Introduction
1. The problem of a healthy lifestyle in psychology
1.1. The concept of health and its criteria
1.2. The concept of a healthy lifestyle
2. Study of social representations in social psychology
3. Analysis of research results
3.1. Description of the research methodology and organization
3.2. Analysis of the results and their discussion
Conclusion
Literature
Applications
Introduction
The end of the 20th century is characterized, in particular, by an increase in morbidity and mortality of the population against the backdrop of high achievements in medicine and the improvement of technical means for diagnosing and treating diseases. The current stage of development of our society is associated with a demographic crisis, a decrease in life expectancy, a decrease in the mental health of the country's population, which causes concern among many scientists and specialists (6; 9; 12; 31; 32; 38; 42; 48, etc.). But, taking into account the traditional focus of the current healthcare system on identifying, defining and “eliminating” diseases, which has intensified due to the progressive socio-economic destruction of society, it becomes clear that the medicine of today and the foreseeable future will not be able to significantly influence the preservation of human health. This fact justifies the need to find more effective ways and means of maintaining and developing health.
It is known that the level of human health depends on many factors: hereditary, socio-economic, environmental, and the activities of the healthcare system. But, according to WHO, it is only 10-15% associated with the latter factor, 15-20% is due to genetic factors, 25% is determined by environmental conditions, and 50-55% is determined by human conditions and lifestyle. Thus, it is obvious that the primary role in the preservation and formation of health still belongs to the person himself, his lifestyle, his values, attitudes, the degree of harmonization of his inner world and relationships with the environment. At the same time, modern people in most cases shift responsibility for their health to doctors. He is actually indifferent to himself, is not responsible for the strength and health of his body, and at the same time does not try to explore and understand his soul. In reality, a person is not busy taking care of his own health, but treating diseases, which leads to the decline of health that is currently observed against the backdrop of significant advances in medicine. In reality, strengthening and creating health should become the need and responsibility of every person.
It is not justified to see the causes of ill health only in poor nutrition, environmental pollution and lack of proper medical care. Much more important for the global ill-health of mankind is the progress of civilization, which has contributed to the “liberation” of a person from efforts on himself, which led to the destruction of the body’s defenses. The primary task for increasing the level of health should not be the development of medicine, but the conscious, purposeful work of the person himself to restore and develop vital resources, to take responsibility for his own health when a healthy lifestyle becomes a need. “To be healthy is a natural desire of a person,” writes K.V. Dineika, considering the main task facing a person in relation to his health is not the treatment of diseases, but the creation of health (20).
The first step in this direction can be to clarify ideas about a healthy lifestyle in modern society with the aim of further adjusting them, as well as the formation of new ideas and attitudes towards health, a healthy lifestyle and illness. First of all, this matters for the younger generation, since their health is public health in 10 to 30 years. Therefore, in our study we studied students’ ideas about a healthy lifestyle. In addition, for fruitful collaboration between representatives of different fields of knowledge towards creating an ideology of public health, it is important that those who are called upon to implement these ideas, in particular, doctors, have ideas about a healthy lifestyle that correspond to modern scientific views. Based on this, we also chose practicing physicians and medical college students as the object of our research.
As we know, at present there are only a few studies of social ideas about a healthy lifestyle. In addition, even the very concept of “health” is interpreted differently by different authors.
Thus, it is obvious both the theoretical significance of the study devoted to the analysis of such categories as health, healthy lifestyle, and its practical significance for possible further work towards the formation of adequate ideas about a healthy lifestyle and the creation of an attitude towards a creative attitude towards one’s own health.
Hypothesis: Doctors’ idea of a healthy lifestyle is more consistent with modern scientific ideas than that of future doctors and non-medical students.
1. The problem of a healthy lifestyle in psychology
1.1. The concept of health and its criteria
At all times, among all peoples of the world, physical and mental health has been and is an enduring value of man and society. Even in ancient times, it was understood by doctors and philosophers as the main condition for the free activity of man, his perfection.
But despite the great value attached to health, the concept of “health” has not had a specific scientific definition for a long time. And currently there are different approaches to its definition. At the same time, most of the authors: philosophers, physicians, psychologists (Yu.A. Aleksandrovsky, 1976; V.H. Vasilenko, 1985; V.P. Kaznacheev, 1975; V.V. Nikolaeva, 1991; V.M. Vorobyov, 1995) regarding this phenomenon, they agree with each other only on one thing, that now there is no single, generally accepted, scientifically based concept of “individual health” (54).
The earliest definition of health is that of Alcmaeon, which has its supporters to this day: “Health is the harmony of oppositely directed forces.” Cicero described health as the correct balance of various mental states. The Stoics and Epicureans valued health above all else, contrasting it with enthusiasm and the desire for everything immoderate and dangerous. The Epicureans believed that health is complete contentment provided that all needs are fully satisfied. According to K. Jaspers, psychiatrists view health as the ability to realize “the natural innate potential of human vocation.” There are other formulations: health - a person’s acquisition of his own self, “realization of the Self,” full and harmonious inclusion in the community of people (12). K. Rogers also perceives a healthy person as mobile, open, and not constantly using defensive reactions, independent of external influences and relying on himself. Optimally actualized, such a person constantly lives in every new moment of life. This person is flexible and adapts well to changing conditions, is tolerant of others, emotional and reflective (46).
F. Perls considers a person as a whole, believing that mental health is associated with the maturity of the individual, manifested in the ability to recognize one’s own needs, constructive behavior, healthy adaptability and the ability to take responsibility for oneself. A mature and healthy personality is authentic, spontaneous and internally free.
S. Freud believed that a psychologically healthy person is one who is able to reconcile the principle of pleasure with the principle of reality. According to C. G. Jung, a person who has assimilated the contents of his unconscious and is free from capture by any archetype can be healthy. From W. Reich's point of view, neurotic and psychosomatic disorders are interpreted as a consequence of stagnation of biological energy. Therefore, a healthy state is characterized by the free flow of energy.
The Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) states that health is not only the absence of disease and physical defects, but a state of complete social and spiritual well-being. In the corresponding volume of the 2nd edition of the BME, it is defined as a state of the human body when the functions of all its organs and systems are balanced with the external environment and there are no painful changes. This definition is based on the category of health status, which is assessed according to three criteria: somatic, social and personal (Ivanyushkin, 1982). Somatic - perfection of self-regulation in the body, harmony of physiological processes, maximum adaptation to the environment. Social - a measure of ability to work, social activity, a person’s active attitude to the world. A personal characteristic implies a person’s life strategy, the degree of his dominance over the circumstances of life (32). I.A. Arshavsky emphasizes that the organism throughout its entire development is not in a state of equilibrium or balance with the environment. On the contrary, being a non-equilibrium system, the organism constantly changes the forms of its interaction with environmental conditions throughout its development (10). G.L. Apanasenko points out that considering a person as a bioenergy-information system, characterized by a pyramidal structure of subsystems, which include the body, psyche and spiritual element, the concept of health implies the harmony of this system. Violations at any level affect the stability of the entire system (3). G.A. Kuraev, S.K. Sergeev and Yu.V. Shlenov emphasize that many definitions of health are based on the fact that the human body must resist, adapt, overcome, preserve, expand its capabilities, etc. The authors note that with this understanding of health, a person is viewed as a militant creature located in an aggressive natural and social environment. But the biological environment does not give rise to an organism that is not supported by it, and if this happens, then such an organism is doomed already at the beginning of its development. Researchers propose to define health based on the basic functions of the human body (implementation of the genetic unconditional reflex program, instinctive activity, generative function, congenital and acquired nervous activity). In accordance with this, health can be defined as the ability of interacting body systems to ensure the implementation of genetic programs of unconditioned reflex, instinctive processes, generative functions, mental activity and phenotypic behavior, aimed at the social and cultural spheres of life (32).
Questions for the seminar
1.Self-awareness and body image.
2. Stress, psychological and psychosomatic reactions to it.
3. General adaptation syndrome, psychological methods of protection against stress.
4. Internal conflict and psychological defense.
5. A person’s attitude towards illness and concern for health.
6.Psychological aspects of the formation of motivation to maintain health and the psychological consequences of various diseases.
Self-awareness and body image
Self-awareness is a set of mental processes through which an individual recognizes himself as a subject of activity. An individual's ideas about himself are formed into a mental<образ Я>.
A person’s self-awareness, while reflecting the real existence of the individual, does not do so in a mirror way. A person's self-image is not always adequate. Self-awareness is not an initial given inherent in man, but a product of development. As a person gains life experience, not only new aspects of existence open up before him, but a more or less profound rethinking of life occurs.
Generalization of a person’s practical knowledge about other people is the main source of the formation of attitudes towards oneself as an individual.
S. Samuel identifies four “dimensions” of the “I-concept”: body image, “social self”, “cognitive self” (cognitive), and self-esteem.
In most studies, body image is considered as one of the most important components of self-awareness (Burns R., Mukhina V.S., Piaget J., Rubinstein S.L., Sechenov I.M., Meerovich R.I., Mdivani M.O. ., Sokolova E.T., etc.).
In the process of development, the body image is organically included in all links of the structure of self-consciousness: the claim to recognition, gender identification, the psychological time of the individual, the social space of the individual, realized through rights and responsibilities. A person usually takes his personality for granted. The splitting of the self and the body is usually called a schizoid deviation, which underlies the problem of identification. In such an experience there is no feeling of one’s own body, and the person feels the unreality of himself as a bodily shell. This phenomenon is known as depersonalization. If such phenomena continue, the person loses not only his sense of identity, but also his conscious understanding of personality. Therefore, it is quite obvious that the problem of splitting cannot be solved without improving the condition of the body. Metabolism provides the body with energy, which is realized in movement. If there is a lack of oxygen in the blood, then the mobility of all processes in the body will be reduced, and vice versa, any decrease in body mobility affects metabolism, because It is movement that determines human breathing.
Through the concept of “body image boundaries,” a stable connection was shown between the degree of certainty of the image of the bodily “I” and the personal characteristics of the individual. Violation of ideas about the boundaries of body image indicates weak autonomy, a high level of personal protection, and uncertainty in social contacts. According to S. Fisher, a significant level of correlation was found between a high degree of awareness of the dorsal (posterior) zones of the body and such personal properties as control over impulsive actions and a negative attitude towards reality.
The image of the bodily “I” can also be considered from the position of perception of the external forms of the body, represented by three approaches:
1) the body as a carrier of personal and social meanings, in which the emotional attitude of the individual to his appearance is studied;
2) the body as an object endowed with a certain form; the emphasis in the study is on the cognitive component of its perception;
3) the body and its functions as carriers of a certain symbolic meaning.
The perception and assessment of bodily forms has an emotional connotation and is carried out both at the intersubjective and intrasubjective levels. The first level of assessment is associated with comparing one’s external data with the external data of other people, the second is with the experience of satisfaction from the perception of the forms and qualities of one’s bodily self, which reflects the degree of compliance of external data with the requirements imposed on oneself by the individual.
Thus, we can distinguish two types of perception-attitude of the subject to his image of the bodily “I”:
1) the image of the bodily “I” in relation to others in comparison with the norms and requirements of the social environment;
2) the image of the bodily “I” in relation to one’s perception and understanding of the meaning of one’s existence, regardless of the assessments and judgments of others
Most authors studying psychotic disorders in the perception of the image of the bodily “I” note the increased attention of the decompensated individual to his body, to the analysis of his physical image, the shortcomings of which can cause a state of frustration, anxiety, and social maladaptation (dysmorphophobia syndrome). The experience of physical disability makes communication difficult and prevents the individual from adapting to social life.
Within the framework of this model, in the content of the socio-psychological component of the image of the bodily “I”, we identify four characterological features: sensitivity, sensuality, awareness and aesthetics, the content of which can be defined as follows:
sensitivity - heightened sensitivity to the internal and external environment, manifested within the framework of a particular model of sensitive culture of the social environment;
sensuality – the ability to convey the nature of an emotional-sensory state through non-verbal action;
awareness – the ability to consciously and intuitively control and manage one’s state and body functions;
aesthetics – the ability to “spiritualize”, that is, to stylize bodily forms, to endow them with aesthetic and cultural content.
Profound changes in the state of consciousness can also be caused by changes in breathing frequency - hyperventilation, and, conversely, slowing down, as well as a combination of these techniques. Let us only note that an active body is characterized by spontaneity and full, light, deep breathing. Body-oriented therapy uses various methods of working with the respiratory system of the body, and, bringing it under the control of consciousness, thus helping people to more fully experience the connection between consciousness and the body. It is curious that among the typical situations that can cause the collapse of the schizoid structure, along with such factors as insomnia, drug use, adolescence is often mentioned.
Body image was studied using the self-assessment method (analogous to the Dembo-Rubinstein method) using the following scales: body performance - “Dexterity”, “Strength”, “Quickness of reaction”; appearance - "External attractiveness", emotional attitude - "Satisfaction with physical characteristics."
It can be argued that a person whose body image in self-awareness is represented by a high assessment of strength, in a difficult situation of interaction, will more likely strive for a compromise, less inclined to adapt and sacrifice his own interests for the sake of the interests of another. Those who assess the physical side of their personality as weak are more likely to adapt and less inclined to compromise. A person whose body image is assessed as highly attractive in self-awareness is more likely to choose the cooperative behavior option. A connection was found between self-assessments of “External attractiveness” and “Satisfaction with physical characteristics”
Thus, we can conclude that the evaluative component of body image is associated with the characteristics of interpersonal relationships and interpersonal interaction of high school students.
Attitudes towards health have remained a fundamental characteristic of human existence for many centuries.
In Ancient Greece, doctors and philosophers associated the health of an individual not only with physiological parameters and living environment, but also with lifestyle and habits. Democritus wrote: “To live badly, unreasonably, intemperately does not mean to live badly, but to die slowly.” Psychological schools explain the activities, actions, intentions, desires of a person in different ways, but psychocorrectional programs built on their basic principles are necessarily aimed at preserving and restoring human health.
From the branches of modern psychology studying health psychology It is necessary to highlight: social, pedagogical, medical, clinical psychology, pathopsychology, psychodiagnostics, genetic psychology.
Modern practical psychology has come close to understanding the need and is ready to solve the problems of psychological support for a person throughout his entire life journey. One of these primary tasks is human health.
Health psychology is the science of the psychological causes of health, methods and means of its preservation, strengthening and development. Health psychology involves the practice of maintaining a person's health from conception to death. Its object, with a certain degree of convention, is a “healthy”, but not a “sick” person.
Tvorogova N.D. believes thatHealth Psychology can be viewed from different perspectives, for example:
1. A branch of clinical psychology that studies the psychological component of individual health (health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease and physical defects, WHO Constitution, 1946); psychological aspects of public health; emphasis is placed on prevention focused on health models;
2. The branch of psychology that studies the connections between mental aspects of behavior and health and illness, i.e. the role of behavior in maintaining health and acquiring illness. Health Psychology, according to the author, is more concerned with “normal”, ordinary behavior and “normal” mental processes in connection with health and illness, than with pathological behavior and psychopathology;
3. Interdisciplinary area of psychological knowledge, including the study and description of the etiology of diseases, factors favorable to health and conditions for the development of individuality throughout a person’s life path (B. F. Lomov, 1984);
4. Combining specific achievements of theoretical and practical psychology in order to improve and maintain health, prevent and treat diseases, determine the etiological and diagnostic correlates of health, illness and related dysfunctions, as well as improve the health care system and its health policies.
In the first approach Health Psychology pays great attention to the concept of “subjective well-being” and studies its psychological content.
Problems of health and illness are considered within the framework of medical, personal and social approaches. The term disease (D) best reflects the medical point of view, which describes D as a condition of the body characterized by deviations from the norm in measurable biological and somatic variables. Illness (I) is defined as a state of ill health mainly from the psychological side: in addition to somatic problems, subjective psychological symptoms play a significant role in the definition of I. Disease (D) is also a subjective concept that reflects social aspects and consequences, health disorders (morbidity is an indicator of the spread of diseases identified and registered during the year among the population as a whole or in certain specially designated groups). Persons who have a disease (N) or do not have a disease (NN), may turn out, from the doctor’s point of view, to be carriers of the disease (B) or not to have it (NB) and at the same time be sick (S) or not sick (NZ) with subjective point of view. The problem of adequately defining health and disease is completely removed only if all three parameters coincide (for example, H+B+Z - for the case of terminal cancer; or HH+NB+NZ - for an absolutely healthy person)
Specialists involved health psychology, are more interested in issues of perception of health problems and the subjective reflection of illness than in the relatively more objective biological, social and environmental aspects of health.
G. S. Nikiforov revealing the formation, development, criteria and components health psychology puts emphasis on the domestic school and, first of all, on the works of Bekhterev. The author believes that the program for the development of domestic health psychology Bekhterev's report on the topic “Personality and the conditions of its development and health” (1905, Kyiv. 2nd Congress of Russian Psychiatrists) became the subject. In general, the 20th century, as the author notes, was marked by the increasing role in psychology of changing views on the relationship between the psyche and soma. In the 1930s Many researchers have paid attention to the relationship between a person’s emotional life and his physiological processes. Research in this direction has led to the emergence of a new scientific field: psychosomatic medicine. In 1938, the journal “Psychosomatic Medicine” began to be published. The American Psychosomatic Society is created. During the first 25 years of its existence, the interpretation of diseases was carried out mainly from a psychoanalytic position. Psychosomatic medicine draws mainly on medical disciplines and especially on psychiatry. In the 1960s in the provisions of psychosomatic medicine, approaches and theories are formed that assume the relationship of psychological, social factors and physiological functions of the body. And as a result, new hypotheses of the development and course of diseases are formed. In the early 1970s. a scientific branch is emerging aimed at studying the role of psychology in the etiology of diseases - behavioral medicine . The close relationship between the psyche and soma is proven. Behavioral medicine focuses not only on treatment but also on disease prevention. In addition to medicine, it relies on such sciences as psychology, pedagogy, and sociology. It uses methods of behavioral therapy and behavior modification (for example, in the treatment of hypertension, obesity, drug addiction). Within the framework of this area, the therapeutic technique “biofeedback” has also been developed, the effectiveness of which has been confirmed in the treatment of hypertension, headaches and other diseases. At the end of the 1970s. The Journal of Behavioral Medicine and its associated society were established. The Department of Health Psychology was opened at the American Psychological Association in 1978. Since 1982, the journal Health Psychology has been published.
Psychosomatic and behavioral medicine, health psychology, with all the specificity of their own approaches, agree that health and illness are the results of the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors. This idea was reflected in the “biopsychosocial model” proposed in 1977 by D. Angel.
Biopsychosocial model
What causes the disease? A person is a complex system, and illness can be caused by many factors:
Biological (eg, viruses, bacteria, structural defects, genetics); E. P. Sarafino. Health Psychology. Biopsychosocial interaction. N.Y., 1998; J. Ogden. Health Psychology. Buckingham-Philadelphia, 1998.
Psychological (ideas, emotions, behavior);
Social (norms of behavior, family, reference groups, work, belonging to a social class, belonging to an ethnic group, etc.).
Who is responsible for the disease? The person is not seen as a passive victim. Understanding, for example, the role of behavior in causing illness means that people can be held responsible for their health and illness.
How to treat diseases? Treatment should be holistic (holistic approach), and not only concern individual biological changes that occurred during the disease. This may be reflected in behavior changes, corrections in the area of ideas, and the formation of a strategy for agreeing with medical recommendations.
Who is responsible for treatment? Since a person is being treated, and not just specific diseases of his body, therefore, the patient also bears part of the responsibility for his healing, changing his own ideas and behavior.
What is the interaction between health and disease? The concepts of “health” and “illness” should be considered as poles of a continuum in which their relationship is represented to varying degrees. At the well-being pole, the dominant state is health. At the opposite pole, the disease predominates, eventually becoming fatal. Approaching this pole is accompanied by an increase in destructive processes that give rise to characteristic signs, symptoms and ailments. People move along this continuum from health to illness and vice versa.
What is the connection between the psyche and the body? The mind and body interact.
The results of research in recent years indicate increasing stress on the human psyche. Information stress, faster pace of life, negative dynamics of interpersonal relationships (decrease in the level of social support, etc.) and other pathogenic features of modern life lead to emotional stress, which becomes one of the factors in the development of various diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over the 20th century. The average prevalence of neuropsychiatric diseases per 1000 people has increased more than 4 times. Not only the number of patients in society is increasing, but also the growth rate of these disorders. If earlier in our country from 5 to 10 patients were registered per 1000 people, then in recent decades these figures have reached 29-33. The close connection of neuropsychic disorders with psychogenic factors and the increasingly complex social conditions of modern life leads to a significant increase in the number of neuroses and personality disorders (with the relative stability of psychoses), in the etiology of which factors of an endogenous nature are of greatest importance. According to world statistics, personality disorders currently account for 40%, neuroses - 47%, and endogenous psychoses - 13% of the total number of neuropsychiatric diseases. WHO experts note a noticeable spread of neuropsychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. Neurotic and neurosis-like conditions account for 63 cases per 1000 children. In Russia, persistent mental disorders are registered in approximately 15% of children. According to the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the number of completely mentally healthy schoolchildren is decreasing from 30% in grades 1-3 to 16% in grades 9-11. In general, during the period of study, the health status of students, according to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, worsens 4-5 times, and 85% of those who fail are sick children. According to G. S. Nikiforov et al., from 30% to 50% of those who come to clinics and hospitals with somatic complaints are essentially practically healthy people who only need a certain correction of their emotional state. Statistics show that people who do not suffer from any mental disorders, i.e. “absolutely healthy,” currently number on average only 35%. According to various authors, from 22 to 89% of the population are people with pre-morbid conditions (prenosological forms of mental maladaptation). However, half of those with mental symptoms, according to experts, do not need psychiatric help. They independently adapt to the environment and may only need psychological counseling.
In modern Russia health psychology, As a new and independent scientific direction, it is still just going through the initial stage of its formation. In this regard, it is appropriate to note the contribution of the Department of Psychological Support of Professional Activities of St. Petersburg State University (head of the department, Professor G. S. Nikiforov), which published a textbook for universities “Health Psychology” in 2006, ed. G. S. Nikiforova. – SPb.: Peter.
Gurvich I. N. in the monograph “Psychology of Health” states that the obvious increase in interest in the problems of health psychology - and not only from representatives of psychological science - gives every reason to believe that in the foreseeable future it will become one of the vanguard areas of Russian psychology .
Overall, in a relatively short period health psychology has become a vast area of research. Thus, in the United States over 15 years (1975-1990), the number of implemented mental health programs increased from 200 to 5000 or more. Currently, in the United States, every tenth psychologist deals with one issue or another in health psychology, and every third article in major English-language psychological journals is devoted to various aspects of this area. Special journals, textbooks and monographs are published in this area. Various organizational decisions are subject to broad practical implementation. For example, in the UK the document “Health of the Nation” was adopted, and in Europe a similar initiative aimed at improving the mental and physical health of the population was called “Health for All”. The list of already functioning clinics and mental health centers is constantly expanding, and assistance and self-help groups for strengthening one’s own health are spreading throughout the West. Along with thorough general psychological training, specialists in the field of health psychology should receive in-depth knowledge of issues of mental hygiene, psychoprophylaxis, as well as psychosomatic health and psychotherapy. Most professional health psychologists work in hospitals, clinics, departments of colleges and universities, scientific laboratories, health and psychological counseling centers, psychological relief, family and marriage rooms. J. Matarazzo is the head of the department of health psychology at the American Psychological Association, created in 1978. Concept health psychology interpreted as follows. Health psychology is the complex of specific educational, scientific and professional contributions of psychology as a scientific discipline in the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of disease, the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of health, disease and related dysfunctions, and the analysis and improvement of health care systems and formation of health strategy (policy). In foreign psychology you can find a more laconic definition. For example, under health psychology proposes to understand the entire body of basic knowledge in psychology that can be used to understand health and illness .
Having analyzed mainly foreign monographic publications of the last two decades in the field of health psychology, I. N. Gurvich concludes about their amazing thematic diversity. Therefore, he believes that at present it is very difficult to isolate the actual subject area of health psychology. And yet, the author believes that it seems most adequate to the modern state of health psychology to define it precisely as a subject area, i.e., through disclosing a list of the main topics that constitute the subject of theoretical and empirical research:
· research tasks that fall within the scope of interests of health psychology.
· definition of basic concepts of health psychology;
· research and systematization of mental and social health criteria;
· methods of diagnosis, assessment and self-assessment of mental and social health;
· development of simple and easy-to-use tests to determine health and the initial stages of diseases;
· factors of a healthy lifestyle (formation, preservation and promotion of health);
· study of factors influencing attitudes towards health;
· psychological mechanisms of healthy behavior;
· formation of an internal picture of health;
· correction of individual development;
· prevention of mental and psychosomatic diseases;
· research into pre-illness states of the individual and their prevention;
· development of the concept of a healthy personality;
· determination of ways and conditions for self-realization, self-fulfillment, disclosure of the creative and spiritual potential of the individual;
· psychological mechanisms of stress resistance;
· socio-psychological health factors (family, organization of leisure and recreation, social adaptation, communication, etc.);
· gender aspects of mental and social health;
· development of individually oriented health programs taking into account the health status, gender, age and personal characteristics of a person;
· child and school health psychology;
· psychological support for professional health;
· psychology of longevity, signs of mental aging and their prevention;
· psychological assistance at the end of life.
Considering Health psychology, in our opinion, it is necessary to consider the concept of “health” and mental health from the perspective Federal Law of November 21, 2011 No. 323-FZ “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation”
Article 2. For the purposes of this Federal Law, the following basic concepts are used:
1) health – a state of physical, mental and social well-being of a person, in which there are no diseases, as well as disorders of the functions of organs and systems of the body;
2) protection of the health of citizens (hereinafter referred to as health protection) - a system of measures of a political, economic, legal, social, scientific, medical, including sanitary and anti-epidemic (preventive) nature, carried out by government bodies of the Russian Federation, government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation ; local government bodies; their officials and other persons, citizens for the purpose of preventing diseases, preserving and strengthening the physical and mental health of each person, maintaining his long active life, providing him with medical care;
According to Article 2 of the Fundamentals of Legislation of the Russian Federation, protecting the health of citizens (health protection) is a set of various kinds of measures aimed at preserving and strengthening the health of each person, maintaining his active long life, providing him with medical care in case of loss of health.
This system includes methods of political, scientific, medical, sanitary and hygienic and anti-epidemic nature.
Rice. 6. System of basic health protection
Health protection in the narrow sense equal to healthcare.
Healthcare is a system of socio-economic measures, the purpose of which is to maintain and improve the level of health of each individual person as a whole.
Medicine is a system of scientific knowledge and practical activities, the purpose of which is to strengthen and preserve health, prolong the life of people, prevent and treat human diseases
To accomplish existing tasks, medicine studies:
· Structure and vital processes of the body in normal and pathological conditions;
· Natural and social environmental factors influencing health status;
· Human diseases (causes, symptoms, mechanism of occurrence and development);
· Possibilities for the use and development of various physical, chemical, technical, biological and other factors and devices for the treatment of diseases.
Thus, Health the result of the interaction between an individual and the environment - the conditions of his existence, the leading motives of his life and attitude in general.
The leading social institution responsible for human health is healthcare - a system of state and public measures to prevent diseases and treat those who become ill. The scientific and practical basis of healthcare is medicine.
However, it should be remembered that the problem of preserving human health is the prerogative of not only (and not so much) healthcare, but the entire state.
The current stage of development of civilization has led, on the one hand, to a sharp change in the conditions of human existence, and on the other, to the development of complex technologies that place high demands on the state of human health. The pace of social, technological, environmental and even climate change is increasing, requiring the individual to quickly adapt, pre- and re-adapt in life and activity. All this is a great test for the biological species Homo Sapiens.
Health is a very complex category, representing the result of the interaction of an individual and the environment - the conditions of his existence, the leading motives of his life and attitude in general.
Maintaining and promoting health is essentially a health management problem.
Management process consists of the following formal stages:
· collection and analysis of information about the condition of the object,
· his prognosis;
· formation of a program of control actions,
· its implementation;
· analysis of the adequacy and effectiveness of the control program (feedback).
The creation of healthy living conditions and an active position in health improvement cannot be ensured without determining the essence of individual health.
Avicenna and Hippocrates also identified several gradations of health. Galen formulated the concept of the “third state” - transitional between health and illness.
To one degree or another, this problem was addressed by I.M. Sechenov, S.P. Botkin, I.P. Pavlov, I.A. Arshavsky, N.M. Amosov and others.
At the end of the 19th century. I.I. Mechnikov, in his speech “On the healing powers of the body” at the congress of naturalists and doctors (1883), contrasted the “etiological” point of view of the occurrence of diseases, which essentially equated the cause (causative agent) of the disease with the disease itself, with a different view. He interpreted the occurrence of a disease as a process of interaction between the pathogen (cause) and the organism. However, the progress and successes of clinical medicine, based on the etiocentric approach, have slowed down the development of the doctrine of these properties of the body.
The first modern attempt to formulate provisions on the mechanisms of health and methods of influencing them was made in the 60s by S.M. Pavlenko and S.F. Oleinik. They substantiated the scientific direction, which later received the name “sanology”. This was the doctrine of the body’s resistance to disease, which is based on “sanogenesis” is a dynamic complex of protective and adaptive mechanisms (physiological or pathological in nature) that occurs when exposed to an extreme stimulus and develops throughout the entire disease process - from pre-illness to recovery (S.M. Pavlenko, 1973). Although sanogenetic mechanisms operate in the body constantly, the authors of the concept focused on their functioning during the danger of developing a disease (exposure to an extreme irritant) and put forward “pre-disease” and “recovery” as the main categories.
A significant contribution to the development of the problem was made by representatives of military medicine in the 70s, engaged in medical support for people working in conditions of extreme exposure (divers, astronauts, etc.): military doctors have always been faced with the task of assessing the “quality” of the health of their charges (G.L. Apanasenko, 1974; R.M. Baevsky, 1972, etc.). The concept of “prenosological diagnostics” was formed, which was successfully used in civil healthcare (V.P. Kaznacheev, R.M. Baevsky, A.P. Berseneva, 1980, etc.).
Health and illness are the main categories of scientific knowledge in medicine. It is generally accepted that these categories are of a medical-social and medical-biological nature, because The specificity of man is that his nature is biological, and his essence is social. A person realizes all his needs through the functioning of physiological systems, and the social is not realized without a biological substrate. Thus, the biological substrate is the implementer of the social essence of man.
When we talk about illness, we clearly imagine that we are talking, first of all, about a pathological process, mediated through the consciousness of the individual into his social status. A sick person loses active independence in realizing his life goals, loses optimal connection with the environment and the society around him.
The development of disease doctrine alone cannot solve the problem of achieving high levels of public health.
Health is an abstract logical category that can be described by various model characteristics. The most common model of health characteristics to date in practical medicine is based on the “healthy-sick” alternative. If, when examining a patient, the doctor does not find signs of a pathological process (function indicators are “normal”), he makes a diagnosis of “healthy”.
With this approach, it is impossible to give a short-term and long-term forecast about the state of an individual’s future health. “Physiological norm” as a “functional optimum” (the most common definition of “norm”) is not yet an objective reflection of health processes.
It is more legitimate to talk about health as a dynamic state that allows the greatest number of species-specific functions to be carried out with the most economical use of biological substrate. At the same time, a person’s adaptive capabilities are a measure of his ability to maintain optimal life activity even in inadequate environmental conditions. Thus, one should look for evaluative criteria of health not in the relationship between pathology and norm, but in the individual’s ability to carry out his biological and social functions.
N.M. Amosov concretized these ideas by introducing the concept of “amount of health.”
According to N.M. Amosova, health – maximum productivity of organs and systems while maintaining the qualitative limits of their functions. Based on this definition, we can talk about quantitative health criteria.
When considering the categories of “health” and “disease,” in our opinion, one should take into account the position expressed by one of the founders of Russian pathophysiology, V. V. Podvysotsky. He argued that absolute illness and absolute health are unthinkable; between them there are an infinite number of forms of connections and mutual transitions (here we mean the biological substrate of these states). The same idea was confirmed by A.A. Bogomolets, who back in the 30s formulated a position on the unity of norm and pathology, in which “the first includes the second as its contradiction.” Model of communicating vessels: the higher the level of health, the less the possibility of development and manifestation of a pathological process, and vice versa: the development and manifestation of a pathological process are possible only when there is an insufficiency of health reserves due to the weakening or power of the active factor or factors.
Between the states of health and illness there is a transitional, so-called third state, which is characterized by “incomplete” health. Subjective manifestations of this condition include periodically recurring ailments, increased fatigue, a slight decrease in qualitative and quantitative indicators of performance, shortness of breath during moderate physical activity, discomfort in the heart area, a tendency to constipation, back pain, increased neuro-emotional excitability, etc. P.
Objectively, a tendency to tachycardia, an unstable blood pressure level, a tendency to hypoglycemia or distortion of the sugar load curve, coldness of the extremities, i.e., can be recorded. deviations in health status that do not yet fit into a specific nosological model.
Considering the “third state” in more detail, it should be noted that it is heterogeneous and includes, in turn, two states: the first – pre-disease – and the second, the nature of which is determined by the unmanifested pathological process. The main sign of pre-illness is the possibility of developing a pathological process without changing the strength of the active factor due to a decrease in health reserves. The boundary of the transition from a state of health to a state of pre-disease is the level of health that cannot compensate for the changes occurring in the body under the influence of negative factors and, as a result, a tendency towards self-development of the process is formed. It is quite obvious that for people in different living conditions, this “safe” level of health can differ significantly: a pilot and a miner need greater health reserves than an accountant in order to maintain the necessary optimum “degrees of freedom.”
The onset of the disease is considered to be the appearance of signs of manifestation of the pathological process, i.e. the moment of decline or loss of ability to perform functions. Thus, the boundaries of the “third state” are delineated quite clearly. As for the possibility of determining the boundary between pre-disease and the onset of an unmanifested pathological process, today this problem is insoluble. It is here that normology (the study of the norm) could play a leading role, but the indicators of the “norm” are so individual that it is impossible to make a judgment about the “normality” of functions in a particular individual. For example, differences in biochemical parameters (the content of iron, copper, zinc, creatinine, etc. in blood plasma) reach tens and sometimes hundreds of times (R. Williams). In 5% of healthy people, blood pressure levels are recorded below 100/60 mm Hg, but there are no deviations in health or performance (so-called physiological hypotension, N. S. Molchanov).
The category “health” is based on the idea of the harmony and power of the bioenergy information system, which is a person. It is the harmony and power of the biosystem that allows us to speak about the vitality and well-being of an individual from the point of view of his physical, mental and social essence.
“A person can be considered healthy,” wrote the American medical theorist G. Seegerist back in 1941, “who is distinguished by harmonious physical and mental development and is well adapted to the physical and social environment around him. He realizes his full physical and mental abilities, can adapt to changes in the environment provided they do not exceed normal limits, and makes a contribution to the welfare of society commensurate with his abilities. Health, therefore, does not simply mean the absence of disease: it is something positive, it is a cheerful and willing fulfillment of the duties that life imposes on a person.”
The definition of health formulated in the preamble of the WHO Constitution in 1948 is based on the provisions put forward by G. Sigerist: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
From these positions, the definition of human health looks like this: : health is an integral dynamic state of the body, which is determined by the reserves of energy, plastic and regulatory functions, is characterized by resistance to the effects of pathogenic factors and the ability to compensate for the pathological process, and is also the basis for the implementation of biological and social functions.
Three levels of personality (somatic, mental and spiritual) correspond to three aspects of health: somatic, mental and spiritual. It would be wrong to lose sight of the higher, specifically human aspects of health, especially considering that mutual compensation of some elements of health by others is possible. However, deviations in both mental and spiritual aspects of health will certainly affect the individual’s lifestyle and thereby the state of reserves of energy, plastic and regulatory support for functions, i.e. on the state of soma. Therefore, the above definition is universal for health in general.
“Third state” is a transitional state between health and illness, limited, on the one hand, by the degree (level) of a decrease in health reserves and the possibility of development as a result of this pathological process under unchanged living conditions, on the other hand, by the initial signs of dysfunction - the manifestation of the pathological process . These boundaries can be quantitatively characterized by the corresponding level of health. An individual's health reserves largely depend on his physical condition and lifestyle.
Physical state– a person’s ability to perform physical work.
Lifestyle– a social category that includes quality, way of life and lifestyle. Lifestyle can also be characterized by the degree of compliance of a person’s forms of life activity with biological laws, which contributes (or does not contribute) to the preservation and increase of his adaptive capabilities, as well as the fulfillment of his biological and social functions. According to WHO definition, lifestyle is a way of being based on the interaction between living conditions and specific behavioral patterns of an individual. Thus, a “healthy” behavior pattern for given specific conditions reduces the risk of disease. It is also obvious that different living conditions require different models of “healthy” behavior. Lifestyle is shaped by the society or group in which an individual lives.
The quality of life- one of the characteristics of a lifestyle that determines the degree of social and spiritual freedom of an individual in the broadest sense. To characterize the quality of life, life indicators are used that describe the distribution of desirable and undesirable conditions that accompany an individual’s life activity (education, average income, housing provision, availability of household appliances and vehicles, etc.).
Health formation– a set of measures to optimize the reproduction, growth and development of the younger generation.
Staying healthy– a set of measures to maintain, strengthen and restore the health of an individual.
Sanogenesis– physiological mechanisms that ensure the formation and maintenance of individual health. These mechanisms (homeostatic, adaptation, regenerative, etc.) are implemented in both healthy and sick organisms.
Health education(WHO definition) - consciously created opportunities for acquiring knowledge that should contribute to behavior change in accordance with the formed ultimate goal.
In recent years, one can observe an increase in interest in a healthy lifestyle - amateur sports, dancing, and issues of proper nutrition. As a competitive advantage for potential employees, employers offer memberships to fitness clubs, the number of which is growing rapidly. More and more programs with advice on nutrition, weight loss, etc. appear on TV screens and on the pages of popular publications, and communities dedicated to these issues are multiplying on social networks. Even at the federal policy level, programs are being implemented aimed at instilling healthy lifestyle habits (for example, the presidential program “Healthy Russia”, the Rosmolodezh project “Run for Me”).
A healthy lifestyle today is not so much a tribute to fashion, but a natural result of the development of our society. This is largely due to the high stress load on the psyche and body, especially in big cities. The peak popularity of taking care of one's physical well-being is now in the community of progressive and successful young people who can afford it. Many of them are entrepreneurs and top managers, people who are used to going against the environment to get what they need. They follow conscious strategies in their career and financial development, in their civic and social orientations.
A healthy lifestyle is truly a movement against the environment. If you look at trends in the food industry, in ecology and lifestyle, we can state that, in parallel with the development of medicine, we are moving against maintaining natural health. For example, a rather drastic, from the point of view of evolutionary processes, change in the social environment occurred, to which biological needs had not yet had time to “adapt.” Only over the last 100 years has the problem of food shortages practically disappeared in European society. At the same time, human eating behavior continues to “work” according to old programs and leads to excess consumption and storage of food resources. A healthy lifestyle is designed to overcome this, to return to a person what he loses due to progress. Of course, this requires perseverance, self-confidence and material resources.
In the United States and Europe, scientists are studying the influence of the architectural urban environment on the quantity and quality of physical activity of people. For example, the location of large highways close to home greatly limits children’s ability to play outdoor games and take independent walks. Even if the house has a beautiful yard, but it is surrounded by a non-pedestrian area, parents cannot be calm about a child who, for example, wants to ride a bicycle. The lack of green areas in a metropolis can become an important factor limiting movement for adults: even if someone wants and can run or just walk every day, the benefits of such physical activity near busy roads with air saturated with exhaust gases are very doubtful. How much time is spent daily on walking to a store, a clinic, or transport is a question not only of the convenience of organizing the urban environment, but also, ultimately, of the state of health.
Yale University scientists note that it was not only because of changes in the macroenvironment that it used to be much easier to maintain physical activity. Nowadays, energy-saving devices are ubiquitous, and we are talking about energy savings in such volumes that, at first glance, seem insignificant or are not noticed at all. So, about 50 years ago, all texts were typed on a typewriter, now they are typed on a computer keyboard, and manufacturers compete to develop the most “soft” keyboards possible, with easy button presses. It would seem that the energy consumption of calories, which are consumed when pressing the keyboard buttons, is minimal. But let’s add here automatic opening of garage doors, electric toothbrushes, automatic opening of car windows, remote controls for any home appliances, smart home systems that automatically control all household processes, ordering goods on the Internet, etc. – and we end up with a huge deficit of calories burned compared to the norm for a healthy person. No one is going to cancel or condemn technological progress, we just need to take into account that the environment has changed a lot, and following this, not only motor activity should change, but also a person’s consciousness, his way of thinking and habits.
What do we mean by healthy lifestyle skills? This is the ability to go beyond the conditions in which life puts a person in order to choose the best for your body. This is the ability to find healthy, quality foods for yourself and your family, find ways to prepare and eat them at appropriate times, and drink enough water. This is a conscious desire to get your norm of sleep and rest, physical activity. This is expanding your energy capabilities through training and mental practices (meditation, psychotherapy). You don't have to have any supernatural powers to do this. For example, everyone can give up their bad habits, give up sugar and food waste, and go out into nature more often. However, to consolidate skills for life and transfer them to different conditions, including extreme ones, you need to change your consciousness.
People need to learn special ways of behaving and thinking aimed at compensating for and counteracting negative conditions.
Essentially, there are two big challenges:
- formation in modern people of the understanding that specially organized movement and nutrition are now not a whim or a luxury, but a necessary condition for maintaining health;
- development of tools that would make it possible to bring this new knowledge to the level of practical implementation in life as painlessly and effectively as possible.
And if the first task - educational - is more or less successfully solved by medical and sports organizations, acting, among other things, through the media, then they cannot cope with the second without special psychological technologies.
Currently, services aimed at helping a person achieve optimal physical condition are popular in Russia. However, specialists who work quite skillfully in their field (fitness trainers, nutritionists, psychologists, cosmetologists, doctors, etc.) often experience difficulties in the process of managing clients due to ignorance in related areas of knowledge about a person. For example, nutritionists lack psychological knowledge to overcome the barriers that arise in a person, as well as understanding the possibilities of physical exercise to build a healthy body, and fitness trainers and nutritionists do not know the techniques of motivating clients and fine-tuning nutrition and movement systems for a specific client , and psychologists often lack knowledge about the biological factors associated with psychological changes, etc.
Let us give classic examples from our practice to illustrate this. People come to us who have tried to lose weight countless times - on their own or under medical supervision. Some of these attempts are temporarily successful, followed by a breakdown, weight gain, and so on in a circle. Such clients usually have no problems with knowledge of the principles of rational nutrition, but they have great difficulties with self-regulation and the ability to cope with negative experiences, for which they are accustomed to using food. Some people are “kept” overweight by secondary benefits, which, of course, nutritionists don’t work with.
Another category of clients are people who experience difficulties in transitioning to a healthy lifestyle due to the pliability of their environment. They need recommendations on organizing their lifestyle and finding individually suitable methods for increasing independence from the environment. Without the ability to understand the peculiarities of a person’s motivation and behavior, a specialist, be it a doctor or a trainer, comes across a lot of “I can’t”, “it’s difficult”, labels the client a lazy person, and he leaves.
There is also a downside - clients who are desperate to improve their diet with the help of doctors turn to a psychologist, deciding that “it’s all in the head.” Psychological work to clarify goals and increase motivation bears fruit; a person begins to eat “correctly”, and suddenly complains of a drop in tone. A psychologist, out of habit, builds hypotheses within the framework of his competence and professional training and works, for example, with the client’s stress tolerance. At the same time, he does not know that changes in the protein-carbohydrate-fat composition of the diet cause fluctuations in tone and emotional stability. In this case, it would be enough to balance the diet, and the problem would be solved at a lower cost (both time and money).
These problems, unfortunately, are not being addressed en masse because they create the necessary cash flow into the fitness and wellness industry. Now we are introducing two new directions to the educational services market - “Healthy Lifestyle Specialist” and “Fitness Psychologist”. These specialists can advise clients on a full range of healthy lifestyle issues, from nutrition and exercise to psychological issues that keep them from looking and feeling their best. Since they do not directly sell any goods and services, their main goal is to find optimal ways to achieve harmony in the life of each individual person, based on their living conditions. Only such systematic work can truly change a person’s life, taking it to a qualitatively new level.
For the purpose of multidisciplinary training of specialists who, having a practical psychological education, would also have knowledge in the field of physiology of nutrition and movement, fitness and dietetics, steps have been taken. Employees of the laboratory of the scientific foundations of psychological counseling of the Federal State Scientific Institution PI RAO in collaboration with nutritional specialists of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. THEM. Sechenov and professional fitness trainers developed an educational program for the Faculty of Advanced Training of the Institute of Russian Academy of Education. When preparing educational materials, the results of modern scientific and applied research by Russian and foreign authors were used, as well as educational courses in public health and psychology, biology and nutrition economics from Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities (USA) adapted to Russian conditions.
The program was tested in 2013 not only within the framework of advanced training courses of the Federal State Scientific Institution PI RAO, but also in the Federal project of Rosmolodezh “Run after me” (fitness session “Seliger-2013”), the educational process of training specialists in a healthy lifestyle on the basis of the First Moscow Medical University named after. THEM. Sechenov, at the International Congress “Ecology of the Brain” of the Association of Interdisciplinary Medicine.
The course materials are widely popularized on the St. Petersburg portal www.zozhnik.ru, the Smart Body program blog smartbodycentre.livejournal.com, on social networks, in educational TV programs (TV channels First, Ren-TV), and popular science magazines.
Psychological foundations of a healthy lifestyle
Modern professional activity is complex, multifaceted and requires maximum efficiency from specialists. The key to successful work and competitiveness is health. The psychology of professional health is the science of the psychological conditions of health in any professional activity, of the methods and means of its development and preservation.
What are the signs of a healthy person? Among them we can highlight three main. Firstly, the structural and functional safety of human systems and organs. Secondly, individual adaptability to the physical and social environment. And thirdly, the preservation and development of the potential physical and psychological capabilities of a healthy lifestyle and human activity.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) examined the approximate ratio of various factors to ensure the health of modern people. As a result, it was possible to identify four main derivatives:
– genetic factors (hereditary) – 15–20%;
– state of the environment (ecology) – 20–25%;
– medical support – 10–15%;
– conditions and lifestyle of people – 50–55%.
Let's assume that we come into this world already burdened with a predisposition to various diseases. The environment and medical care leave much to be desired. Nevertheless, we have real chances (and quite significant ones - 50–55%) to maintain physical and psychological health, provided that we live an appropriate lifestyle.
"Lifestyle"
What does this familiar phrase “lifestyle” mean? This is a type of human life activity, characterized by types of professional employment, way of life, form of satisfaction of material and spiritual needs, style of individual communication and behavior.
Unlike the universe, “lifestyle” is based not on three, but on four pillars: standard of living, quality of life, lifestyle and way of life. Unfortunately, the lifestyle of a modern person is characterized by physical inactivity, overeating, information overload, psycho-emotional overstrain, abuse of medications, caffeine, alcoholic drinks, etc. All this leads to the development of so-called diseases of civilization. The diseases of modern man are caused primarily by his lifestyle and everyday behavior. However, in the process of evolution, human life expectancy increases (in the Middle Ages, life expectancy was approximately 40 years). According to statistics, the life expectancy of a modern Russian man is 58 years, and that of a Russian woman is 72 years. These, unfortunately, are not the highest figures compared to statistics from Japan and the USA. However, modern health science - valeology predicts an 85 percent increase in life expectancy over the coming centuries. This is associated not with the success of medicine, but with the improvement of living and working conditions, and the rationalization of the population’s lifestyle.
Life style
When shaping individual health, lifestyle is of fundamental importance because it is associated with the level of intellectual, moral and emotional development of the individual. An important place is occupied by a person’s personal and motivational qualities and his life guidelines. If we want to work effectively and receive satisfaction from the results of professional interaction, to be successful and competent, then we need to take care of ourselves every day.
The new health paradigm is clearly and constructively defined by Academician N.M. Amosov: “To be healthy, you need your own efforts, constant and significant. Nothing can replace them." In his book “Thoughts on Health” he formulates basic principles of health psychology:
1. For most diseases, it is not nature or society that is to blame, but only the person himself. Most often he gets sick from laziness, greed and unreasonableness.
2. Don't rely on medicine. It cures many diseases quite well, but it cannot make a person healthy... Moreover: be afraid of being captured by doctors! Sometimes they tend to exaggerate the weaknesses of man and the power of their science, create imaginary illnesses in people and issue bills that they cannot pay.
3. To become healthy, you need your own efforts. Constant and significant. Nothing can replace them. Man, fortunately, is so perfect that it is almost always possible to regain health. The required efforts increase as the diseases progress.
4. The magnitude of any effort is determined by incentives, incentives by the significance of the goal, time and probability of their achievement. And it’s a shame, but also in character. If a person is inattentive towards himself, then health as an important goal appears before him when specific symptoms of its absence clearly appear.
5. Four conditions are equally necessary for health: physical activity, dietary restrictions, hardening, time and the ability to rest. And fifth – happy life! Unfortunately, without the first four conditions it does not provide health...
6. Nature is merciful: 20-30 minutes of physical activity per day is enough to provide optimal needs for dynamic activity.
7. You need to limit yourself in food and create conditions for adequate, systematic nutrition. Maintain your weight to at least your height in centimeters minus 100.
8. Knowing how to relax is a science, but it also requires character. If only he were!
9. They say that health is happiness in itself. This is not true: it is so easy to get used to health and stop noticing it. However, it helps to achieve happiness in family and work. Helps, but doesn't define.
In these statements by an outstanding doctor, wise with life experience, before whom thousands of destinies have passed, who created his own health system and with its help cured not only himself, but also many patients, health is considered not as an end in itself, but as a condition for achieving well-being in professional and personal life . In other words, only if one is healthy can a person be happy; he makes other people happy by communicating constructively with them, loves his work and contributes to the progress of society through his activities.
Numerous studies prove that the true causes of diseases lie not in the peculiarities of physiology, but in the psychological, or more precisely emotional, conditions of human life. Initially, any illness arises against the background of a complex set of daily negative emotions that surround a modern professional. Consequently, practical health psychology is designed to teach the rules and basic techniques for countering the negative emotional attacks of others, the psychological difficulties of the professional microclimate and, finally, the development of positive character traits that contribute to the competent art of communication and self-preservation.
The cause of illness is character traits!
A number of studies have found a strong connection between a person’s character traits and his predisposition to certain diseases. Types “A”, “B” and “C” were identified, which are most susceptible to disease.
People of type “A” are characterized by an obsessive desire for success, high efficiency, turning into fanatical workaholism, a desire to do everything at a fast pace, an aggressive way of acting, high emotional instability, a tendency to violently demonstrate their emotions externally, and excessively inflated self-esteem.
The pronounced expression of such character traits inevitably leads to the manifestation of such symptoms of ill health as increased blood pressure, heart rhythm disturbances, and sudden attacks of radiculitis. The risk of cardiovascular disease in this group of people is very high.
The other type, “B,” tends to exhibit the opposite traits: the desire for a measured lifestyle, low levels of activity and performance, lack of emotionality in communication, reluctance to professional development and improvement, lack of goals, values, prospects, low self-esteem.
Passivity, loss of positive motivation for activity, the desire for idle pastime and the transformation of any professional activity into a routine leads to the development of diseases such as metabolic disorders, diseases of the musculoskeletal system and digestive organs in people with these character traits.
If next to you is an insecure colleague with low self-esteem, then most likely he is a type “C”. He is likely to have the following characteristics: over-expressed compliance, excessive tolerance, significant emotional sensitivity, the desire to suppress the manifestation of emotional reactions, a tendency to immerse himself in his inner world and self-accusation, deep emotional experiences associated with interpersonal relationships.
Unfortunately, such character traits, developing against the background of constant melancholy (translated from Greek as “black bile”), can lead to the development of cancer. Scientists are inclined to believe that the risk of this group of diseases is associated with excessive emotional experiences and the duration of their occurrence.
Developing positive traits – preventing diseases
Since the relationship between major diseases and negative character traits is obvious, it turns out that their best prevention is to create conditions for the development of positive character traits.
The English psychologist M. Argyle identifies several factors on which the level of health and overall life satisfaction depend:
– presence of a large number of social connections and friendly contacts. It turns out that positive emotions from communicating with close, psychologically compatible people and generally good relationships allow you to overcome stressful situations. It has been noticed that, unlike sociable people, lonely people more often resort to smoking and drinking alcohol to combat stress, which worsens their condition;
– a strong family and the presence of children in them;
– interesting and beloved work that brings moral satisfaction. It has been proven that unemployment has a negative impact on health, since the unemployed are constantly in a stressful state, which provokes various diseases;
– a special personality type, which is characterized by the desire to work not only for one’s own material well-being, but also realizing the importance and necessity of one’s activities for society;
– presence of adequate goals, values, prospects in professional activity;
– optimism, faith in oneself, in the success of communication with other people and the prospects for the future.
Psychological exercise
It is well known that to maintain physical health it is necessary to perform a set of physical exercises. In the same way, to develop and maintain positive character traits that contribute to the formation of health psychology, it is important to master psychotechnical exercises. Here are some of them.
1. "Kind smile". Start each day with a positive mindset. Imagine that you radiate warmth, light, goodness. Smile at yourself with an “inner smile”, wish good morning to “your loved one”, to your loved ones. No matter how busy you are, try to greet others throughout the day with the same kind, sincere, friendly smile, because only positive emotions emanate from you, do not allow yourself to be “infected” by the negative emotions of others. Maintain this state throughout the working day, and in the evening analyze how you felt.
2. "I'm glad to see you" When meeting any person, even someone you don’t know at all, your first phrase should be: “I’m glad to see you!” Say it from your heart or think it and only then start a conversation. If during the conversation you feel irritated or angry, then every 2-3 minutes say mentally or out loud: “I’m glad to see you!”
3. " Nice conversation." If the issue that causes you unpleasant emotions is not very important, try to make communication with the person as pleasant as possible. Whether your interlocutor is right or wrong (now this does not matter), try. So that this person feels good, calm, and has a desire to meet and communicate with you again.
4. " Contemplator." Learn to treat everything that happens to you, like an Eastern sage, contemplatively, that is, before reacting to the words or actions of people around you, ask yourself: “What would a calm, experienced, wise person do in my place? What would he say or do? So, tune yourself to a philosophical perception of reality, contemplatively think about the problem for a few minutes, and only then make decisions and act.
These psychotechnical exercises must be performed systematically, preferably daily, and then a positive result will not be long in coming, and you will find a positive mood and open up new opportunities for cooperation with people.
Excerpt from the Oxford Clinician's Handbook.
The essence of mental health.
A mentally ideally healthy person has the following properties.
The ability to love and be loved. Without this cardinal gift, the human being, more than all other mammals, is unable to succeed in life and be happy.
Enough energy to face change and uncertainty in life's circumstances without fear, to endure adversity wisely and with a spirit of practical optimism.
The gift of taking risks without endlessly contemplating and anticipating the worst that could happen.
A reserve of spontaneous “joy for life” and a wide range of emotional responses (including negative emotions and anger).
Effective contact with reality: not too reduced, but not too exaggerated. (As T. S. Eliot put it, “a human being cannot bear too much reality.”)
A certain degree of self-knowledge, sufficient to awaken human activity aimed at developing skills for self-improvement and correction of other people following a destructive path.
The ability to self-criticize and learn through experience.
The ability to say: “You are wrong!”, but also the ability to then forgive.
An adequate sense of security and adequate status in society.
The ability to satisfy the demand of a group of people, but combined with the freedom to choose whether to perform this action or not.
Freedom of expression in any way the person chooses.
The ability to succumb to the risk of fascination and to experience a sense of horror.
The ability to satisfy one’s own bodily desires, but also those of others.
A sense of humor in order to compensate for those of the above that a person does not possess.
Happiness doesn't have to be a component of mental health; and in reality, the feeling of happiness can be very vulnerable. Often, all that is needed to feel happiness is for it to go away for a while. This circumstance is very important; it is necessary for a person. All of this can be looked at as a rough blueprint for the survival of the human species.
Optimism, faith in yourself, in the success of communicating with other people and the promise of the future.
Rich in imagination, which gives the world hope for creativity and prosperity.