Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Mental Health: Prevention
    Mental Health: Prevention
    Mental Health: Prevention
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    Mental Health: Prevention

    By Shafiq, Yasin

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Mental Health: Prevention is a simple yet comprehensive guide to a wide range of causes of mental illnesses. It was written so that the average person can understand the causes, and prevention of these debilitating conditions.

    It takes an approach that covers the entire lifespan of a person from genetics to elder abuse. Mental illness can be caused by a wide range of biological and external factors, and it is hoped that if these are understood, illnesses and relapses can be prevented.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateFeb 19, 2014
    ISBN9781483520995
    Mental Health: Prevention

    Related to Mental Health

    Related ebooks

    Psychology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      We Aren’t Selfish After All

      Apr 29, 2020

      What is this pandemic doing to our minds? Polls repeatedly show it’s having an adverse effect on our mental health. Physical distancing, for some, means social isolation, which has long been shown to encourage depression. Previous disasters have been

      4 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: 3 Ways To Expand Access To Mental Health Care Beyond Adding More Psychiatrists

      Apr 20, 2018

      Many Americans with mental illness don't — or can't — access mental health care. Creating better mental health care systems will help.

      4 min read

    • Article

      More Anxiety, Depression Among Undocumented Mexican Immigrants

      Oct 31, 2017

      Nearly one quarter of undocumented Mexican immigrants living near the California-Mexico border have a mental disorder, particularly depression or anxiety, a new study finds. The study examines the prevalence of mental disorders and substance use amon

      2 min read

    • Article

      Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Children with Complex Care Needs: An Experience from One Centre in the United Arab Emirates

      Mar 1, 2022

      a Department of Pediatric Neuroscience, Aster DM Healthcare, Al Qusais, Dubai, The United Arab Emirates b Department of Psychology, Al Noor Training Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Dubai, The United Arab Emirates c Depart of Social Services, Al

      7 min read

    • Article

      PTSD Symptoms Improve Most When Patients Choose Their Treatment

      Oct 22, 2018

      People with post-traumatic stress disorder who are able to choose their form of treatment—whether drugs or therapy—improve more than those who simply receive a prescription for one or the other, according to a new study that compared medication and m

      3 min read

    • Article

      Controversial Study Challenges Scientific Consensus That Adult Brains Make New Neurons

      Mar 7, 2018

      A controversial study published Wednesday concludes that the adult human brain does not produce any new neurons, contrary to dozens of experiments over the last 20 years.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Life Post-lockdown

      May 18, 2020

      Life Post-lockdown
      5 min read

    • Article

      For Better Patient Care, Take Care Of Nurses

      Jan 31, 2018

      “Compassion practices”—relatively conventional organizational practices that reward and recognize caregiving work and include job-related resources to cope with stress and provide pastoral care—can have a positive effect on nurses’ work and well-bein

      1 min read

    • Article

      Is Your Job Burning You Out?

      Dec 14, 2021

      No one can ignore the toll COVID-19 and issues flowing from it have taken on the American workforce. How many more stories of first responders, physicians, parents all at their wits’ end, facing something they had never experienced before: Burnout. W

      3 min read

    • Article

      Calming The Chaos In Pre-K

      May 15, 2019

      Calming The Chaos In Pre-K
      2 min read

    • Article

      Caring For A Parent: 5 Tips

      Apr 28, 2020

      Although it can be one of the most challenging and heartrending experiences anyone can face, caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s or another dementia can also be rewarding. “Being there for a parent with Alzheimer’s is a loving, selfless act,” says R

      1 min read

    • Article

      Inner Confidence

      Nov 13, 2019

      Inner Confidence
      2 min read

    • Article

      Drug Combo Could Repair Fetal Alcohol Damage

      Jul 21, 2017

      Two drugs may erase the learning and memory deficits caused by fetal alcohol exposure when given after birth, according to new research with rodents. The finding potentially makes way for a treatment for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. “We have ide

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sympathy, Compassion And Empathy

      Aug 12, 2019

      While these three things are often confused, they’re actually distinct from each other and all play a part in connecting with people. SYMPATHY involves feeling for someone. However – unlike empathy – it doesn’t mean you actively feel what you imagine

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Mental Health

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Mental Health - Shafiq, Yasin

      book.

      INTRODUCTION

      Mental illness is one of the most serious public health issues that we face today. In fact, one in five of us will suffer a mental health problem in any given year, be that depression, anxiety or psychosis¹. To fully understand a problem, it helps to get to the root cause of it. For example, I can deal with a leaky ceiling by putting buckets on the floor, or I can find out, with the help of a plumber, why there is a leak and find a solution from there. The same goes for mental health.

      Mental illness, being such a complicated problem, has many root causes. There are some that we can’t stop. We can’t go back in time and change our genetics, but we can work on improving our environment.

      Using this as a foundation, Mental Health: Prevention was born. This text has been designed to be as informative as possible, without the jargon. Where technical terms have been used, we have tried our best to explain them. There is a short glossary at the back so that you may understand things a little deeper.

      This is a companion to my earlier work, Mental Health Awareness in that it continues on with the aim of educating the average person about mental health, and hopefully giving people some hope along the way.

      You may start to unravel the causes of your own mental illnesses while reading this, and that’s okay. Just remember that it’s not about blaming your parents or your school necessarily, but rather moving forward.

      What you may not have been able to save yourself from, you may be able to protect your children. You may have had to deal with bullying at school, but your kids don’t have to.

      At the end of the day, Mental Health: Prevention is about finding the root causes of mental illness and suggesting strategies for how to control these factors. This is by no means a definitive guide, and references are suggested if you want to do some further reading.

      My passion is educating people about mental health issues, so I hope that you enjoy your read and get a little insight into your own condition, or that of a loved one. If there is any chance that a mental illness is prevented in someone, or their illness does not become worse, I will have achieved my goal.

      I truly believe that despite the challenges a person faces because of their genetics, upbringing, abuse, and so on, there is hope for each and every person.

      ¹ Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2012. Mental Health. Retrieved 11 January, 2014 from http://www.aihw.gov.au/mental-health/

      GENETICS AND MENTAL ILLNESS

      Most of us know that characteristics or genes are passed down from parent to child. These characteristics may be the colour of your eyes, the shape of your nose or if you may inherit certain diseases or become more susceptible to them². These diseases may be physical ones such as certain cancers, or psychiatric ones such as a predisposition to developing bipolar disorder³.

      We inherit half our genes or blueprints for everything that we are made of, from our mother and the other half from our father. Because of this, we can inherit many characteristic and diseases from either parent⁴.

      Due to our inheritance of genes, if your parent has a mental illness such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety or schizophrenia, there is the possibility that you may develop it as well⁵. While at this time, there is no genetic test for depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, it is proven that there is often a biological and genetic cause. Simply put, if you have a disease like depression, it is likely that a close family member may suffer from it as well⁶.

      One example of genetics in mental illness is schizophrenia. In the general population, the rate of schizophrenia is less than 1%⁷. If one parent is affected by schizophrenia, the likelihood the child will suffer from it is 14%, and if both parents have schizophrenia the likelihood is as high as 50%⁸.

      You may wonder why in a book about the prevention of mental illnesses genetics are discussed. After all, we cannot control what genes we are born with. However, I believe they should be understood, so that people can understand the risks when planning a family, and be able to spot the warning signs of the emergence of a mental illness before it becomes a serious problem. Like many people with genetic diseases, you may decide to forgo having a family, or having fewer children than originally planned. Or you may decide that you want to have more children.

      There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these choices and it is not being suggested that you cannot have children if you suffer from a mental disorder (we would probably run out of children if that happened, as mental illnesses are so common!), but it is wise to educate yourself and your children so that any stigma regarding mental illness is reduced. The less stigma and misunderstanding is involved, the greater the chance of mental illnesses being treated early or being prevented. Further in the book, parenting styles and early childhood development will be discussed, so that you can understand the causes of mental illnesses throughout a person’s early year.

      Another reason why it is important to understand a little bit about how mental illnesses are passed down within families is that you may be able to gain understanding of family members who also suffer from it⁹. Since genetic disorders are common within close relatives, it is possible that if you tell a parent or sibling that you have a

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1