Mental health Flashcards
Mental health
A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Risk factors
Contribute to likelihood of a person suffering from a mental disorder or experiencing a relapse.
Protective factors
Act as a guard against onset or relapse by supporting a person’s general wellbeing.
The 4 P factors
Predisposing factors
Precipitating factors
Perpetuating factors
Protective factors
Predisposing risk factors
Factors that increase vulnerability to developing mental health problems.
Inherited traits
e.g genes may increase the chance of developing a mental disorder
Environmental exposure before birth
e.g toxins, drug or alcohol abuse
Physical illness
e.g arthritis
Disorganised attachment
e.g not having a good relationship with your primary caregiver
Precipitating risk factors
Factors that trigger the onset or exacerbation of mental health problems.
Poor sleep
Stressful life situations
e.g death or divorce
Traumatic experience
e.g natural disaster, war, accident, injury
Substance use or misuse
Perpetuating risk factors
Factors that inhibit recovery from mental health problems
Poor health or medical conditions
Lack of social support and resources
Conflict or relationship problems
Social isolation
Substance use or misuse
Rumination
Unemployment
Protective factors
Good health, sleep and exercise
Hormonal balance
Resilience
Resources
Strong social support network
High level of functioning
Being able to interact and involve yourself in society and being able to undertake everyday tasks such as personal hygiene (showing), going to work and eating.
It would show that an individual has low levels of functioning if they were unable to hold down a job, eat and wash regularly and if they would spend all day in bed for days on end.
Social and emotional wellbeing
The ability to deal with challenges and to have a strong sense of self-worth/purpose.
A sense of belonging to a community, this may involve having a job or a significant other.
Resilience to life stressors
Ability to adapt/deal with a stressor and come back from a stress.
Stress
*Subjective
*Optimal level of stress can be beneficial
*Stress can be positive as it helps us to avoid danger
*Stress can also be negative if it is long term as it can turn into an illness
(everyone experiences stress)
Anxiety
*Feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness
*Normal emotion
*Ambiguous or unclear threat
*Becomes a disorder when it is out of proportion to the event/threat
*Most common mental health condition in Australia
*Intense physiological response e.g sweating, breathlessness
*Chronic
(everyone experiences anxiety)
Phobia
*Most common of all anxiety disorders
*Persistent and irrational fear of a particular object or event
*3% of Australians have a phobia
*Needs to be present for at least 6 months to be diagnosed as a phobia
*Interrupted daily functioning
(not everyone experiences or has a phobia)
Similarities between stress + anxiety
Both characterised by the same symptoms such as increased heart rate, sweating, breathlessness, tiredness, loss of appatite ect.
