UNIVERSITY OF LILONGWE
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PROGRAM:
BACHELOR OF EARLYCHILDHOOD EDUCATION
COURSE TITLE: PHYSICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION FOR PRE-SCHOOL
COURSE CODE: BECH
YEAR
: THREE
SENT TO
:
FROM
: FOSTER MKWATAWAMBA
IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: BECH/010/18
ASSIGNMENT: MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT JUST THE ABSENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
EXPLAIN WITH VERY GOOD EXAMPLES WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND BY THIS
STATEMENT?
Mental health. “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her
own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to
make a contribution to his or her community.” The WHO stress that mental health is “more than
just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities.” Peak mental health is about not only
avoiding active conditions but also looking after ongoing wellness and happiness.
There are factors that contribute to mental health apart from mental illness. For example
biological factor stressed that the NIMH suggest that genetic family history can increase the
likelihood of mental health conditions, as certain genes and gene variants put a person at higher
risk. However, many other factors contribute to the development of these disorders. Having a
gene with links to a mental health disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia, does not
guarantee that a condition will develop. Likewise, people without related genes or a family
history of mental illness can still have mental health issues. Mental health conditions such as
stress, depression, and anxiety may develop due to underlying, life-changing physical health
problems, such as cancer, diabetes, and chronic pain.
Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder. Because it is defined as a state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal
stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or
his community.
To further understand why mental health is not just the absence of mental illness, we can think of
understanding the root causes of mental health disorders. To understand it better, we can use
critical analytical stages. At the first level of analysis, the root cause of mental illness is an
amalgamation of heredity, biology, environmental stressors, and psychological trauma.
To begin with amalgamation of heredity. This discusses that some mental illnesses comes from
parents our ancestors. They posse some characteristics which we cope from them and if they had
some diseases they transfer them to us. The notions of specific genes being responsible for
illness have been supplanted by those of genetic complexity, where various genes operate in
concert with non-genetic factors to affect mental illness. That is, health-relevant biology and
mental health impact each other in a complex interplay, which is inherently social.
Apart from hereditary information, some researchers have found out that some mental illnesses
are caused by social isolation from friends. For example, one study, of many, found that social
isolation leads to increased risk of coronary heart disease. Since low levels of social integration
are related to higher levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation related to coronary
heart disease, social integration is posited to be a biological link between social isolation and
coronary heart disease. Moreover, social support affects physical perception. In a landmark
study, researchers demonstrated that people accompanied by a supportive friend or those who
imagined a supportive friend, estimated a hill to be less steep when compared to people who
were alone.
Mental health, like physical health, is more than the sum of functioning or malfunctioning parts.
At the second level of analysis, the complex bio-social interplay scaffolding mental illness points
to the fundamentally chemical underpinnings of human thinking and emotion. With recent
advances in neuroscience like Clarity, we are now able to make the brain optically transparent,
without having to section or reconstruct it, in order to examine the neuronal networks,
subcellular structures, and more. In short, we can examine mental illness from a biological
perspective. The depth and complexity of the bio-social root of mental illness, however, paints a
more nuanced picture than discussed thus far. With such pioneering work, there is an
increasingly popular assumption that the brain is the most important level at which to analyze
human behavior. In this vein, mental illness perpetuates itself by virtue of the fact that people
often consider it to be biologically determined. In turn, a ‘trait-like’ view of mental illness
establishes a status quo of mental health stigma by reducing empathy.
At the third level of analysis, the obsession with seeing mental health in terms of mental illness
reveals the fallible assumption that mental health is simply the absence of mental disorder.
However, the problematic landscape of mental health draws on a far wider set of working
assumptions. That is, mental health, like physical health, is more than the sum of the functioning
or malfunctioning parts. It is an overall well-being that must be considered in light of unique
differences between physical health, cognition, and emotions, which can be lost in a solely
global evaluation. But looking at the reasons why do we as a society take time to solving mental
illness, which should have been targeted long ago, far more than we consider improving mental
health? In part, because when we think of mental health, we think of raising the mean positive
mental health of a population, more than closing the implementation gap between prevention,
promotion, and treatment.
Cumulatively, social environments are the lubricating oil to biological predispositions, which
influence mental health, such that mental health and physical health should be considered
holistically. In this vein, national mental health policies should not be solely concerned with
mental disorders, to the detriment of mental health promotion. It is worth considering how
mental health issues can be targeted using proactive behavioral programs. To achieve this, it is
pivotal to involve all relevant government sectors such as education, labor, justice, and welfare
sectors. In a diverse range of existing players, many nonprofits’, educational institutions’, and
research groups’ efforts contribute to the solution landscape of mental health promotion. In
Ireland, for example, schools have mental health promotional activities such as breathing
exercises and anger management programs. Nonprofits around the world are increasingly seeing
the value of community development programmers and capacity building.
From the descriptions above we are now able to conclude that mental health caters a broad area
not just the absence of mental illness. This assignment has discussed the root causes of mental
health such as hereditary factors, the act of living alone, biology, environmental stressors, and
psychological trauma.
References
Heffner, K. et al. (2011). Social isolation, C-reactive protein, and coronary heart disease
mortality among community-dwelling adults. Social Science & Medicine, 72(9), 1482-1488. doi:
10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.016
Lozano, R. et al. (2012). Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age
groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.
The Lancet, 380(9859), 2095-2128. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(12)61728-0
Naomi, V.( July 16, 2018) Mental Health is Not Just the Absence of Mental Illness
Schnall, S.,et al. (2008). Social support and the perception of geographical slant. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 44(5), 1246-1255. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.04.011
World health Organization (Jan 24, 2011) facts about mental health