# Chapter 2 - Psychological Health

## September 21st, 2020

-   I'm doing this kinda late; don't forget that EXAM 1 IS ONLINE TONIGHT!
    -   "Anger is a normal emotion; what's important is whether we deal with it in healthy, productive ways or not"
        -   High anger leads to a TON of issues, like higher risk of heart disease, etc.
        -   Good ways of dealing with anger: breathe deeply, relax your muscles, write down what made you angry when you're calm, and then examine your anger: what're the consequences? Will lashing out do anything helpful? Will you still be angry tomorrow? Next week? In a year?

-   Now, WAYYYYYY back, Miller talked in his happiness lecture about how happiness comes from your internal thoughts, not your external circumstances

-   Moving on from that, what's psychological health? It's how we think, feel, relate and exist in our day-to-day life, i.e. emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual health
    -   *quick aside about relativism, being respectful, everyone perceives things differently, "10 people = 10 experiences," "No right or wrong," etc.*
    -   "So, if 2 people can see different sides of the same thing without either being totally wrong, you should be able to approach certain arguments with more understanding/curiosity/knowing you might be missing something/etc."
        -   "Whatever resonates with you, works for you!"
        -   ...so, healthy understanding of perspectives slippery-slope sliding into total relativism where no one is ever wrong about anything - yup, it's a health class!
    -   So, being psychologically healthy means:
        -   Feeling good about yourself, even though you're realistic about your imperfections
        -   Compassionate for oneself
        -   Comfortable with others, able to respect and empathize
        -   Able to control emotions without being overwhelmed, avoiding irrational behavior
            -   ABC Gone-with-the-wind: "Anger, Blaming, Complaining, Guilt, Worrying"
        -   Maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook

-   *Maslow's outdated hierarchy of needs, which now apparently includes sexual expression before it's possible to feel love, rears its head again*

-   A few big factors on psychological health:
    -   Family (learn good things and not-so-good things about how to express emotions, use social skills, manage stress, develop sense of self-worth, love others)
        -   NOT all people raised in a bad family become psychologically unhealthy people, and vice-versa
        -   "Just have a self-awareness: your parents are people too, and aren't perfect, and probably made mistakes when they were raising you; you don't have to blame them, but you might have to recognize where you need to differ from your parents"
    -   Social supports (family, friends, etc.)
    -   Community
    -   Personality (mix of characteristics that make you you)
        -   4 elements of psychologically healthy people:
            -   Agreeableness (how well you get long with others and view people)
            -   Openness (to new experiences)
            -   Conscientiousness (being careful/efficient/organized)
            -   Extroversion

-   A few terms:
    -   SELF-EFFICACY is your confidence that you can do a certain task
    -   SELF-ESTEEM is your sense of worth and self-respect
        -   Too much self-esteem can result in pride/arrogance; it can also give you a false sense of entitlement and thinking you're better than you really are, and not able to deal with failure
        -   Too low self-esteem can make you actually SEEM arrogant (e.g. trying to brag/prove your worth to other people)
    -   LEARNED HELPLESSNESS is the pattern of giving up due to repeated failures, and erodes your self-efficacy
    -   LEARNED OPTIMISM is the opposite, of teaching yourself to think positively by changing your "self-talk"/internal monologue (e.g. just thinking "hey, I did pretty well on the exam, I did a good job studying!")
        -   "Are you beating yourself up internally, or doing this whole positive-affirmation I'm-at-Georgia-Tech-I-can-do-this thing"
    -   PERMA acronym for happiness
        -   P = Positive emotions (do what makes you happy)
        -   E = Engagement (being in the present, "carpe diem")
        -   R = Relationships (have friends)
        -   M = Meaning (believing what you do has purpose)
        -   A = Accomplishment (feel like you're accomplishing realistic goals, building self-efficacy)

-   To enhance your psychological health:
    -   Develop support groups
    -   Complete tasks and develop your skills
    -   Form realistic expectations
    -   Make time to relax
    -   Maintain your physical health (one helps the other)
    -   Get adequate sleep
    -   Reach out for help when you need it

-   A few things about psychological health: you're not alone
    -   1 in 3 college students have reported crippling depression at least once (i.e. affected their ability to work); almost 1 in 10 seriously considered suicide, which is SHOCKINGLY high
    -   "I wish suicide wasn't a huge issue, but it is, and we need to talk about"
        -   If you notice someone have a big change in behavior, ESPECIALLY if they start becoming more withdrawn and stop showing up to things, that's a big warning that something's going on that they need help with
        -   "We've had Tech students with a 3.9 GPA and seemingly a ton of friends commit suicide; often times, we don't really know what people are going through"
        -   If you suspect someone's in danger of that, let them know that you care: take their problems seriously, stay with them, let them know you'll help and FOLLOW THROUGH on those promises

-   Okay, take the test tonight and good luck!