
