Women’s Mental Health

Mental health problems are common in society, with women being particularly vulnerable to certain conditions. The reasons for this include genetics, hormones, anatomy, neurology and psychosocial structures (Otten et al., 2021). The differences in mental health rates will also vary depending on the country, diagnostic criteria of mental health conditions and availability of support services in each respective nation. Societal norms and expectations also shape the way that people are treated by others, which can impact women’s mental health – and there are many common mental health conditions which particularly affect women.

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Anxiety and Mental Health

Fear is a normal response to things which the mind perceives as a threat. This manifests through the fight or flight response to real or perceived danger.

Anxiety is persistent fear, in which there is an overestimation of real or perceived danger, characterized through excessive worrying.

This worrying could be about numerous things, such as a social situation (such as public speaking), something at school (taking an exam), worrying about being late for a meeting, a fear of getting in trouble, disappointing others, or the fear of a specific object or animal.

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Identity and Mental Health

Identity is a mental concept which provides a sense of continuity within oneself, a perception of your place around others and in the world. This sense of identity enables an individual to function independently and consistent with their own beliefs and values.

Given the fragile nature of adolescent emotional development, many young individuals often struggle with identity issues and have difficulty identifying themselves or knowing their place in the world. This is known as ‘identity distress’ or is sometimes referred to as an identity crisis or confusion. Identity issues represent a negative emotional state and is not a mental disorder. Older adults can also suffer from identity issues, although this appears to be more prevalent among young individuals. It is also common for young people to struggle fitting in with peers, especially for those who do not have any profound interests or for individuals who lack strong social and communication skills.

Young people may adopt labels depending on their self-perception and understanding, which can affect their mental health. Suffering from other mental health issues can also affect an individual’s self-perception and can impact identity. Inversely, experiencing identity issues can make an individual more likely to suffer from other mental health conditions, such as depression.

Although this guide places an emphasis on young people’s identities, anyone can be affected by the issues discussed in this content and it is important to talk to someone and seek support if you are suffering from a mental health condition.

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Anger, Aggression and Mental Health

Anger is a normal psycho-emotional response to various situations, involving a state of hyper-arousal (characterised by antagonism) to situations. Most, if not, all people will experience moments of anger at some point in their lives. However, the onset of persistent, frequent anger which lasts for several days or months, may indicate the presence of a mental health disorder in an individual. Even if an individual with problematic anger does not possess a mental disorder, their anger may still negatively affect their daily functioning.

Anger issues are on a spectrum, as one person may get easily angered, but their emotions are not profound enough to cause disruption to their lifestyle, or they possess good self-control and are able to manage their feelings. Another individual may have much stronger feelings of anger alongside poor self-control, for which these emotions would negatively affect their daily functioning.

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Bereavement

Loss is a normal part of life and the experience of losing someone to whom an individual has a strong bond is known as bereavement. Grief is both the response from and the process of an individual towards a loss, which is typically emotional, but can also have physical and psychological effects on an individual.

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Stress

We have all at some point in our lives felt the effects of stress, it is an unavoidable part of life. Whilst we are all familiar with what it feels like, we may struggle to accurately define what we mean when we say stress.

This is unsurprising as stress is not officially an illness in itself and has no medical definition. This has led to disagreement amongst healthcare professionals regarding whether stress itself can be responsible for symptoms or is solely a reaction to symptoms. There tends to be agreement in mental health fields that stress can cause mental health problems and be the result of mental health problems, which can unfortunately create a vicious cycle for the sufferer.

When looking to provide a broad definition of stress, we can say that stress is the brain’s reaction to excessive pressure or high demands. This can be both the result of a physical demand or a more emotionally based demand.

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Children and teens mental health

Mental health problems are not uncommon in children and teenagers. Approximately 1 in 6 children (16%) have a probable mental disorder; increasing from 1 in 9 (10.8%) in 2017 (NHS Digital, 2020). Half of all mental health conditions first occur during adolescence, at age 14, but most of these are undetected and untreated (WHO, 2020).

That’s why it’s important that as a child or teenager you know that having a mental health problem is nothing to be ashamed of. While many people avoid treatment due to fear of stigmatisation, we hope that these information brochures will help to reduce the stigma around mental illness and ensure that sufferers get the help they deserve.

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Men’s mental health

It may seem bizarre that we have chosen to discuss male mental health separately. After all, you may think that mental health in general covers males. To some degree you would be correct.

Males will show the same symptoms as females for a vast number of disorders. However, there are some distinct differences in the ways that males seek treatment and react to symptoms that make for worthy discussion.

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Mental health at work

Mental health problems are on the rise in many countries worldwide, with 1 in 4 people in the UK experiencing a mental health problem every year.

With the amount of time we now spend at work, it is unsurprising that the increase in mental health problems is costing businesses worldwide millions of pounds a year. The business practices of some companies are also playing a role in the causation of mental health problems and some small changes can improve the lives of employees and save businesses substantial sums of money.

‘Mental health problems’ is a broad term and in this case, it refers to clinically diagnosed conditions as well as anxiety, stress and depression that are often unreported to clinicians. It is important to keep in mind that many mental health problems are manageable and treatable.

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Armed forces veterans

People who join the armed forces are making a great sacrifice for their country. Unfortunately, this sacrifice does not protect them from problems associated with mental health.

Rates of mental disorders seen in military healthcare services have fallen since 2019/20 (Ministry of Defence, 2021). This could be attributable to lockdown restrictions reducing pressures from military personnel life, although greater awareness and treatment options may also affect this statistic.

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