MENTAL HEALTH DP 1-7 Flashcards

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1
Q

Mental health as a continuum

A

The mental health continuum involves the progression of levels of mental health. This ranges from an individual being mentally healthy, to having a mental health problem, and to having a mental health disorder.

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2
Q

Mentally healthy

A

Individuals who are able to independently and effectively function within their everyday life.
→ Able to cope with stress
→ Able to meet the demands of everyday life
→ Displays resilience
→ Maintains positive relationships with others
→ Able to regulate emotions and express them appropriately

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3
Q

Mental health problem

A

Disruption to an individual’s usual level of social and emotional wellbeing and can interfere with our performance and enjoyment in a range of life areas (schools, work, r/ship)
→ not functioning at optimal level
→ generally not too severe or long lasting
→ experiencing amplified emotions and high levels of stress

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4
Q

Mental health disorder

A

Involves a combination of thoughts, feelings and or behavior that are usually associated with significant personal distress and impair in everyday life
→ extremely overwhelming
→ low levels of functioning

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5
Q

Biopsychosocial model

A

Way of describing and explaining how biological, psychological and social factors combine and interact to influence a person’s mental health

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6
Q

Internal factors

A

Influences that originate inside or within a person
→ biological
→ psychological

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7
Q

External factors

A

Influences that originate from outside a person
→ social

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8
Q

Biological factors

A

Involves physiologically based influences, often not in our control
→ balances/imbalances of specific neurotransmitters
→ fight/flight/freeze

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9
Q

Psychological factors

A

involves all those influences associated with mental processing
→ thoughts, perceptions of ourselves, others and our external environment, problem solving and managing stress

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10
Q

Social factors

A

School and work related factors, exposure to stressor and social stigma

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11
Q

Characteristics of mentally healthy people

A

→ high levels of functioning
→ high level of social wellbeing
→ high level of emotional wellbeing
→ resilience

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12
Q

High levels of functioning

A

Independence, ability to achieve goals, development over time
→ meet demands of everyday life
→ balance work, rest, recreation

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13
Q

High level of social well being

A

Ability to maintain satisfying relationships and have appropriate interactions with others
→ connected, reciprocated, valued

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14
Q

High levels of emotional wellbeing

A

Ability to control, express and share emotions appropriately
→ balanced, normal range, strategies

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15
Q

Resilience

A

The capacity to recover quickly from setbacks
→ ability to cope and adapt to life stressors and restore positive functioning

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16
Q

Ethical implications

A

When working with vulnerable people, ethical standards must be upheld
→ informed consent - all participants known there is a chance they wont receive the treatment (all other medication would need to stop to avoid EV so may be having no treatment)

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17
Q

Predisposing risk factor

A

Increase susceptibility to developing a specific mental disorder
B → genetic vulnerability
P → poor self efficacy
S → disorganised attachment

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18
Q

Precipitating risk factor

A

Increase susceptibility and contributes to the occurrence of a mental disorder
B → substance use, poor sleep
P → stress
S → loss of significant r/ship

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19
Q

Perpetuating risk factor

A

Maintains / prolongs the occurrence of a mental disorder and inhibits recovery
B → poor response to medication
P → impaired reasoning and memory
S → stigma

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20
Q

Protective risk factor

A

Helps prevent the occurrence or recurrence of a mental disorder
B → adequate diet and sleep
P → cognitive behaviour strategies
S → support from fam, friends, community

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21
Q

Biological risk factors

A

Originate from within the body
→ Genetic vulnerability
→ Poor sleep
→ Substance abuse
→ Poor response to medication
→ Adequate diet and sleep

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22
Q

Poor sleep

A

Chronic sleep disturbances are associated with mental health issues

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23
Q

Poor response to medication

A

Some people respond better to medication than others

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24
Q

Substance abuse

A

→ Addictive substances can alter the way the brain works by interfering with chemical neurotransmission.
→ Some substances affect the amount of neurotransmission released while other can affect how the neural messages are getting through.
→ Some drugs can trigger the first symptom of mental illness and other drugs can make existing mental disorders worse

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25
Q

Psychological risk factors

A

Originate from within the mind
→ rumination
→ impaired reasoning and memory
→ stress
→ poor self efficacy

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26
Q

Rumination

A

Obsessive thinking and worrying about the negative aspect of a past, present or future situation

27
Q

Impaired reasoning and memory

A

Irrational thoughts and memory bias can have negative impact on mental health

28
Q

Stress

A

Psychological response to a stressor that challenges a personal capability to cope
→ prolonged stress increases the risk of a person developing a mental disorder

29
Q

Poor self efficacy

A

A personal perception of their capacity to cope with stressors. (can sometimes lead to development of mental illness symptoms)

30
Q

Social risk factors

A

Originate in the external environment and interact with biological and psychological factors in influencing our mental state
→ disorganised attachment
→ loss of significant r/ship
→ stigma as a barrier to accessing treatment

31
Q

Disorganised attachment

A

When a child has an inconsistent caregiver, this can negatively impact on their ability to form r/ship when they are older

32
Q

Stigma

A

Stereotyping of people with a mental illness as weak, dangerous or unpredictable may prevent them from seeking help with their condition
→ Social stigma is negative judgement made about people with a mental illness

33
Q

Cumulative risk

A

Suggests that the greater the number of risk factors, biological, psychological and social, the more likely it is that the person will develop a mental illness

34
Q

Anxiety

A

a state of psychological or physical arousal that involves a persistent fear or worry
→ can be stress that continues after the stressor is gone or in anticipation of a stimulus

35
Q

Phobia

A

characterised by a persistent, intense and irrational fear of a specific object or situation.
→ excessive fear, irrational thoughts, avoidance behaviour, dysfunctional

36
Q

Physical experiences of stress and anxiety

A

insomnia, increase heart rate, headaches, increase blood pressure

37
Q

Biological contributing factors to phobias

A
  • GABA dysfunction (Predisposing)
  • Role of the stress response (Preciprating)
  • LTP (Perpetuating)
38
Q

Psychological contributing factors to phobias

A
  • Classical conditioning (Preciprating)
  • Operant conditioning (Perpetuating)
  • Cognitive bias (memory bias and catastrophic thinking) (Perpetuating)
39
Q

Social contributing factors to phobias

A
  • Specific environmental triggers (Preciprating)
  • Stigma around seeking treatment (Perpetuating)
40
Q

GABA dysfunction (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • Main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the NS. It decreases the likelihood of the postsynaptic neuron firing and allows neuronal activity to remain at an optimal level
  • This is important in regulating the fight-flight-freeze response and anxiety, as GABA acts to slow or halt the excitatory neural transmission responsible for these reactions.
  • GABA dysfunction may cause someone’s fight-flight-freeze or anxiety response to be activated more easily than someone with adequate GABA levels.
41
Q

Stress response (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • When there is a perceived threat the FFF response is activated, resulting in the adrenal gland releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline into the blood streams
  • This increased HR speeds up blood flow and breathing rate (and suppress other functions like degestin) This activity is determined to the individuals when it is regulaury and chronically triggered to perceived threats weather real or imagines
42
Q

Long-term potentiation (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • Long lasting strengthening of synaptic connections resulting in more enhanced and effective synaptic transmission
  • The more times the fear pathway is activated via exposure to the phobic stimulus, the more a neural pathway is strengthened
43
Q

Classical conditioning (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • Precipitation by classical conditioning can contribute to the development of phobias by increasing susceptibility to and contributing to their occurrence.
  • what becomes a phobic stimulus would start out as the neutral stimulus (NS). Through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally induces fear, the NS becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS) or phobic stimulus, producing the conditioned response (CR) or phobic response. In this way, a phobic response can be acquired through the processes of classical conditioning.
44
Q

Operant conditioning (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • Perpetuation by operant conditioning contributes to phobias by preventing the ability to overcome them.
  • A person with a phobia will generally avoid contact with their phobic stimulus at all costs. By avoiding confrontation with the phobic stimulus, a person is negatively reinforced through this avoidance they don’t have to deal with their fear response.
  • Over time, this reinforcement strengthens or maintains the phobic response, making avoidant behaviours more likely to be repeated, and preventing recovery through this cycle.
45
Q

Cognitive bias (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • A cognitive bias is a predisposition to think about and process information in a certain way.
  • Cognitive biases contribute to phobias because some people consider certain stimuli as particularly harmful, dangerous or scary.
46
Q

Cognitive bias type (contributing factors to phobias)

A

Memory bias
- kind of cognitive bias caused by inaccurate or exaggerated memory. As phobias are often caused by traumatic events, people may remember the trauma as extremely significant or harmful, and this impacts their present cognitions about related stimuli.

Catastrophic thinking
- kind of cognitive bias where a stimulus or event is predicted to be far worse than it is.

47
Q

Specific environmental trigger (contributing factors to phobias)

A
  • refer to stimuli or experiences in a person’s environment that prompt an extreme stress response, leading to the development of a phobia.
    Observing another person having a direct confrontation with a traumatic stimulus or event of through watching a movie
48
Q

Stigma (contributing factors to phobias)

A

Stigma around seeking treatment refers to the sense of shame a person might feel about getting professional help for their phobia.
- might feel as though their phobia is too embarrassing or insignificant to seek professional help

49
Q

Biological interventions for phobias

A
  • Benzodiazepines for GABA dysfunction
  • Relaxation technique for role of the stress response
  • Exercise
50
Q

Psychological interventions for phobias

A
  • Systematic desensitisation for classical conditioning
  • CBT for operant conditioning
  • CBT for cognitive bias (memory bias and catastrophic thinking)
51
Q

Social interventions for phobias

A
  • Psychoeducation to challenge unrealistic thoughts and prevent avoidance behaviours
  • Psychoeducation for stigma around seeking treatment
52
Q

Benzodiazepine (interventions for phobias)

A
  • Mimic the action of GABA in the CNS, thus inhibits the overreaction of the physiological response in the presence of the phobic stimulus by making the receptor sites more receptive to GABA
53
Q

Relaxation techniques (interventions for phobias)

A

Breathing retraining
To counteract the symptoms of the FFF of hypervation
Breathing retraining helps to reduce and control their psychological response to their phobia stimulus and therefore alleviate the symptoms of anxiety
Excurise
- Uses up the stress hormones that were released by exposure to the phobic stimulus

54
Q

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (interventions for phobias)

A
  • Aims to replace thoughts and habits that inhibit normal functioning with thoughts and behaviour that promoter positive functioning
  • Correct faulty feelings
55
Q

Systematic desensitisation (interventions for phobias)

A

Works under assumption that phobias are often classically conditioned
Aim to use extinction to remove phobic response
1. Learn a relaxation strategy
2. Create a fear hierarchy
3. Pair the relaxation strategy with each stage of the hierarchy moving up each level
4. Continue to move up the hierarchy until the stimulus no longer elicits a conditioned fear response

56
Q

Psychoeducation (interventions for phobias)

A
  • The explanation of the nature of mental disorders, their treatment and management strategies.
  • Develop a better understanding of the condition (for family/friends) → minimises stigma
  • Help family/friends know how to challenge unrealistic or anxious thoughts
57
Q

Transtheoretical model

A

The transtheoretical model of behaviour change describes the steps an individual takes to make a behaviour change.

58
Q

Precontemplation
No, not me

A

The individual is not yet ready for change
- they believe that the behaviour is not problematic
- Dismissal of concerns from others about the unhealthy behaviour
- not intending to take actions in the next 6 months

59
Q

Contemplation
Well maybe

A

Awareness that the behaviour is problematic
- Actively thinking about taking steps towards behaviour change within the next six months
- Not currently taking active steps towards behaviour change

60
Q

Preparation
So ok. What do I do now?

A

Generally involves mental preparation and an action plan to abandon the problem behaviour
- Taking steps towards behaviour change within the next 30 days
- The individual has high motivation for change, but may have low confidence for success

61
Q

Action
Lets do this

A

Active steps have been taken towards the behaviour change
- High motivation
- Behaviour change has lasted less than six months
- Social support is common at this stage

62
Q

Maintenance
Is it possible ?

A
  • The behaviour change has been consistent for at least six months
  • The individual is active in taking measures to avoid relapse
63
Q

Relapse

A

Revert back to previous unhealthy habits or behaviours
- possible at any stage
- can be a step back to the previous level or to any earlier stage in the process

64
Q

Strength vs weakness

A

Strength
- Based on extensive empirical research
- Can be used for a variety of conditions
Weakness
- Difficult to determine which stage people are in
- Lack of research related to timeframes