Study hints:
- Ask: “if I had to take care of this pt in real time, what would I have to do?”
- Q’s starting w/ “why” are never correct answer (accusatory)
Chapter 1: Mental Health and Mental Illness
● Mental Health (positive)
○ Able to recognize own potential
○ Cope w/ normal stress
○ Work productively
○ Make contribution to community
● Traits of mental health:
○ Think rationally
○ Communicate appropriately
○ Learn
○ Grow emotionally
○ Be resilient
○ Have healthy self-esteem
○ Realistic goals & reasonable function w/in the individual’s role
● Resilience - “bounce back,” able to get back up & deal w/ difficulties
○ self-subjective – diff for everyone
○ Learned from facing trauma
■ In order to build - need to be taught & have tools to deal w/ stressors
○ Ability & capacity to secure resources needed to support well-being
○ Characterized by:
■ Optimism
■ Sense of mastery
■ Competence - knowledge & experience that helps you learn to deal w/
adversity
○ Essential to recovery
● Mental illness:
○ Disorders w/ definable dx
○ Significant dysfunction in mental functioning related to:
■ Development
■ Biological
■ Physiological disturbances
○ Culturally defined
○ Sad, mad etc. are normal emotions! Mental illness is defined as a decrease in the
ability to perform daily tasks/functions
● Diathesis-Stress Model:
○ Diathesis = biological predisposition
, ○ Stress = environmental stress or trauma
○ Most accepted explanation for mental illness
○ Assertation: most psychiatric disorders result from a combination of genetic
vulnerability & negative emotional stressors
● Primary prevention: build resilience - pt education
● Secondary prevention: active process - receiving treatment actively
● Tertiary prevention: maintain & manage pt’s baseline - (after we’ve stabilized) prevent
mental health decompensation
● Incidence = # new cases at a given time
● Prevalence = # of cases regardless of when they begun
○ MDD = most common mental health disorder
● Lifetime risk = risk that one will develop a disease in the course of a lifetime
● Psychiatric mental health nurses (what the majority of mental health nursing is)
○ Promoting mental health through assessment, diagnosis, & treatment of
behavioral & mental disorders
Chapter 2: Theories and Therapies
● Defense mechanisms and anxiety - (actually good) theory by Freud
○ Operate on unconscious level
○ Deny, falsify, or distort reality to make it less threatening
○ Only problematic if you ALWAYS use these
● Table 15.2: Defense Mechanisms (pg. 271)
Defense Mechanism Adaptive Use Maladaptive Use
Conversion is the unconscious No example. Almost always a A man becomes blind after
transformation of anxiety into a pathological defense. seeing his wife enter a hotel
physical symptom with no organic room with another man.
cause.
Denial involves escaping unpleasant, A man reacts to the death of a loved one A woman whose husband died 3
anxiety-causing thoughts, feelings, by saying, “No, I don’t believe you,” to years earlier still keeps his
wishes, or needs by ignoring their initially protect himself from the clothes in the closet and talks
existence. overwhelming news. about him in the present tense.
*Most used defense mechanism!*
Displacement is the transference of A child yells at his teddy bear after A child who is unable to
emotions associated with a particular being picked on by the school bully. acknowledge fear of his father
person, object, or situation to another becomes fearful of animals.
non threatening person, object, or
situation.
- Ask: “if I had to take care of this pt in real time, what would I have to do?”
- Q’s starting w/ “why” are never correct answer (accusatory)
Chapter 1: Mental Health and Mental Illness
● Mental Health (positive)
○ Able to recognize own potential
○ Cope w/ normal stress
○ Work productively
○ Make contribution to community
● Traits of mental health:
○ Think rationally
○ Communicate appropriately
○ Learn
○ Grow emotionally
○ Be resilient
○ Have healthy self-esteem
○ Realistic goals & reasonable function w/in the individual’s role
● Resilience - “bounce back,” able to get back up & deal w/ difficulties
○ self-subjective – diff for everyone
○ Learned from facing trauma
■ In order to build - need to be taught & have tools to deal w/ stressors
○ Ability & capacity to secure resources needed to support well-being
○ Characterized by:
■ Optimism
■ Sense of mastery
■ Competence - knowledge & experience that helps you learn to deal w/
adversity
○ Essential to recovery
● Mental illness:
○ Disorders w/ definable dx
○ Significant dysfunction in mental functioning related to:
■ Development
■ Biological
■ Physiological disturbances
○ Culturally defined
○ Sad, mad etc. are normal emotions! Mental illness is defined as a decrease in the
ability to perform daily tasks/functions
● Diathesis-Stress Model:
○ Diathesis = biological predisposition
, ○ Stress = environmental stress or trauma
○ Most accepted explanation for mental illness
○ Assertation: most psychiatric disorders result from a combination of genetic
vulnerability & negative emotional stressors
● Primary prevention: build resilience - pt education
● Secondary prevention: active process - receiving treatment actively
● Tertiary prevention: maintain & manage pt’s baseline - (after we’ve stabilized) prevent
mental health decompensation
● Incidence = # new cases at a given time
● Prevalence = # of cases regardless of when they begun
○ MDD = most common mental health disorder
● Lifetime risk = risk that one will develop a disease in the course of a lifetime
● Psychiatric mental health nurses (what the majority of mental health nursing is)
○ Promoting mental health through assessment, diagnosis, & treatment of
behavioral & mental disorders
Chapter 2: Theories and Therapies
● Defense mechanisms and anxiety - (actually good) theory by Freud
○ Operate on unconscious level
○ Deny, falsify, or distort reality to make it less threatening
○ Only problematic if you ALWAYS use these
● Table 15.2: Defense Mechanisms (pg. 271)
Defense Mechanism Adaptive Use Maladaptive Use
Conversion is the unconscious No example. Almost always a A man becomes blind after
transformation of anxiety into a pathological defense. seeing his wife enter a hotel
physical symptom with no organic room with another man.
cause.
Denial involves escaping unpleasant, A man reacts to the death of a loved one A woman whose husband died 3
anxiety-causing thoughts, feelings, by saying, “No, I don’t believe you,” to years earlier still keeps his
wishes, or needs by ignoring their initially protect himself from the clothes in the closet and talks
existence. overwhelming news. about him in the present tense.
*Most used defense mechanism!*
Displacement is the transference of A child yells at his teddy bear after A child who is unable to
emotions associated with a particular being picked on by the school bully. acknowledge fear of his father
person, object, or situation to another becomes fearful of animals.
non threatening person, object, or
situation.
