Mental Health, Mental Hygiene, Mental Disorders and Defense Mechanisms

1. MENTAL HEALTH
AND HYGIENE

2. MENTAL HEALTH
I. Definition
♣ the successful performance of mental
function, resulting in productive activities,
fulfilling relationships with other people and
the ability to adapt to change and cope with
adversity;

3. MENTAL HEALTH
♣ How a person:
looks at own’s self
looks at own’s life and the others
thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life's
situations
evaluates those challenges and problems, and
explore choices. i.e. handling stress, relating
to other people, and making decisions.

4. MENTAL HYGIENE
♣ developing, maintaining and promoting
necessary behavioral, emotional and social
skills to sustain good, effective and efficient
mental health.

5. BASIC STRATEGIES
1. Reality Contact
• having a realistic appraisal of one’s own
reactions, emotions and abilities.
2. Impulse Control
• being in complete control over your impulse
behaviors.

6. BASIC STRATEGIES
3. Self-Esteem
• evaluative component of self
• also includes self-concept which is the
awareness about oneself
4. Positive Thoughts
• developing the power of positive thinking
which generates positive emotions

7. Mental Health
Mental Hygiene
Mental Wellness
Mental status has two possibilities:
either health or illness/disorder
are terms used to
describe the
absence of mental
illness

8. LACK OF MENTAL HEALTH AND
HYGIENE AWARENESS WILL LEAD
PEOPLE TO:
1. Stress
2. Problems relating to interpersonal
relationships
3. Depression
4. Anxiety

9. LACK OF MENTAL HEALTH AND
HYGIENE AWARENESS WILL LEAD
PEOPLE TO:
5. Tension
6. Adjustment
7. Hassles (day to day problems)
8. Family problems
9. Sexual problems

10. EXAMPLES OF MENTAL
DISORDERS
1. Depression/ Bipolar disorder
2. Anxiety Disorder
3. Schizophrenia
4. Obsessive-Compulsive disorder

11. EXAMPLES OF MENTAL
DISORDERS
5. Stress disorder
6. Social phobia
7. Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia or over
eating)
8. Addiction

12. BETTER MENTAL HEALTH FOR
ALL
1. To reduce stigma and discrimination against
people with mental illnesses
2. To achieve equity for mental health care
comparable to other health care

13. BETTER MENTAL HEALTH FOR
ALL
3. To advance promotion, prevention and early
intervention services for children and their
families
4. To increase public awareness worldwide
about mental health and mental illness and
to stimulate local actions to address those
issues

14. BEHAVIORS WHICH SUSTAIN
GOOD HEALTH
1. Right Food (Ahara)
2. Right Routine (Achara)
3. Right Recreation (Vihara)
4. Right Thinking (Vichara)
According to Ayurveda,
the Science of Indian Medicine

15. DEFENSE MECHANISMS
 Ways people deal with stresses in their
lives.
 Used to try to solve problems, hide or
counterbalance feelings or actions.
 do not usually get rid of the problem,
and are often negative or not a very
effective way to deal with stress.

16. 1. Direct Attack: recognize the heart of the
problem
• Work to solve the problem
• The goals must be realistic
Ex. “If I look at this realistically,
I can set my goals and overcome this
problem”

17. 2. Sublimation: redirecting bad or
unacceptable behavior/emotions into positive
behavior.
• We sublimate the desire to fight into the
ritualistic activities of formal competition.
Ex. When I’m angry, I box at the gym.

18. 3.Daydreaming: escaping from an
unpleasant situation by using your
imagination.
• Living in a fantasy world
Ex. “I love animals so much, so even if I fail
biology, I can still be a veterinarian”

19. 4. Denial: failure to accept reality.
Ex. “This is not happening. It can’t
happen to me.”

20. 5. Displacement: the transfer of negative
emotions from one person or thing to
an unrelated person or thing.
Ex. “I did so poorly on my SAT, I’ll just go
home and kick my dog.”

21. 6. Projection: Blame other people or things for
your failure
• Use a scapegoat
Ex. “It’s my math teacher’s fault I failed the
test”

22. 7. Regression: using childlike ways for
expressing emotions.
Ex. Crying, name calling, throwing things,
swearing.

23. 8. Acting Out: performing an extreme
behavior in order to express thoughts or
feelings the person feels incapable of
otherwise expressing.
Ex. Self-injury is expression
through physical pain of
what can’t be stand
to feel emotionally.

24. 9. Reaction Formation: is the converting of
unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or
impulses into their opposites.
Ex. A woman who is very angry with her boss and
would like to quit her job may instead be overly
kind and generous toward her boss and express a
desire to keep working there forever. She is
incapable of expressing the negative emotions of
anger and unhappiness with her job, and instead
becomes overly kind to publicly demonstrate her
lack of anger and unhappiness.

25. 10. Repression: Burying a painful feeling or
thoughts from your awareness though it may
resurface in symbolic form
Ex. A little girl’s memory of being molested when
she was a toddler might become a repressed
memory. The little girl will completely forget
about this experience, until the memory
might resurface years later.

26. 11. Rationalization: Creating false but
plausible excuses to justify unacceptable
behavior
Ex. A student stealing money from a wealthy
friend of his, telling himself “Well he is rich, he
can afford to lose it.”

27. 12.Compensation: people overachieve in one
area to compensate for failures in another
Ex. Becoming good at a sport to overcome
insecurities in other areas