Contents of this Page:

• What is mental health
   
• What is mental illness


• How mental illness affect our daily life?
     
• Your body keeps the score


• Why should you seek help?
     
• Where to seek help

What is Mentall health ?

According to the World Health Organization, mental health is a state of mental well-being that allows individuals to cope with life's challenges, realise their strengths, study and work productively, and contribute to their community.
It is an essential component of health and well-being that underlies our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, form connections, and influence the environment in which we live.
Mental health is a fundamental human right. And it's essential for personal, societal, and socio-economic growth.

Mental health exists on a complicated spectrum that varies from person to person, with variable degrees of difficulty and discomfort and potentially very diverse social and clinical results [1].

What is Mentall illness ?

According to the American Psychiatric association, mental illnesses are health conditions characterised by changes in emotion, thinking, or behaviour (or a combination of these). Distress and/or difficulties functioning in social, workplace, or family activities are associated with mental illnesses [2]. It causes individual distress and makes it difficult for them to function. Mental illnesses complicate mental health by influencing how a person feels, thinks, behaves, and experiences the world. It can be caused by genetics, brain chemistry, or trauma [3].

Mental illness does not discriminate; it may affect anybody, regardless of age, gender, geographic location, income, social position, race/ethnicity, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, background, or other component of cultural identification. While mental illness can strike at any age, three-quarters of all cases begin before the age of 24 [3].

How mental illness affect our daily life?

A mental illness can make you unhappy and lead to complications in your everyday life, such as in;

Poor mental health frequently leads to issues such as social isolation, which interferes with a person's communication and interactions with others [4].
For example, depression might impair your ability to communicate adequately, which can be frustrating to your loved ones. You may also begin to feel guilty about making others' lives unpleasant, which can lower your self-esteem [5].

For instance Anxiety and other mental health concerns can lead someone to lose attention, making it difficult to multitask and carry out day-to-day job obligations. Employee stamina may also be impaired, making meeting work deadlines harder. Someone suffering from anxiety or depression may have paranoia, which means that even helpful criticism may be taken personally and cause them to doubt themselves and their skills in the future. As a result, the worker dynamic changes, making the workplace less of a team and more of a competition [6].

People's educational progress suffers as a result of poor mental health. Mental health issues can have a negative impact on a student's energy level, attentiveness, reliability, mental capacity, and optimism, causing them to perform poorly. According to research, depression is linked to poorer grade point averages, and co-occurring sadness and anxiety might amplify this link. Depression has also been connected to school dropout [7].

In most situations, symptoms may be treated with a combination of drugs and talk therapy (psychotherapy) [8]. A person's mental illness does not prevent them from reaching excellent mental health. Anyone, with the right help, may improve their mental health [3].

Your body keeps the score

mental illnesses directly impact physical health.

Mental health issues may come with physical symptoms. Since our bodies and minds are not isolated, it is not unexpected that mental illness may affect your physical health. Poor mental health can interfere with your ability to think clearly, make healthy decisions, and fight off chronic diseases. Anxiety, for example, can cause an upset stomach, while depression can cause headaches, fatigue, and digestive difficulties. Other symptoms may include insomnia, restlessness, and difficulties focusing [9].

Furthermore, mental illness can alter the brain's structure and its chemical output [10]. Let's take the most common mental illness, depression, as an example and see how it affects the brain in various ways.

Three parts of the brain that appear to play a role in major depressive disorder include the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex.

First lets learn about those part and their main Functions:

1. Amygdala
   
   
   

   An amygdala is a small, almond-shaped structure lying beneath each half (hemisphere) of the brain. The amygdalae, which are part of the limbic system, govern emotion and memory and are linked to the brain's reward system, stress, and the "fight or flight" reaction when someone detects a threat [11].

2. Hippocampus
   
   
   

   An organ shaped like a seahorse. The hippocampus is a component of the hippocampal formation, which is a bigger structure. It aids memory, learning, navigation, and perception of space [11].

3. Prefrontal cortex(PFC)
   
   
   

   Through extensive connections with other brain areas, the PFC intelligently manages our thoughts, behaviours, and emotions.
   
   The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the cerebral cortex that covers the frontal lobe. This brain area has been linked to sophisticated cognitive behaviour planning, personality expression, decision making, and social behaviour regulating. This brain region's primary function is supposed to be the orchestration of thoughts and behaviours in line with internal goals. Executive function is the most common psychological term for functions performed by the prefrontal cortex region. Executive function refers to the capacity to distinguish between opposing concepts, decide good and bad, better and best, same and different, future repercussions of current activities, working toward a specific goal, prediction of results, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes) [12].
   
   This section of the brain, more than any other, determines our personality, ambitions, and values. When the PFC is damaged, it impacts our personalities as well as our ability to align our behaviour with our beliefs and goals [13].

4. Cortisol

   Not a brain structure but a hormone, Cortisol is the primary stress hormone. It increases sugars(glucose) in the bloodstream, improves your brain's utilisation of glucose, and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.
   
   Furthermore, cortisol suppresses processes that would be unnecessary or dangerous in a fight-or-flight situation [14].

Now, how does depression affects normal brain:

When scientists compared a depressed brain to a normal brain, they discovered some minor but significant differences including brain shrinkage and a more active amygdala in depressed brains [15].

Brain shrinkage

Cortisol is the brain's stress hormone. People suffering from major depressive disorder produce more cortisol than the average person. Long-term exposure causes areas of the brain to shrink, particularly the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, which are important in memory and decision making [16]. According to one study, women with a history of depression had 9-13% smaller hippocampi than those who had never struggled with depression [17].

More active Amygdala

People suffering from depression frequently have a more active amygdala than the normal brain. When exposed to negative stimuli such as a sad face, the amygdala in depressed persons is more active than in non-depressed people. When both participants are exposed to a positive stimulus, such as a joyful face, there is minimal difference. Researchers believe that elevated amounts of the stress hormone cortisol may be the cause of this abnormality [18].

Why should you seek help?

Previously, people with mental illnesses were frequently subjected to negative stigmas. However, the tides have shifted in the previous decade. Much of the globe is progressing toward the abolition of mental health stigmas. While more individuals are being provided with the tools and assistance they require to manage these conditions.

Seeking help is always hard and it requires courage, but remember seeking psychological help provides several immediate and long term benefits, including:

1. You’re no longer fighting alone

   Seeking assistance guarantees that you may develop a supportive group of people who understand what you're going through.

2. You can build better relationships

   Mental health counselling will enable you to re-establish contact with your loved ones.

3. You can improve your performance academically or at work

   Mental health can severely impact our performance at work or School as mentioned previously. Seeking help enables you to learn how to deal with issues that might have an impact on your well-being and mental health. Even when under stress, you will perform to the best of your ability.

Where to seek help?

There are numerous places to seek psychological help from, If you're having suicide thoughts or simply feeling lonely and in need to psychological help, seek out to one of these Malaysian support groups.

Refrences

[1] WHO, “Mental health: Strengthening Our Response,” World Health Organization, Jun. 17, 2022.

[2] R. Parekh, “What is mental illness?,” American Psychiatric Association, Aug. 2018.

[3] TAYLOR COUNSELING GROUP, “Mental Health vs. Mental Illness: The Difference and Why It Matters,” Taylor Counseling Group, Jun. 18, 2021.

[4] “Understanding Mental Health as a Public Health Issue,” publichealth.tulane.edu.

[5] “Mental health and relationships: What is the impact?,” Natures Best.

[6] H. Shield, “How does mental health affect productivity?,” blog.healthshield.co.uk.

[7] Suicide Prevention Resource Center, “Consequences of Student Mental Health Issues | Suicide Prevention Resource Center,” www.sprc.org, 2020.

[8] Mayo Clinic, “Mental illness - Symptoms and causes,” Mayo Clinic, Jun. 08, 2019.

[9] Mental Health Foundation, “Physical health and mental health,” www.mentalhealth.org.uk, Feb. 18, 2022.

[10] “Brain structural elements in psychiatric disorders: Analysis of brain-imaging data from a large consortium reveals shared patterns and distinct signatures,” ScienceDaily.

[11] “Brain Anatomy and How the Brain Works,” www.hopkinsmedicine.org.

[12] Science of Psychotherapy, “Prefrontal Cortex | The Science of Psychotherapy,” The Science of Psychotherapy, Sep. 17, 2018.

[13] A. F. T. Arnsten, “Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 410–422, Jun. 2009, doi: 10.1038/nrn2648.

[14] mayo clinic, “Chronic stress puts your health at risk,” Mayo Clinic, Mar. 19, 2019.

[15] Mental Health Program at Banyan Boca, “Depressed Brain vs. Normal Brain | Mental Health Blog,” Mental Health Program at Banyan Boca, Aug. 17, 2019.

[16] E. Cirino, “The Effects of Depression on the Brain,” Healthline, Mar. 28, 2012.

[17] “Depression May Shrink Key Brain Structure,” ScienceDaily.

[18] “Depression and the brain,” Uq.edu.au, Jul. 04, 2018.