The following characteristics are distinguished in mental health:
• the field of mental health;
• boundaries of mental health;
• quality of human life.
The field of mental health implies the sphere and range of person’s activity in which individual is adapted. It is enlarged or narrowed depending on the society’s requirements, in other words, the field of mental health due to the specificity of psyche and its laws does not have unique determination. Therefore it is important to specify the concept “Mental health” and define its levels. The boundaries of mental health are the “limits” of acceptable behavior in the society. The boundaries of mental health were historically correlated with the ruling basic vision of religion, philosophy, politics. Today the term “Quality of life” is widely used. It is characterized by valuation standards adopted by the person for himself. Each person has his own life model that meets his and accepted by the society standards. One is quite satisfied with his domestic needs, interests – to be pleased with life or to consider that he lives full-value life. For the other one it is important to have everything that symbolizes prosperity accepted in the given society. The other seeks to know the world and himself; somebody else lives in the world of illusions. Therefore, the life quality has flexible standards for different people, different societies, different ages and generations. Based on the standards of living before and after illness, personal field of mental health is outlined. Mental health and its disorders can be presented by several levels, definition of which is based on the priority and degree of involvement of brain matter, psyche or personality in the process.
The lower fundamental level – the level of psycho-physiology is determined by peculiarities of the internal cerebral neurophysiological organization of psychic activity. The necessary condition for healthy psyche is safety of the brain as the organ, normal functioning of all blocks (human perception of senses, thinking, memory, emotions, mentality). This level is found in any organic brain diseases (tumors, stroke, atherosclerosis, trauma).
The second level of mental health disorders is the adaptation level. Disorders of this level are the largest and diverse group and make the layer that is to be regarded as true disorders of mental health. Disorders of this level are described as borderline states, anxiety disorders, post-stress disorders, psychosomatic, neurotic. They reflect temporary reduction of human ability to self-actualize, adapt, decrease stress resistance, social competence, purposeful activity. Human character traits are inevitably sharpened and manifested in the activity. The whole “psychic discomfort” is accompanied with somatic troubles (dynamic arterial hypertension, pain syndromes – more often in back, headaches, insomnia, itch, lack of air, vegetovascular dystonia, enteric manifestations, etc.).
The third, highest level is the level of personal mental health, which is determined by the quality of human semantic relations, hierarchy of his sense orientations to the world, himself and his place in it. Personally mentally healthy person is the one who is able to accept the reality as it is (illness, loss); able to overcome traumas of the past, and remembering them able to search for his new true place in the life and in the world. The one, who is able to reassess values, be aware of their unique vital meaning, to overcome himself and external obstacles while realizing new meanings and values.
Personal health is a result of sometimes painful search for new himself. History knows many names of famous persons who had this or that mental illness that did not prevent them to adapt socially, realize their purposes and live full, rich life. Remember Caesar’s, Napoleon’s, Dostoevsky’s epilepsy; Darwin’s psychasthenia; Freud’s and Zoschenko’s depressions. People having certain mental disorders, and even diseases, not to mention bodily problems, somatic diseases, can be personality healthy. Often there are people with certain health problems but in the personality aspect, they prove to be healthier than any other one who, according to WHO definition, has “Absolute health”. The human in his body image is one with spiritual and mental “I”. Therefore violation in any sphere necessarily entails violations in others that are frequently of compensatory or protective nature, e.g. rise of temperature due to infection. In medicine clarification of the primary and secondary role of the factor in cause-and-effect relations is the basis for the adequate therapeutic approach and favorable outcome, hence is the presence of the etiopathogenetic and symptomatic treatment. Often it is difficult to determine the precise feature based on which it is possible to talk about mental illness. So any doctor must have at least minimum knowledge in the field of psychology, its laws, their standard functioning; know regularities of transition states manifested by deadaptation situations, mechanisms of psychological protection. All these issues are successfully solved by a new direction in medicine – stressology. “Mental health” should be understood as the state of person able to correctly (adequately) reflect the outside world, set a goal, plan and fulfill adopted decisions, enjoy lively and adequate emotions, able to overcome conflicts, tension and preserve a certain degree of stress resistance. Mentally healthy person has enough secure instinct of self-preservation of bodily, mental and social “I”.
There are three types of social impacts affecting the state of health.
The first type is historical influence that affects the whole generation. Thus, men whose early childhood fell on the years of the “Great Depression” in the United States throughout their lives showed the difficulties of social adaptation. The whole generation of the former USSR who experienced the “37
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The second type – is the so-called “standard events” – life stresses occurring within the regular life flow: entering higher educational institution, moving, marriage, birth of children, retirement. Such factors can go unnoticed, but can become pathogenic, stressful.
The third type is “non-standard events” – disease, psychic trauma, criminal prosecution, participation in combat operations. All these factors as a rule injure a person and can result in one of the versions of post-stress disorders.
The afore-mentioned factors that affect mental health are objective. But mental health of modern males is affected by much more subjective factors, such as “self-concept” and “self-control” or the ability to govern himself. People do not often ask themselves who they really are. Each considers his personal definition so natural that he cannot imagine to what extent everything he does (consciously and sometimes unconsciously) or how he percepts himself is conditioned by the conception that he created about himself.
On the example of some literary heroes, it is easier to understand what is being discussed. The Chekhov’s story “The Death of a Clerk” is about a poor clerk who accidentally sneezed in the theater on the bald head of the General sitting in front. Having apologized, he could not help thinking about that “shameful” fact and his whole life turned into sheer misery, which led him to death. Among the novels of Cervantes there is a story about the man who was sure that was made of glass. When somebody approached him he began to scream and pleaded to keep away so that not to break him by chance. He walked along the very middle of the street with fear looking at the roofs scared if a tile would suddenly tear off and fall on him. Once when a wasp sat on his neck, he did not dare either to hit or shake it off out of fear that he would break himself. He refused to have anything tough like meat or fish and going to bed wrapped in straw.