Mental & Emotional Health
Adapted from Glencoe Health,
2005
Characteristics of Good Mental
and Emotional Health
• Mental/Emotional Health- the
ability to accept yourself and
others, adapt to and manage
emotions, and deal with the
demands and challenges you meet
in life.
People with good
mental/emotional health
demonstrate…
• Positive Self-Esteem: feelings of confidence
• Sense of Belonging: emotional attachment to
family, friends, and others.
• Sense of Purpose: recognizing your own
value and importance.
• Positive Outlook: seeing the bright side of
life.
• Autonomy: having confidence to make
responsible and safe decisions, which gives
you a sense of independence.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Striving to
become the best
you can be.
The need to be
recognized.
The need to
be loved and
belong.
Need to be
secure
from
danger
Need to satisfy the
basic needs.
Meeting Your Needs
• Practicing abstinence and
meeting your needs in a
healthy way will help prevent
risky behaviors, and will
strengthen your
mental/emotional health.
Personality
• Personality: a complex set of characteristics
that makes YOU unique.
• Personality is an important factor in how you
choose to meet your needs.
• This includes:
• Your individual emotional make-up, attitude,
thoughts, and behaviors.
• Heredity and Environment
• Modeling- observing and learning from
those around you.
Your Personal Identity
• Personal Identity- your sense of yourself as a unique
individual.
• Your personal identity is made up of the following:
Interests
Values
and
beliefs
Likes
and
dislikes
Goals
Talents and
abilities
Emotions
• Emotions- Signals that tell your
mind and body how to feel.
Communicating emotions effectively
is the key to building and managing
healthy relationships.
Identifying Your
Emotions
• Different emotions teens feel:
• Happiness- pleased or feel good
• Sadness- discouraged and have less energy
• Love- strong affection, deep concern, respect
• Empathy- able to understand how others feel
• Fear- increases alertness, scared
• Guilt- acting against one’s values
• Anger- mad, frustrated
hostility-the intentional use of unfriendly or
offensive behavior.
Dealing with Emotions in a
Positive Way
• Strategies used to help deal with your emotions
are:
• Look below the surface
• What am I reacting to? Does the intensity of my
emotion match the situation?
• Consider the situation
• Does the event really matter? Will it matter
tomorrow, next week, or next year?
• Consider the consequences
• Don’t take action until you have thoroughly
considered the possible consequences of your
action.
Dealing with Emotions in a
Positive Way Con’t.
• Use Positive Feelings
• Use the positive feelings to help inspire you.
• Fuel your negative feelings into physical activities or
engaging in conversations with a family member, or
friend.
• Seek Help
• If the negative feelings do not disappear, seek help
from a parent, another trusted adult, or a health
care professional.
Managing Difficult Emotions
Dealing with Intense Emotions
Control
Take slow
Get away
your
deep
feelings by
from the
breaths and
Write in a
situation to analyzing
relax when
journal or
the
gather
you feel the
play music.
yourself
situation
emotions
together. that caused
building.
them.
Managing Difficult Emotions
• Defense mechanisms: mental processes that protect
individuals from strong or stressful emotions and
situations.
• How people often avoid the emotions that cause
discomfort.
• Can keep a person from what is really facing you.
• Suppression: holding back or restraining.
• provides a temporary escape from an unpleasant
situation.
Handling Fear
• Fear is an emotion that people work to overcome.
• Some fear is healthy and natural; only when fear is irrational or
uncontrollable should you consider it a problem.
• How to overcome your fear
Identify
your fear
Analyze the
situation
that causes
fear.
Talk about
your fear
with
someone
you trust.
Dealing with Guilt
Try to get at the underlying source
of your guilt and address that issue.
Resolve to be more careful and
responsible in the future.
Discuss the situation with family or
friends.
Managing Anger
• Constructively managing anger is
similar to dealing with guilt: try to
get to the underlying source and
address it!