Mental Health denotes a sound mind in a sound body. It is the basic criterion of Mental Health or Psychopathology. Mental health is a component of total health. Mental health and physical health are interrelated. The mentally healthy person is, the master of his environment, and it is reflected in his living style and behavior. He is usually happy, fully capable of carrying on his job properly, looks after his family well, and avoids trouble with law or judiciary matters. He enjoys his life and health.
Mental health aims to develop an integrated or wholesome personality in any person to help him lead a well-balanced life in society.
- What is a mental disease?
- Classifications of mental diseases
- Neurosis
- Psychosis
- Do women suffer from mental diseases?
- The characteristics of a mentally healthy person
- The epidemiology of mental health
- Age
- The Sex or Gender in Mental Health
- Marital Status in Mental Health
- Geography in Mental Health
- Socioeconomic status in Mental Health
- The Generic Basis of Mental Health
- Psychosocial factors
- Nutritional factors
- Mental Health Services
- Mental disorders
- Mental Retardation
What is a mental disease?
Briefly, the diseases of the mind are mental diseases. Mental health is essential to remain healthy physically. As this is essential to remain free from diseases, this is significant to stay mentally joyous, peaceful, and happy in mind. Hence, this is called mental health. This is right if the mind and body are sound. But this is not right to say if the mind is unsound, the body may be sound.
Classifications of mental diseases
Mental diseases are simply divided into two such as Neurosis and Psychosis.
Neurosis
This is a mild mental disease that is common to almost all people. The behavior of such type of patient is not a threat to the concerned family or society. It’s possible to cure this disease with a small amount of medicines and psychotherapy. But there is a trend of re-curing this disease frequently.
Psychosis
It is a complicated mental disorder. A few people suffer from it. Treatment is somewhat effective and fruitful. Psychosis is recurring more frequently than neurosis, and hypertension, tension, phobia, obsession, depression, etc. are examples of neurosis, while anxiety, mania, and schizophrenia are examples of psychosis.
Do women suffer from mental diseases?
Yes, women can suffer from any one of the above-mentioned diseases, and even be addicted to drugs. Recently in statistics, it’s seen that women are being addicted to drugs at an alarming rate that is threatening. Learn more.
The characteristics of a mentally healthy person
A mentally healthy person is self-satisfied, self-confident, well-adjusted, and well-balanced, who is not usually subdued by his emotion and not prejudiced in his judgment. He is usually free from internal and external conflicts. The factors that contribute to mental health are- good physical health and practices of healthy habits, fulfillment of basic needs, psychological needs, and social needs. Good physical health and practices of healthy habits include work, study, and play. The fulfillment of basic needs includes food, shelter, sex, clothing, recreation, etc. The psychological needs include affection, love, care, independence, achievements, and recognition. Finally, social needs include security of life, social status, and praise.
The epidemiology of mental health
There are some demographic matters, which co-relate with mental illness. These elements are age, sex, marital status, geography, and socio-economic status.
Age
The age of any person is an important issue in mental illness. Mental illness increases with the advancement of age. The elderly people in society are at the point of risk of becoming victims of mental illness. Depressive illness and organic mental disorders are the most common illnesses in elderly people. The mental health support system is rather weak in old age because of the increasing number of breakdowns of joint-family types.
The Sex or Gender in Mental Health
Males and females have different levels of tolerance for certain types of mental illnesses. For example, Anorexia Nervosa, Hysteria, and Anxiety disorders are the most common types of psychiatric disorders, which are very often found in women. On the other hand, we can find schizophrenia, mental retardation, alcoholism, and socio-pathy in men.
Marital Status in Mental Health
A single person is more vulnerable to developing mental illness than a married person. The single, divorced, separated, and widowed are the usual common victims of mental illnesses. The risk of mental illness decreases for married people, and the death rates are lowered for married persons.
Geography in Mental Health
Mental disorders are more common in the cities than in the villages. Schizophrenia, alcoholism, drug abuse, drug addiction, and mental retardation are common in cities, but the course brain disease is said to be more common in rural areas.
Socioeconomic status in Mental Health
These conditions are the causes of mental illnesses. The poor are more prone and vulnerable to developing psychosis, organic brain disease, alcoholism, and drug dependence. The male schizophrenics are usually from low socio-economic status.
The Generic Basis of Mental Health
It is now an increasing number that most mental illnesses usually run in families. It is more common in monozygotic twins rather than in dizygotic twins. Nowadays, with the advancement of medical science, and with the help of DNA recombination techniques, it has been possible to discover the specific genetic abnormalities for a growing number of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s Chorea, Tay-Sachs disease, Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, Wilson’s disease, the developmental reading disorder, Bipolar disorder, and Schizophrenia. Nowadays, most illnesses are considered as an end product of genetic, intrauterine, socio-economic, and environmental influences and also the interactions of the Germ theory of disease.
Psychosocial factors
Occupational stress and tensions, unhappy marriage, separated life, broken homes, unfavorable conditions, competitive life exposure to fast urbanization and industrialization, population mobility with increasing social problems and adverse situations of life, poverty with economic insecurity and social insecurity, loss of economy, loss of power and prestige along with socio-cultural conflicts and familial conflicts, etc. are included in Psychosocial factors.
Nutritional factors
Malnutrition, and deficiency of vitamins, folic acids, and minerals can gradually decrease psychological power in an individual. Toxic substances such as Carbon disulfide, mercury, manganese, tin, lead compounds, etc. are capable of causing mental ill health. Radiation, road traffic, industrial accidents, psychotropic drugs, and infectious disease conditions such as Rubella during prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods, etc. are associated with mental ill health.
Mental Health Services
The objective of mental health services is not only to diagnose and treat early mental ill health conditions but also to preserve, promote, and prevent mental ill health. The mental health services include early diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, group and individual psychotherapy, mental health education, the use of modern psychoactive drugs, and aftercare services. The modern trend is the integration of psychiatric services along with all other healthcare services.
The essential elements of mental health programs are inpatient and outpatient services, provisions of partial hospitalization, emergency services, diagnostic facilities, pre-care, and after-care services including domestic visiting, foster home placements, education, training, research, and finally evaluation. The mental health services for the working class people are to promote the health and happiness of the workers.
Mental disorders
It means mentally sick people, who suffer from agony or inner burning, which reflects in almost all systems of their body. From time immemorial, the usual proverb is ‘the face is the index of mind’; so from the very look at the face, we are more or less able to read minds to a great extent. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the anxiety, emotional stress, and strain and to find immediate relief from this emotional stress and strain. To treat effectively mentally sick people and rehabilitate them before they go out of control of hands, we need to work hard. You need to get rid of mental disorders.
Mental Retardation
In major psychiatric disorders, the patient is considered insane, detached from reality, and usually needs mental hospitalization. In schizophrenia, the disorder is known as split personality. In such a condition, the patient lives in a dreamy world. In manic depressive psychosis, the symptoms vary from extreme depression to excitement. In paranoid psychosis, the disorder is associated with extreme suspicion, and the patient lives in a world of delusion. In minor psychiatric disorders, the patients are considered sane, not detached from reality, and should be allowed to pursue a normal life. In psychoneurosis, the patients show undue or unwanted fears, compulsions, and obsessions.