MENTAL HEALTH AND MENTAL ILLNESS
"How do I know whether I am behaving in a normal or abr.ormai manner?" No doubt this question comes to each of us on occasion. The question relates to the fact that there is no clear-cut distinction between mental health and mental illness. What then is "abnormality"? The term "abnormal" refers to personality traits that deviate from established norms of effective personal adjustment and to behavior in society that deviates from established norms. There are three standards involved:
There is the statistical definition which includes as abnormal any pattern of behavior that departs markedly from the average.
There is the nature of personal adjustment, where any behavior that produces anxiety, lowers efficiency, and prevents us from coping with the tide of change is abnormal.
Sometimes we use a cultural definition. Here "abnormal" may mean violating the customs of a given society, and in so doing, creating a threat to the society.
One writer emphasized that there is no mysterious difference between effective and ineffective adjustment: "We are dealing with a continuum of adjustive-maladjustive behavior, with most people clustering around a central point or average."
The Well-adjusted Person
The essential characteristics of the person who has achieved good adjustment appear below. (It is hoped that this text will help to foster the development of these objectives.)
- Having a practical and realistic attitude toward oneself most of the time
- Being aware of one's wants, motives, and ways to live
- Feelings of self-esteem
- Feelings of psychological security
- Ability to give affection
- Ability to accept affection
- Ability to be productive
- Knowledge of one's'own stress levels
- A drive to help control one's environment rather than passively accepting it
- A drive to change when one becomes uncomfortable
- Flexibility in behavior
- Knowing when to worry and when not to worry
Some Indicators of Abnormal Behavior
Some signs that something has gone wrong with our living are as follows:
- Excessive behavior, such as drinking, irritability, and impaired judgment
- Disturbances of thought
- Emotional disturances, such as apathy, excessive euphoria, or long-lasting depression
- Disturbances in motivation
- Too many psychosomatic disturbances
The enlightened person comes to realize that no one else can solve his or her problem. Adjustment is highly individual, and it relates closely to stress.
Looking at Our Own Stress Cues
Other people can often detect excessive stress in us before we note it . in ourselves. Let us look at a few cues that most of us can perceive in ourselves. Irritability is an indicator that a stress level is being exceeded. Make a note of those things that irritate you only when you
feel tired and you have a useful cue. Bad decisions made time after time may indicate excessive stress. We all, of course, have trouble sleeping at times, but when sleeplessness goes on night after night, stress may be related.
When annoyances seem to accumulate in a concentrated period of time, stress may be involve the incessant talker, the rattle in the car, the proposed date that gets turned down. If we can take the confusion of four people in some setting, but feel overcrowded when a fifth person enters the situation, then we have a cue in numbers. If we can determine how long we can sit in traffic before getting tense, we have another cue to our stress threshold.
Cues to determining one's stress level relate to our defenses. Under what conditions do we refuse to admit some reality that is unpleasant? When do we experience a renewed anger just by thinking about things we can do nothing about? When do we look for socially accepted ways to let off steam? Cues to stress come to us more ofteh in terms of feeling rather than in an intellectual way. How do we usually feel under this situation or that condition? In short, if we can establish base lines for our usual way of feeling or behaving, we have comparisons available to us to indicate excessive stress. And it is important that we determine whether we are "internalizers," turning anger and other feelings inward, or "externalizers," expressing our frustrations on people or things outside. The externalizer often gets quicker knowledge of his condition than the internalizer because the outside world has a way of biting back. If we are the type who pressure-cooks problems inside of us or seem geared to explode at a high adrenalin level, we should try to know it and make adjustments accordingly.
