Chapter 14: Maintenance of Mental Health Part 1

Question 1

What is resilience?

Answer 1

The ability to successfully cope with adversity, and to ‘bounce back’ and restore positive functioning.
-Involves behaviours, thoughts, and actions that can be learned and developed in most people.

Question 2

Why is resilience considered a protective factor?

Answer 2

• Considered a protective factor that is a strength or asset for ‘good’ mental health as it helps safeguard against the effects of risk factors for ‘bad’ mental health and minimises their impact.
• Research studies have found that resilience enables people of all ages to endure and recover fully, despite suffering significant traumatic conditions of extreme deprivation, serious threat, and major stress. This includes children in situations involving natural disasters, war or terrorism.

Question 3

Describe the 3 factors which distinguish resilience from other coping or adaptive behaviours:

Answer 3

• The ability to achieve positive results in adverse situations
• The ability to function competently in situations of acute or chronic stress
• The ability to recover from trauma

Question 4

List at least 4 of the qualities of resilient individuals:

Answer 4

• High self-esteem: A positive view of their overall self-worth; they regard themselves highly and value themselves
• High self-efficacy: A strong belief in their abilities to accomplish a specific task and succeed
• A positive outlook in bad times as well as good (Eg. Approaching stressors with a sense of optimism, opportunity, and hope; having a sense of purpose or meaning in life)
• Flexibility (Eg. Adapting more easily to adversity, using a range of effective strategies for coping with difficult situations and disruptions in their lives)
• Good emotional control and regulation (Eg. The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses)
• Good interpersonal relationships and social support systems (Eg. Having a sense of belonging; knowing other people they can talk to or to get help from in difficult times; having caring and supportive relationships within and outside the family; feeling part of the community)
• The ability to interpret stressors in appropriate ways
• The ability to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out
• Skills in communication and problem solving

Question 5

List 2 biological protective factors:

Answer 5

• Adequate diet

- Adequate sleep

Question 6

Why is adequate diet an important biological protective factor:

Answer 6

• Is important for proper body functioning
• Reduces the risk of physical health problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
• It can help with sleep, energy levels, mood, and mental health.
• We tend to generally feel better and have an overall sense of wellbeing when we eat well.

Question 7

What does an adequate diet mean?

Answer 7

Eating a good amount of a variety of different foods that maintain good health and makes us feel well as a result.

• Needs to be ‘balanced’, where we eat minimal amounts of the bad things (Eg. Sugar and junk food) and eat more of the good things (Eg. Vegetables, fruits, and grains).
• Should eat when hungry and stop when full.

Question 8

List 5 nutritional strategies which can help to maintain mental health:

Answer 8

• Eat a variety of foods
• Drink lots of water
• Don’t skip breakfast and try to eat regularly throughout the day
• Don’t rely on vitamin/mineral supplements
• Don’t rely on drugs and alcohol

Question 9

What is sleep and why is vital?

Answer 9

Sleep is an essential, naturally occurring, involuntary process, without which we cannot function at our best. We cannot avoid the need for sleep.
It is as vital to our functioning as eating, drinking, and breathing.

Question 10

What does the restoration theory propose?

Answer 10

Our body undergoes repair and replenishes resources depleted during the major waking period.

Question 11

List some reasons sleep is important:

Answer 11

• Sleep triggers the release of hormones that affect growth and other functions.
• Sleep may also give our brain some ‘down time’ to process information and to form or consolidate new pathways to help us remember what we learnt when awake and ensure the relevant knowledge and skills are available when needed.
• Quality AND quantity are important.
• Need for sleep is a highly individual matter and varies in relation to age, lifestyle, sleep habits, and many other factors.
• Good quality sleep tends to be the result of spending enough uninterrupted time in both NREM and REM sleep, including enough deep sleep which helps us feel refreshed. It also depends on whether we are sleeping at a time when our body is prepared and ready to sleep.

Question 12

List 2 examples of the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation:

Answer 12

• Loss of concentration

- Difficulty completing simple tasks

Question 13

List 2 examples of the affective effects of sleep deprivation:

Answer 13

• Irritable

- Moody

Question 14

List 3 examples of the behavioural effects of sleep deprivation:

Answer 14

• Shaky hands
• Droopy eyelids
• Microsleeps

Question 15

List a psychological protective factor:

Answer 15

-Cognitive behavioural strategies

Question 16

What are cognitive behavioural strategies?

Answer 16

Techniques drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to identify, assess and correct faulty patterns of thinking or problem behaviours that may be affecting mental health and wellbeing.

Question 17

What does cognitive restructuring aim to do?

Answer 17

Aims at replacing erroneous or dysfunctional thoughts with more helpful cognitions. In turn, this can help reduce problem thoughts, as well as ways of feeling and/or behaving that are influenced by those thoughts.

Question 18

What may a behavioural technique of CBT be used for? Give an example:

Answer 18

To maintain or improve mental health through behaviour change.
Eg. Could involve skills training that targets a specific area of functioning, such as breathing or relaxation training to help with stress management, learning anger management skills to help control emotional reactivity, social skills training to improve ways of interacting with others or training that focuses on improving parenting skills.

Question 19

What are cognitive distortions in relation to CBT?

Answer 19

Habitual ways of thinking that adversely impact on mental health.
-According to the principles of CBT, you can change the way you feel and behave by thinking about a situation in a more positive and optimistic way.

Question 20

Give some examples of how CBT can be used to avoid cognitive distortions:

Answer 20

• Instead of thinking, ‘I am so dumb, I am hopeless, I will never do well in this subject’ change your thinking to, ‘This was a difficult task, I know I can do better next time.’
• Journals or diaries with ‘daily thought records’ can be kept to identify and correct problematic ways of thinking.

Question 21

Describe 3 common thinking errors:

Answer 21

• Minimisation: Where you downplay anything good becayse you are too focused on the bad.
• Magnification: When a little mistake becomes a huge problem in your mind.
• Catastrophising: When you make extreme judgments and imagine the very worst outcome will occur.

Question 22

List a social protective factor:

Answer 22

-Support from family, friends, and community

Question 23

What is social support?

Answer 23

The assistance, care or empathy provided by people to each other.

Question 24

Give some examples of individuals who could provide social support:

Answer 24

• Family
• Friends
• People in the local and wider community (Eg. Peers at school, teachers we trust, work colleagues, members of a church or self-help group to which we may belong)
• Professionals (Eg. family doctor, a counselor or psychologist)
• Virtual community

Question 25

What do individuals socially tend to do when affected by a mental health problem and what does research say about this?

Answer 25

• When affected by a mental health problem, people often don’t feel like mixing with others. There is a tendency to avoid seeing friends and family as usual.
• Research findings indicate that isolating oneself from others instead of seeking some form of social support when experiencing a mental health problem is not usually helpful.