MENTAL HEALTH DP 1-7 Flashcards
Mental health as a continuum
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.
Mentally healthy
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
Mental health problem
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
Mental health disorder
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
Biopsychosocial model
Way of describing and explaining how biological, psychological and social factors combine and interact to influence a person’s mental health
Internal factors
Influences that originate inside or within a person
→ biological
→ psychological
External factors
Influences that originate from outside a person
→ social
Biological factors
Involves physiologically based influences, often not in our control
→ balances/imbalances of specific neurotransmitters
→ fight/flight/freeze
Psychological factors
involves all those influences associated with mental processing
→ thoughts, perceptions of ourselves, others and our external environment, problem solving and managing stress
Social factors
School and work related factors, exposure to stressor and social stigma
Characteristics of mentally healthy people
→ high levels of functioning
→ high level of social wellbeing
→ high level of emotional wellbeing
→ resilience
High levels of functioning
Independence, ability to achieve goals, development over time
→ meet demands of everyday life
→ balance work, rest, recreation
High level of social well being
Ability to maintain satisfying relationships and have appropriate interactions with others
→ connected, reciprocated, valued
High levels of emotional wellbeing
Ability to control, express and share emotions appropriately
→ balanced, normal range, strategies
Resilience
The capacity to recover quickly from setbacks
→ ability to cope and adapt to life stressors and restore positive functioning
Ethical implications
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)
Predisposing risk factor
Increase susceptibility to developing a specific mental disorder
B → genetic vulnerability
P → poor self efficacy
S → disorganised attachment
Precipitating risk factor
Increase susceptibility and contributes to the occurrence of a mental disorder
B → substance use, poor sleep
P → stress
S → loss of significant r/ship
Perpetuating risk factor
Maintains / prolongs the occurrence of a mental disorder and inhibits recovery
B → poor response to medication
P → impaired reasoning and memory
S → stigma
Protective risk factor
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
Biological risk factors
Originate from within the body
→ Genetic vulnerability
→ Poor sleep
→ Substance abuse
→ Poor response to medication
→ Adequate diet and sleep
Poor sleep
Chronic sleep disturbances are associated with mental health issues
Poor response to medication
Some people respond better to medication than others
Substance abuse
→ 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
Psychological risk factors
Originate from within the mind
→ rumination
→ impaired reasoning and memory
→ stress
→ poor self efficacy
Rumination
Obsessive thinking and worrying about the negative aspect of a past, present or future situation
Impaired reasoning and memory
Irrational thoughts and memory bias can have negative impact on mental health
Stress
Psychological response to a stressor that challenges a personal capability to cope
→ prolonged stress increases the risk of a person developing a mental disorder
Poor self efficacy
A personal perception of their capacity to cope with stressors. (can sometimes lead to development of mental illness symptoms)
Social risk factors
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
Disorganised attachment
When a child has an inconsistent caregiver, this can negatively impact on their ability to form r/ship when they are older
Stigma
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
Cumulative risk
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
Anxiety
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
Phobia
characterised by a persistent, intense and irrational fear of a specific object or situation.
→ excessive fear, irrational thoughts, avoidance behaviour, dysfunctional
Physical experiences of stress and anxiety
insomnia, increase heart rate, headaches, increase blood pressure
Biological contributing factors to phobias
- GABA dysfunction (Predisposing)
- Role of the stress response (Preciprating)
- LTP (Perpetuating)
Psychological contributing factors to phobias
- Classical conditioning (Preciprating)
- Operant conditioning (Perpetuating)
- Cognitive bias (memory bias and catastrophic thinking) (Perpetuating)
Social contributing factors to phobias
- Specific environmental triggers (Preciprating)
- Stigma around seeking treatment (Perpetuating)
GABA dysfunction (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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.
Stress response (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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
Long-term potentiation (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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
Classical conditioning (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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.
Operant conditioning (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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.
Cognitive bias (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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.
Cognitive bias type (contributing factors to phobias)
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.
Specific environmental trigger (contributing factors to phobias)
- 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
Stigma (contributing factors to phobias)
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
Biological interventions for phobias
- Benzodiazepines for GABA dysfunction
- Relaxation technique for role of the stress response
- Exercise
Psychological interventions for phobias
- Systematic desensitisation for classical conditioning
- CBT for operant conditioning
- CBT for cognitive bias (memory bias and catastrophic thinking)
Social interventions for phobias
- Psychoeducation to challenge unrealistic thoughts and prevent avoidance behaviours
- Psychoeducation for stigma around seeking treatment
Benzodiazepine (interventions for phobias)
- 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
Relaxation techniques (interventions for phobias)
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
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (interventions for phobias)
- Aims to replace thoughts and habits that inhibit normal functioning with thoughts and behaviour that promoter positive functioning
- Correct faulty feelings
Systematic desensitisation (interventions for phobias)
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
Psychoeducation (interventions for phobias)
- 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
Transtheoretical model
The transtheoretical model of behaviour change describes the steps an individual takes to make a behaviour change.
Precontemplation
No, not me
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
Contemplation
Well maybe
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
Preparation
So ok. What do I do now?
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
Action
Lets do this
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
Maintenance
Is it possible ?
- The behaviour change has been consistent for at least six months
- The individual is active in taking measures to avoid relapse
Relapse
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
Strength vs weakness
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
