1. Chapter 7
Mental Health

2. Characteristics of good Mental/Emotional Health
Mental/Emotional Health is the ability to accept yourself and other, adapt to and manage emotions, and deal with the demands and challenges you meet in life
Characteristics….
Positive Self-Esteem
Sense of Belonging
Sense of Purpose
Positive Outlook
Autonomy (able to function by
relying on yourself)

3. Signs of Good Mental Health in Teens:
Realistic about strengths/weaknesses and put their talents to use
Responsible for their own behavior
Make good choices about drugs/alcohol/tobacco/sex/friends
Open-minded/flexible
Fun-loving and able to relax
Respect themselves and others
Develops good relationships
Express their emotions in ways that do not hurt themselves or others
View change as an opportunity/challenge

4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need

5. Meeting Your Needs
YOUR choices affect your mental and emotional health!
Practicing abstinence and finding healthful ways to meet your emotional needs are strategies to avoid negatively affecting your mental and emotional health

6. Your Personality
1. HEREDITY SOME personality traits are inherited from your parents --Intellect, Behavior, Temperament, Emotional tendencies 2. ENVIRONMENT SOME behaviors are learned by people & things around you --Family/Friends/peers, neighborhood, school, activities that you participate in. --People naturally engage in modeling, which is observing and learning from behaviors of those around you….Have Good Role Models in your life!! 3. BEHAVIOR This is the thing that YOU have the most control over!!

7. Develop a Positive Identity
Your identity includes your:
Interests
Likes and dislikes
Talents and abilities
Values and beliefs
Goals

8. Your Assets Support of those around you Feeling Empowered
Having boundaries and expectations
Using time constructively
A commitment to learning
Positive values
Social competencies (functioning well with all types of people and situations)
Positive Identity

9. Ways to Build a Healthy Identity
Know your strengths and weaknesses
Have positive values and actually live by those values
Give your life purpose by making goals and following through with them
Form relationships with people who enable you to express yourself, share your beliefs/feelings. The people closest to you should accept you for the person you are.
Contribute to your community
Avoid risky behaviors
If you make a mistake…forgive yourself and LEARN from it!

10. Self-Esteem Healthy identity = Increased Self- Esteem
Think realistically--It is easy to fall into a pattern of seeing events as worse than they really are
Be able to use constructive criticism as a way to improve yourself rather than a blow to your self-esteem
Analyze your self-talk…are you putting yourself down or lifting yourself up?

11. Emotions

12. Understanding Emotions
Emotions are signals that tell your mind and body how to react
Joy can release brain chemicals that cause warmth and a sense of well being
Fear can trigger physical changes to heart, sweating, muscles….fight or flight response!

13. Identifying Your Emotions
FYI--Chemicals in your body called hormones are secreted by your glands and regulate activities of different body cells….they can also affect your emotional state
Happiness
Sadness
Love
Empathy
Fear
Guilt
Anger
Hostility—the intentional use of unfriendly or offensive behavior

14. Managing Emotions Ask yourself: What am I REALLY reacting to?
Is my reaction more intense than the situation calls for?
Wait to take actions on strong feelings until you have had time to think through all angles and consequences
Use positive feelings to inspire yourself
Engage in physical activity/hobbies or talk to someone supportive to help relieve negative feelings
If a negative feeling persists, seek help from a trusted parent, adult, or health care professional

16. Dealing With Difficult Emotions
Some emotions can seem overwhelming…try these tips to
get you through:
Analyze the situation
Write in a private journal
Take slow deep breaths
Play music
Color!!
Work out

17. More Ways to Deal with Tough Emotions…
Fear—Identify what scares you, analyze the situation, talk about it to someone, research it to arm yourself with facts, get help if the fear is unable to be controlled
Guilt—admit mistakes and make amends, learn from your experiences, discuss with family and friends, view the situation realistically
Anger—find the underlying source, deal with it in a non-confrontational, calm, logical manner…if you cannot do anything about the source of your anger, find ways to begin coping with your feelings by participating in activities that relax you.

18. Defense Mechanisms… Not a great way to deal with emotions
Defense Mechanisms are mental processes that protect individuals from strong or stressful emotions

19. More Defense Mechanisms
Suppression Conscious, intentional pushing of unpleasantness from one’s mind Rationalization Making excuses to explain a situation or behavior, rather than directly taking responsibility for it. Compensation Making up for weaknesses and mistakes through gift-giving, hard work or extreme efforts Idealization Seeing someone else as perfect, ideal, or more worthy than everyone else