Health is defined by WHO in 1984 as “It is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity”.
The health has four dimensions i.e. physical, mental, social and spiritual health.
Mental Health:
Mental health is the balanced development of individual’s personality and emotional attitudes which enable him to live harmoniously with his fellow-men.
Characters of Mental Health:
A mentally healthy person has the following characteristics:
1. He feels confident, reasonably secure and adequate.
2. He has great adoptability in all circumstances.
3. He accepts criticism, understand others emotional aspect, helpful, considerate and courteous.
4. He has moral and spiritual values.
5. He has good self control and can negotiate stress and strain.
6. He keeps good relations with relatives, seniors, co-workers and fellowmen.
Mental Illness:
Nearly 10% of the world population suffers from mental illness out of which 1% suffers from serious mental disorders.
Mental illness can be categorized into three types:
1. Psychosis:
It is a severe mental disorder. The patient is called “Insane” (or mad). He looses contact with reality and his condition.
(a) Organic psychosis:
It is associated with the physical ailments.
(i) Alcohol psychosis:
It is a mental disorder due to alcoholism.
(ii) Senile psychosis:
It occurs in old age due to degeneration in cerebral processes.
(b) Functional psychosis:
It is associated with the functional aspects.
(i) Toxic psychosis:
It occurs due to exogenous and endogenous toxic substances.
(ii) Traumatic psychosis:
It occurs due to emotional shock.
2. Neurosis or Psychoneurosis:
It is a mild mental disorder caused by prolonged emotional reactions like anxiety, fear, sadness, tension etc. He is aware of this problem and seeks help. He develops phobias.
3. Personality and character disorders:
These include epilepsy, mental retardation and childhood behavioural problems. Epilepsy is recurrent attacks for loss of consciousness with localised and generalized convulsions. It is due to abnormal discharge of nerve impulses from overactive neurons of brain.
Mental and Addictive Disorders:
The mental disorders can be categorized into different types:
1. Amnesia:
It is the loss of memory.
(a) Organic amnesia:
It is the loss of memory due to
(i) Injury in the brain due to sudden accident
(ii) Use of toxic agents
(iii) Old age and senility. In this type the memory is completely lost etc.
(b) Psychogenic amnesia:
The loss of memory caused by emotional shock, such as
(i) Death of close relations
(ii) Heavy financial loss
(iii) Some very embarrassing situation is known as psychogenic amnesia. In this case the memory is not completely lost, but covers memories associated with emotional injury.
(c) Retrograde amnesia:
In this type the past memories are completely lost.
(d) Anterograde amnesia:
In this, all that happens after an emotional shock or mental injury is forgotten.
2. Anxiety:
It is an emotional disorder in which the patient is constantly tensed up apprehending more emotional catastrophe. The psycho-physical symptoms are tension, irritation, shivering, high pulse rate, severe perspiration.
3. Anxiety Hysteria:
It is a permanent disorder in which the patient suffers from a baseless and intense fear like darkness, heights etc. It can be removed by psychologists only.
4. Depression:
In depression, the patient remains unhappy and indifferent and lack interests in all matters. The symptoms can be marked in his expression and movement.
5. Somnambulism:
The patient walks in sleep and forgets all that has happened after he wakes up from sleep. In hysteric persons, it is called as hysteric somnambulism. In this condition the patient remains under the influence of some memories, feelings or concepts and acts on them. The patients are otherwise normal.
6. Schizophrenia:
This common type of psychic disorder was first reported by Bleuler.
(i) Patients are with distorted thoughts.
(ii) They laugh, cry and shout without any specific reason.
(iii) They are indifferent to all pleasures, pain, diet and health etc.
(iv) They feel delusion (i.e. as if all persons are criticizing or telling against him).
(v) Patients experience auditory hallucination.
7. Manic depression:
The patient exhibits mania and depression.
It is due to:
(i) Weakness of perception.
(ii) Wrong and defective decisions.
(iii) Hallucination.
(iv) Extremely emotional reaction.
(v) Self irritation leads to suicide, crime and sin etc.
8. Mood disorders:
It is characterised by occasional high and low mood. It may be due to failure of examination, death of near relatives, losing a job and facing an interview etc. It is connected with sleep pattern, appetite, self-hatred and exhaustion etc.
9. Attention deficit disorder:
Due to deficit of parental attention, the children exhibit lower achievements, behavioural problems, dislike by other children etc.
10. Border line Personality Disorder (BPD):
It is an emotionally unstable personality disorder, characterised by unpredictable moods, impulsivity, outburst of emotions, quarrelsome behaviour and often attempt to injure himself.