U4 AOS 2- Mental Wellbeing and Phobias

Crazy? i was crazy once, they locked me in a room, a rubber room, a room filled with rats, the rats made me crazy, Crazy? butsrsly take care

Mental Wellbeing

Mental wellbeing refers to a person’s overall mental state, in terms of how content they are

with themself and their life.

Functioning

How effectively a person can operate in their environmetn and meet the demands of their life.

E.G

can manage work, family, skl (effectively, making time for all) = high
cannot manage work, family, skl (bad priotites, late, bad scheduling) = low

high levels of functioning

factors:
-cognitive skills

-self care

-our relationships

-community/societal engagement

high functioning means what for wellbeing, what does low functioning mean for wellbeing

high functioning means high wellbeing

low functioning may mean bad wellbeing

Resilience, high and low

Ability to recover in the face of adversity

High: positive outlook, flexible with approach, problem solving

Low: struggles to take positive, dwells on things they cannot change, may have a lack of hope

what does high resilience often mean for wellbeing

high resilience often means high wellbeing as you can deal with stress better.

resilience characteristics of someone with high and low resilience

SEWB (Can acronym) (social and emotional wellbeing framework) and 9 principles of connection

Multidimensional and holistic framework having all elements of being and their interaction in First Nation views.

There are domains which affect wellbeing, they are interconnectedness.
Body

Mind

Emotions

Family (Respect for “mob” elders, community

Kinship

Community

Culture

Country

Spirituality connected with past, present and future

Ancestors

analogy

-like a wheel, one being affected affects the others.

warning the below is a bit generalised.

connection to body

• Connecting to the physical body and health in order to participate fully in all aspects of life

• e.g age, weight

connection to mind and emotions

• Connection to mind and emotions: Ability to effectively manage thoughts and feelings.

• e.g self esteem, feeling of safety

connection to family and kinship

• Connection to family and kinship: Connection to the immediate and wider family group and community

• caring relationships, age and familial roles,

connection to community

• Connection to community: Connection to wider social systems, providing individuals and families the ability to connect with and support each other.

• e.g sense of identity

connection to culture

• Connection to culture: A strong sense of identity, values, tradition, and connection between the past, present, and future that drives behaviour and beliefs.

• e.g sense of cultural identity, cultural customs

connection to country

• Connection to Country: The traditional lands of a particular language or cultural group, both geographically and the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual connections to and within it.

  belonging in country

• Connection to spirituality and ancestors

• Spirituality refers to a concept that connects all things, and shapes beliefs, values, and behaviour.
  
  It guides knowledge systems, culture, and all that is life for Aboriginal people, including connections to ancestors, the past, the present, and the future.
  
  
  Ancestors refer to a belief that family and community ancestors are interconnected with Creation spirits and Country and watch over, guide, and protect families and communities in the physical and spiritual world.

→ understandung traditional systems of knowledge

Determinants and what types are they, what are protective and risk factors

Specific factors relating and impacting SEWB
cultural factors: most important
Historical
Political

Social

protective factors:

H: land rights, apology,
P: Truth telling, treaty, land rights,
S: System level change, access and support for housing

risk factors:

H: invasion, genocide, stolen generation

P:oppresive legislation, stolen generation, suppression of language and culture
S:poverty, insecurity, violence, stress/trauma

what is most important determinant and why?

• cultural determinants, oftenbecause of the strong protective factor.

cultural continuity (protective factor) (cultural determinant) definition,

• Cultural continuity can be thought of as the ability to preserve the historical traditions of a culture and carry them forward with that culture into the future. 

• The passing down and active practice of cultural knowledge, traditions, and values from generation to generation. 

Cultural continuity can be achieved through a variety of cultural practices, including engaging with arts, crafts, music, dance, theatre, writing, storytelling, languages, food, and so much more.

cultural disruption/destruction (risk factor)(cultural determinant)

→If destroyed or disrupted cultural practices aren’t allowed to continnue.
Assimilation and “protection” policies saw many First Nations people violently separated from their famiilies and punished for speaking their language or culture.

thus very important, for restablishment and maintenance of First Nations Peoples.
-enables communities to heal and form strong identities.

example of cultural continuity:

-reclaiming history with therapy,

-welcome to Country ceremonies

-promoting education about this

-traditional instruments

-dances

Self Determination (right of all ____(definition, without —-side ——ce)

The rights of all peoples to pursue freely their economic, social and cultural development without outside inteference.
Basically being able to make decisions as their own people, by their own people.
=> power to community, culture

=>addressing trauma,

-> address racism

→cultural context

→

Mental Wellbeing Continuum (mentally healthy, mental health problem, mental health disorder)

mentally healthy can cope with the normal stress of life to
able to cope with everyday demands without showing an excessive level of distress and dysfunction, can express emotions appropriately.

• mental health problem psychological state negatively affects how someone thinks feels, behaves. (can be resolved short term, caused by stressor, however if not attended to can result in a mental health disorder)
  
  mental health disorder characterised by non standard thoughts feelings, behaviours impairing normal life and causes lots of distress.

high levels of mental welllbeing

An individual is able to function independently within their everyday life, able to cope with everyday demands without showing an excessive level of distress and dysfunction.

Can cope with emotions andd address them appropriately.

high functioning

high resilience

realise own ability to cope w the stresses of normal life

intermediate levels of wellbeing

Not functioning at an optimal level. Temporary or moderate impact on mental wellbeing.

vast range

most people

avarying levels of funcitoning and resilience

low levels of wellbeing (high levels of d——), *unable to—-), (if ___ of t___ spent —> happens)

Low levels of mental wellbeing, shows high levels of distress.

Unable to independently complete tasks and meet the demands of their environment.

If lots of time spent at low mental wellbeing, an individual may be diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

Deviance, Dysfunction, Distress

Deviance from how a person is normally. Their typical behaviour.

Dysfunction, how someone deals and completes daily activities and cope with everyday life

Distress, the unpleasant experience of the person with the disorder, or their family and friends

Mental health problem

A psychological state that negatively agents the way a person thinks, feels and behaves, but to a lesser extent and for a shorter duration a than a mental disorder.

→ as a result of a life stressor.

→often occurs as a result of a life stressor,

→will often resolve with time or when life stressor changes or passes.

BUT

If persists or increases in severity, it may develop into a disorder

Mental disorder

More severe and for a longer duration than a mental health problem.

→ lead to someone experiencing the 3 Ds,

Distress (unpleasant experience with disorder, fam or friends) dysfunction(can’t cope w normal activities)

, deviance(difference to how they are normally.

20% of aus experience mental health disorder in any given 12 month period.

stress definition

• is a psychological and physiological experience that occurs when an individual encounters something of significance that demands their attention and/or efforts to cope.
  
  

• “a state of mental or emotional and physiological tension resulting from factors that are perceived to challenge or threaten our ability to cope.”
  
  

can stress be pos and neg?

stress can involve both positive (eustress) and negative (distress) feelings

is anxiety necessarily a sign of a low mental wellbeing?

No it is not, it is normal to have some anxiety

is stress normal ? sign of low mental wellbeing?

stress is a normal part of life, and is not necessarily a sign of low levels of mental wellbeing.

difference between anxiety (mi--t vs stress (to a ___ cause)

stress is usually in response to a known cause, which differentiates it from anxiety

anxiety would be future oriented, “what might happen”

anxiety (state of - by worry about a pe— —-at, usually fu-u-e oriented.

→link to disorders

state of arousal characterised by apprehension and worry about a perceived threat. Usually future oriented.

-when anxiety does not subside and persists to when functiponing is impaired, it can go further right and become a disorder.

typically only involves negative feelings (distress)

thinking about potentials or unknown stimulus is anxiety

when is anxiety good? when is anxiety bad?

• It is an adaptive response and is usually helpful in the short term to deal with threats. However, when anxiety is severe, disproportionate to the threat and does not subside, it can be counterproductive and disabling.

stress similarities

• They are similar because: 

  • people will experience both stress and anxiety from time to time, and it is an expected part of daily life. 

  • they usually don’t interrupt daily functioning and are not always a sign of low mental wellbeing. 

  • some stress and anxiety can be adaptive for functioning as they can motivate people to take action, such as preparing for a SAC instead of avoiding it. 

sac example

stress for the sac which u are preparing for currently.

after sac is done, stressed for sac results etc atar affected etc.

anxiety is excessive what happens to mental wellbeing

• When anxiety is excessive, persistent over a long period of time, and disrupts aspects of daily functioning, an individual may experience lower levels of mental wellbeing. 

doesn’t have irrational, causes general lower levels of mental wellbeing

examples of the internal factors of bio and psycho and external of social affecting wellbeing

Specific Phobia definition

In contrast to stress and anxiety, specific phobia is a type of diagnosable anxiety disorder that is categorised characterised by persistent, irrational and excessive fear of a particular object or situation (such as heights, spiders, or small spaces).

must be all three.

excessive => doesn’t leave the house so they don't hear a dog

persistent=> always

irrational=> doesn’t make sense always, like being afraid of pickles which can’t help it.

anxiety disorder; when faced with this thing, it has the potential to harm or cause me distress.

occurs when anxiety becomes persistent.

specific phobias associated with? what do individuals with specific phobia do? what are their characteristics?

• Specific phobias are associated with:

  • an individual going to great lengths to avoid their phobic stimulus

  • significant disruption to an individual’s daily functioning either at work, home, in their social life, or with family

  • low levels of mental wellbeing when encountering, anticipating, or attempting to avoid the phobic stimulus.

characteristics of phobia ( when person aware f—- is disprop—- to the phobic stimulus) but c ___ c____l

• People who have a specific phobia are often aware that their level of fear and anxiety is disproportionate to the phobic stimulus, but are unable to control these feelings. 

• The person’s fear of the object or event is so intense that they try to avoid the feared stimulus or, if faced with it, experience acute physiological arousal – the flight-or-fight-or-freeze response.

• Fear is fine and often adaptive, it is when the fear becomes disproportionate to the threat that a phobia can arise.

biological, social and psychological factors for phobia

GABA, what? what do? what r the impacts of it?

inhibitory neurotransmitter
GABA (Gamma-amino butyric acid) is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human nervous system. 

• regulates postsynaptic activation in neural pathways, preventing over-excitation and uncontrolled firing

• important in regulating the flight-or-fight-or-freeze response and anxiety

• GABA acts to slow or halt the excitatory neural impulse responsible
  

→ calms you, → decreases the likelihood of a action potential being fired, →LTD, →SLEEP, →decreases the excitability of a post synaptic neuron

GABA dysfunction, insufficient t…sion, and re…tion of GABA also l.. e..l. of pr…ion

→GABA dysfunction refers to the insufficient neural transmission or reception of GABA in the body. 

• low level of production of GABA

• or insufficient transmission of GABA across the synapse

• or insufficient reception on the postsynaptic neuron.
  
  if there is a lack, no inhibitory on glutamate, and activity in brain. it fires and LTP the pathways which are phobic

what do gaba agonists support and not support what parts of gaba dysfunction

→low level of production of GABA, by having more benzodiazepines to bind to receptors

→can flood synapse and mitigate insufficient reception

HOWEVER they CANNOT

help when the receptors are lacking or not as receptive because the benzodiazepines just act as support to bind to receptors more, but if there are not enough receptors, or they’re not receptive, they cannot help

social stigma around specific phobia

the stigma and ridicule around phobia discourages those from seeking help

What are internal and external factors, what do they contribute to?

THEY ARE NOT DISORDERS,

THEY PUSH an individual lower to a disorder,

key differences and similarities between stress, anxiety phobia x 1. (when experiencing, mental disorder or contribute to? level of impact? adaptive or helpful? experienced in response to?

key differences and similarities between stress, anxiety phobia x 1. (role of nervous system, stimulus type, associated emotions, eustress or distress, adaptive or maladatpvie, place on mental wellbeing continuum

If they push to a lower level of mental wellbeing they are→

Risk factors, contributing to the development of low levels of mental wellbeing

If they push a high level of mental wellbeing,

Protective factors, protect an individual for low levels of wellbeing

Instead of maintaining high levels of mental wellbeing, protective factors

specific phobia and anxiety,

• s classified as a type of anxiety disorder.

• Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. 

• Anxiety affects one in four people (one in three women and one in five men) at some stage in their life. More than two million Australians experience anxiety each year. 

• There are many different anxiety disorders in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, with specific phobia being one of the most common.

• A specific phobia is a persistent, intense, irrational fear of a specific object or event, often leading to avoidance behaviour.

key features to diagnose + HOW LONG

 is aware that their level of fear is excessive or unreasonable, but she feels compelled to avoid the phobic stimulus

 experiences fear that is out of proportion to the actual danger. => irrational

or a diagnosis of specific phobia, symptoms must be present for six months or longer and disrupt the person’s life, especially work and social relationships, or cause them serious distress.

4 types of phobias

Phobias can generally be placed in four categories that relate to:

• the natural environment (e.g. water, storms)

• animals (e.g. snakes, spiders, dogs)

• potential bodily pain or injury (e.g. needles, dental and medical procedures, sight of blood)

• situations (e.g. heights, confined or open spaces, aeroplanes, tunnels).

contributing factors to specific phobia

internal factor:

INfluence on mental wellbeing within an individual
-personality, memory, sleep quality, biological sex, emotions, thinking pattern, phyisical health etc.

-gut health,

→can contribute to low mental wellbeing called risk factors.

External factor

influences on mental welbeing orgiinating outside of an individual,
- pressures of work

-educational access-

-poverty

-healthcare access

can you have mixed functioning

yes, can have high in some parts of life, but in other areas it’s hader to cope with life.

6levels of funcitoning based on

cognition
mobility
self care
getting along with others

life activities (responsibilities)
participation in community

• Social wellbeing

• = Ability to have healthy and satisfying relationships and interactions with others. 

• A person with high social wellbeing will respect and understand others, resolve conflicts, have appropriate body language, give and receive social support, appreciate differences in people.

• Emotional wellbeing = Ability to control emotions and express them appropriately and comfortably. 

• A person with high emotional wellbeing will understand and regulate own emotions, express emotions in a suitable manner, identify emotions in others, empathise, take responsibility for actions 

what do you need to do for psycho, bio, and social factors in questions?

say it, and justify why it is that factor

biopsychosocial factors: biological factors

biological factors: physiologically based or determined influences, often not under our control,
Like our genes, balances or imbalances in brain chemistry, brain and nevous system, medication, hormonal activities and bodily responses to stress.

psychological factors

• Mental processes and may relate to prior learning experiences and memory

such as our beliefs, attitudes, prior learning, perceptions of ourselves, others and our external environment, how we learn, solve problems, manage stress,  understand and experience emotions, reconstruct memories

social factors

• Skills in interacting with others and the conditions in which people live and grow

  • range and quality of our interpersonal relationships, support from others when needed, exposure to stressors, poverty level, risks of violence, education, employment history, cultural influences

venn diagram bio, psycho, social

protective factors

• Any characteristic or event that reduces the likelihood of the occurrence or recurrence of illness/ lack of wellbeing. 

  • EG. resilience (e.g. positive outlook, ability to regulate emotions), supportive family relationships and access to social support.

risk factors

• Risk factor is any characteristic or event that increases the likelihood of the development or progression of illness/ lack of wellbeing. 

  • Eg. Genetics, rumination, stress, loss of significant relationship, trauma, use of drugs/alcohol, homelessness

• Direct/Indirect

• Unique to each individual. 

• As the number of risk factors increases so too does the likelihood of developing illness.

e.g of 4 biological risk factors.

Genetic vulnerability:

A genetic vulnerability, also referred to as a genetic predisposition, is an increased likelihood that a person will develop a particular illness or physical characteristic due to the DNA that they carry.

but it does predispose them to higher risk.

Poor response to medication:

A poor response to medication happens if a person takes a drug to relieve symptoms of a condition, but this does not occur.

poor sleep:

-range of psychimpacts, thus lack of bio resources to cope, can contribute to mental disorder

-decreased resilience, memory consolidation

substance use:

substance use is a bioligical factors, because ingredients in substance interact with an aspect of a persons biology.

specific phobia

a type of anxiety

disorder characterised

by an intense and

persistent fear that is

triggered by facing or

anticipating a specific

stimulus

DSM-5-TR

classfication system for psychological and neurodevelopment disorders

5 main types of phobias

-animal

-natural/environmental

-situational

-blood/injury/infection

-other phobia

biopsychosocial factors: biological factors of specific phobia

an internal,

physiological factor

that can affect a

person’s health,

behaviour and

overall wellbeing


gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) dysfunction

• long-term potentiation (LTP).

GABA dysfunction

• GABA dysfunction refers to the insufficient neural transmission or reception of GABA in the body. 

  • Can be due to a low level of production of GABA

  • or insufficient transmission of GABA across the synapse

  • or insufficient reception on the postsynaptic neuron.
    
    Primary inhibitory neurotransmitter

reduces likelihood of firing , calming effect, and relaxes. cancels effect of excitatory glutamate.

Lower levels of GABA caused by either insufficient production of GABA or it being hard to bind to receptor site on PostSynneuron

GABA in specific phobia

• In specific phobia:

  • GABA dysfunction may cause someone’s flight-or-fight-or-freeze or anxiety response to be activated more easily than someone with adequate GABA levels. This means that, for some people, the stress response is more easily triggered by certain stimuli.

  • recurrent stress responses to specific stimuli can lead to the development of a phobia.

causes of GABA dysfunction

stress, lack of exercise, bad nutrition, over drink caffeine and drugs => Low GABA

effects of GABA dysfunction

amygdala senstitive to lower gaba, and hypersensitive to potential threats,. => means heightened stress response and more anxious and physiologically aroused.

LTP (long term potentiation)

Long-term potentiation is the long-lasting and experience-dependent strengthening of synaptic connections that are regularly coactivated.




scary fear inducing stimulus → stress response → adrenalin+noradrenalin → amygdala → signal to hippocampus (to encode vivid episodic memory about the threat)

→ LTP (neural circuits involving that fever inducing stimulus) repeatedly stimulated → can cause physical changes (increase communication, retrieval and preservation of phobic and fearful memories)
=> contribute to formation and duration of SPECIFIC PHOBIA

how LTP links

• Through their repeated coactivation, the signals involved in perceiving a phobic stimulus more readily trigger the activation of the neural signals responsible for the fear response.

• When these connections are activated through different encounters with the phobic stimulus or thinking about a past or future encounter, the connections are further strengthened.
  
  

spider example

• or example, when a person fears a spider, two neural signals are coactivated: these are the neural signals involved in perceiving the spider, as well as the neural signals responsible for activating the stress response. The repeated activation of both these neural signals together can lead to the development of a phobia, as the stress response is associated with and activated at the same time as the perception of a certain phobic stimulus. The more this occurs, the stronger the association becomes, and the stronger the phobia becomes.

F

coactivation

two different neurla pathways being activated at once, and repeated coactivation forms a link, and produces a strengthens phobic response.

precipitation:

→ making specific phobias form

perpetuation

→ continuing, strengthening specific phobias

psychological factors

-precipitation by classical conditioning

• perpetuation by operant conditioning

• cognitive biases (such as memory bias and catastrophic thinking).

precipitating factor

a factor or an event

that triggers the

onset of an illness, a

disorder or a disease

classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning can contribute to the development of phobias by increasing susceptibility to and contributing to their occurrence.
  
  

• This can be described as precipitation by classical conditioning.
  
  

Precipitating factors are factors that increase the susceptibility to and contribute to the occurrence of developing a specific phobia.


In terms of classical conditioning, what becomes a phobic stimulus would initially be the neutral stimulus (NS).

they MAY have had repeated association (*NOT NECESSARILY NEED)

with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally induces fear, the NS becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS) or phobic stimulus, producing the conditioned response (CR) or phobic response.

important classical conditioning notes

FEAR RESPONSES DOESN”T NEED TO BE REPEATED

WHAT FEAR? FEAR OF WHAT? BE SPECIFIC

Operant conditioning

• Involves learning through the association of a behaviour and the consequence it receives.
  
  

• Perpetuating factors are factors that inhibit a person’s ability to recover from a specific phobia.

In this way, operant conditioning perpetuates phobias by preventing an individual from overcoming them.

LINKS BECAUSE WHEN AVOIDING PHOBIC STIMULUS INDIVIDUAL IS NEGATIVELY REINFORECED BY RELIEF>

perpetuating

factor

a factor or an event

that sustains or

prolongs the onset of

an illness, a disorder

or a disease

e.g a mice phobia, → image of mice → runs away →negative reinforcement by removing unpleasant stimulus of mice → reinforces link to specific phobia and continuing it.

cognitive biases

a systematic error in

thinking that affects

a person’s decisions

and judgments

Cognitive biases contribute to phobias because some people consider certain stimuli as particularly harmful, dangerous or scary.

memory bias

a tendency to

selectively and

inaccurately encode

a memory that has

been influenced by

distorted thinking

• type of cognitive bias caused by inaccurate or exaggerated memory.

Catastrophic thinking is a type of cognitive bias in which a stimulus or event is predicted to be far worse than it actually is.

helps develop and prolong specific existing phobia, may justify avoidant behaviour

catastrophic

thinking

a tendency to

ruminate obsessively

and overestimate a

perceived threat with

irrational thoughts of

worst-case scenarios

social factors: specific environmental triggers

• an object, situation or circumstance that caused a (usually) direct, negative traumatic experience associated with extreme fear or discomfort, which then acts as a cue for future phobic fear responses.

• There are a few different types of environmental triggers, including:

  • direct confrontation with a traumatic stimulus or event

  • observing another person having a direct confrontation with a traumatic stimulus or event,

specific environmental trigger mindmap

stigma

negative attitudes,

beliefs and

stereotypes

associated with

certain individuals,

conditions or groups

that often lead to

discrimination and

social exclusion

They might feel as though their phobia is too embarrassing or insignificant to seek professional help,

evidence based intervention

evidence-based

intervention

a treatment to

manage health

conditions that has

been empirically

tested and shown to

be effective in the

scientific literature

Biological interventions

a treatment targeting

the physiological

causes or effects

of a mental health

disorder

benzodiazepenes (s—t ac—ing)

Benzodiazepines are a type of medication that depresses central nervous system activity and is often used as a short-acting anti-anxiety medication.