NAME: __________________________________

GRADE, SECTION, AND STRAND _____________________

This module is good for 2 WEEKS.

Deadline of submission is on November 8, 2021.

SAINT PATRICK’S ACADEMY, INC.

Paltic, Dingalan, Aurora

Personal
Development
First Quarter SY 2021-2022

Lesson IV
Mental Health
and Well-Being of
Middle and Late
Adoloscent

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 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
LESSON 4: Mental Health and Well-Being of Middle and Late Adolescent
Introduction
Not all people experience happiness. Some feel defeated and bitter. Some are angry and
aggressive. How can people overcome problems that can maintain mental health and well-being
despite the difficulties in life? This lesson will help us become more aware of various factors affecting
mental health and how to achieve a sense of well-being.

Most young people are concerned with the physical aspect of health like their complexion,
hair and weight. There really is nothing wrong with enhancing our appearance. But sometimes we
deal with our physical health more than we take care of our mental health.

Content Standards Performance Standards

At the end of this lesson, the learners shall The learner identifies his/her own
demonstrate an understanding of the vulnerabilities and plan on how to stay
concepts about mental health and well-being mentally healthy while coping with stress
particularly stress and coping strategies in
middle and late adolescent.
?

Essential Understanding Essential Questions

Understand that mental health and well- What is the importance of being mentally
being are crucial during the adolescence healthy especially during this time that we are
because of the many changes that one has to in the midst of a pandemic?
go through during this period.

Learning Competencies
At the end of this lesson, the learners shall be able to discuss understanding of mental health and
psychological well-being to identify ways to cope with stress during adolescence, identify causes
and effects of stress in one’s life and demonstrate personal ways to cope with stress and maintain
mental health.

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
a. Interpret the concepts of mental health and well-being in everyday observations about
mental health problems during adolescents.
b. Discuss mental health issues and challenges faced by the adolescent.
c. Summarize the risk factors, resilience and prevention involved in attaining mental
health and well-being.
d. Create a self-care plan to stay mentally healthy during this pandemic
e. Explain that understanding stress and its sources during adolescence may help in
identifying way to cope and have a healthful life.
f. Explain that understanding stress and its sources during adolescence may help in
identifying way to cope and have a healthful life.
g. Identify the sources and illustrate its effect on one’s system.
h. Explain the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying stress.
i. Demonstrate personal ways of coping with stress for healthful living.

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Activity 1: Problem Origins
Instruction: Identify the mental health problems you encounter as an adolescent. Explain why do
you encounter these problems.

Problems Explanation
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

THE CONCEPT OF MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

There are teenagers who could not move on with life

because they lack effective coping skills. They feel that
problems are overwhelming and they can no longer
handle them. Some turn to different ways of coping
like drug use, alcohol, gambling, addiction, eating
comfort food, eating too little, or just bumming around.
Others simply stop whatever they are doing and could not
find any purpose and direction in life. They become depressed
and withdraw themselves from people. They could not function and carry
out their tasks. These are signs of poor mental health. Let us now take a look at the meaning
of mental health and its related concept, well-being.

Mental health is defined as "a state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an
individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and
meet the ordinary demands of everyday life." The adolescent stage is a period of great

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adjustments. He goes through hormonal and physical changes. He is in the process of
forming his identity and building his self-image. Socially, the teen wants to be accepted and
be a part of a group. He finds emotional security in his family and in his peer group. All these
tasks are considered challenges that the adolescent needs to hurdle. He must be fully
equipped with effective tools to combat stress brought about by these challenges. Otherwise,
psychological and mental health could be affected.

Mental health and well-being are related concepts. A mentally healthy person experiences a
sense of well-being. He is happy and satisfied with life because he finds meaning and purpose
in living. He is aware of his strengths and weaknesses and is confident to relate with other
people. He is capable, flexible, and motivated. Well-being is defined as a subjective state that
emerges from a general feeling of satisfaction with oneself. It is also described as a condition
of good health, happiness, and prosperity. Positive feelings of self-worth contribute to healthy
psychological development and help reduce the effects of stress while growing up. The
adolescent who faces challenges and changes with the proper perspective and a healthy mind
can easily adapt to the daily demands of life.

Thus, it is important that the adolescent understands himself, is aware of his strengths and
weaknesses, and grow in an environment where problem is handled well because he has
control over his situation. Well-being extends to different aspects of life. A sense of well-being
has a widespread effect on others and in your work as a student. He or she becomes more
effective and successful in his or her tasks.

Mental Health Issues and Challenges in Adolescence

With the many challenges and adjustment that the adolescent has to face, he cannot avoid
experiencing stressful situations along the way. "There are challenges in the different areas of
his life such a physical, social, emotional, economic, and academic. There are expectations to
carry out responsibilities as one grows to maturity. While growing up, physical changes
brought about by hormonal changes have to be understood. Such physical changes may be
accompanied by emotional adjustments as well. Sometimes, the teen is not happy with his
height, weight, type of hair, and skin.

If he could not accept his looks, he develops poor self-image which in turn into how he relates
with his peers. Adolescence is also a time when on tries to understand the self in the process
of developing his self-concept. Mentally, the cent's reasoning skills increase. Because of the
advancing reasoning skills, the adolescent develops either positive or negative self-concept.
Perception of self, in turn, influences the adolescent's manner of relating with family members
and peers, if he perceives himself positively, the adolescent can handle problems more
compared to his peer who looks at himself poorly. His socio-economic status is a factor in the
way he sees himself adolescent's peer group is important to hi Keeping up with trends in
gadgets and other technology, for instance, is a way acquiring leverage with peers to achieve a
sense of belonging.

Common issues and challenges of the adolescent arise because of the difficult to see things in
its proper perspective, and the lack of coping skills to address the issues. Here are some of
problems that confront the adolescent.

Eating Disorder. Some teenagers are eating too much or eating too
little. Ibis practice either lead. obesity or malnourishment. For
people who turn to eating as a way to release tension, food is used
as a means of comfort when a person is depressed, tense or
stressed Such thing is called emotional eating. Others try to eat
less than normal for fear gaining weight because of their conscious
effort to maintain their thin frame. An these are part of the kind of
self-image that he or she has formed. If he finds himself a weak
person, the tendency is for him to brood and dwell on the negative
thing, about himself, leading to sadness, loneliness, and
depression. How can you help a friend who is hurting?

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Suicide. When depression becomes too severe, the adolescent may
attempt to commit suicide. The adolescent who feels worthless and
hopeless finds no meaning and purpose in life. He resorts to suicide as a
solution to end his misery. Family and friends' support are vital during
this time. The person who senses feelings of contemplating suicide should
not be left alone. He needs to have a companion as a preventive measure.
His or her companion must be careful in conversing with a suicidal
person. Suicide attempt must be taken seriously.

Depression. One of the most common mental health issues experienced

by adolescents today is depression. Reasons vary from a sense of personal
failure, family conflict, inadequacy over school performance, sexual
orientation, lack of financial resources, and social status compared to
their peers. Some cases are hormonal in nature. All these difficulties
contribute to a sense of worthlessness, loneliness, and isolation. When
the adolescent is depressed, there are marked changes in his or her
thinking and behavior. He either sleeps too much or wakes up in the early
morning. He lacks concentration. He becomes irritable. He might eat too
much or eat too little which can lead to an eating disorder. He withdraws
from friends and family and does not find pleasure in activities that he
used to enjoy.

RISK FACTORS, RESILIENCE, AND PREVENTION

In order to battle the challenges in adolescence that lead to poor mental health, we should
understand the risk factors, develop the right attitude, and understand ways to prevent it.

Risk Factors

'There are certain factors that may increase the risk of a person to develop mental illness. A
person with a family history of mental illness is predisposed to developing it when his coping
skills are weak to adapt to a traumatic experiences or chronically stressful life situations. Fetal
development in the mother’s womb is also important. The pregnant mother should not be
exposed to environmental toxins such as chemicals inhaled, alcohol or drugs ingested, or
exposed to cigarette smoke. Emotional stress should also be avoided by mothers who have
developing babies in their womb. Genetic and environmental factors interact to produce
good or weak mental health of the individual.

Resilience

One of the protective factors of the adolescent in preventing the

breakdown of mental health is resilience. The meaning of resilience
in the dictionary is the "ability to recover readily from illness,
depression, adversity, or the like and another meaning is buoyancy".
When the adolescent is depressed, for instance, he has the
capability to "bounce" back to his normal life. He does not allow the
pressures and strains in life to bring him down to further
depression.

A resilient person can adapt well to the demands and difficulties in

life. Without this quality, a person who experiences frustration, for
example, may either brood over the thought how weak and how
useless a person he is. But with resilience, he can change his
perspective and find meaning from his bad experiences. He can use
his inner resources to resolve his problems. A resilient adolescent
tries to look at the situation from another viewpoint and explain
things well. He tends to think more of the positive than the negative.
"The meaning he derives from his experience is used to guide him
in the future.

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 Prevention

To prevent a person from developing poor mental health, one should check his self-perception.
A positive self-concept can serve as buffer to the onslaught of problems and difficulties that a
young person experience. He becomes emotionally competent to handle demands and
pressures. capability increases with age.

Social support coming from one's own family and friends are also important. The adolescent
should minimize conflicts and must learn how to resolve them more effectively. Also, physical
exercise, a balanced diet and adequate sleep could largely help in achieving not only physical
health but mental health and well-being.

STRESS AND STRESSORS

A stressful experience is caused by something that occurs either within the individual or from the
environment. A past painful experience can linger in our memory and make us feel depressed.
Conflicts with other people cause us difficulty ending up in stress. Common stressors among
students may come in the form of academic demands. We say that stress is the effect while stressor
is the cause. Let us try to check the meaning of each term.
What is Stress?
Exams, deadlines, research paper, school
projects demand time and attention. Family
expectations, conflicts, frustration and
disappointments sometimes lead to an
overload of emotional tension and stress.
When we are under stress, we feel tense,
nervous, and sometimes jittery. We could not
even concentrate in our work. Whether we are
aware of it or not, so many things around us
can create stress. We may have gotten used
to noise every day and we are not even aware
that it is causing us stress. A stressful
condition can also happen suddenly like a
calamity or an accident. Stress is part of life
and affects both young and old. Stress is a natural response to the demands of our environment. To
put it more succinctly, stress is a physiological response to a physical or psychological threat. It is a
normal reaction to anything that can disturb our balance, commonly termed as homeostatic state
or equilibrium. Hans Selye, an Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist, associates stress with mental,
emotional, and physical states produced within the organism in response to stimulus (either
internal or external) that is perceived as threat (Selye, 1976). Walter Cannon, an American
physiologist, calls it the "fight or flight" syndrome (Canon, 1939). It is physiologic reaction
accompanied by faster heart rate, muscle tension, or dilation of pupil when a person perceives
threat in order to survive danger. The "fight and flight" is our initial reaction to stress and will be
better explained in our discussion of the different stages of adaptation. Stress can be considered
either positive or negative depending on one's capacity to handle stressors. A little amount of stress
enables us to adapt and function normally. For instance, when we are about to meet a deadline for
project, we need a little amount of stress to motivate us in completing the task. In a sense, a
manageable amount of stress may not actually be that bad because it has a survival value.
The term "stress" is actually borrowed from the field of physics. It means strain, pressure or force
on a system. In the context of human beings, the strain or stress makes our mind and body react.
is our way to cope in order to alleviate ourselves from the effects of stress. This is why some people
sleep off their problems, spend time at the mall to relax, or hang out with their friends. And still
others try to combat stress by eating and drinking.
How does an event, place, or even people cause us stress? There are factors to consider such as
frequency, intensity, and duration of stress. Does the source of stress happen very often?
When it happens, how serious is it? How is it affecting you? How long has it been going on? Chronic
and severe stress is a threat to health. Prolonged stress dampens our immune system.

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Chronic and severe stress is a threat to health. It can dull our system because we get used to it.
Prolonged stress causes fatigue, dampens our immune system, and eventually diseases set in.
Researches has shown that stress can lead to medical disorders like gastric ulcers, heart disease,
asthma, and even skin disorders (cited Miller & Blackwell, 2006; Wargo, 2007). Thus, it is
important that we identify the sources of stress before they build up and cause us strains and
serious illness.

Sources of Stress
A stressor is but anything that induces a stress response. It may be physical, mental, emotional,
social, psychological, economic, or even spiritual in nature. Physical stressors may come in the
form of pollution, a congested place or a high level of noise. It may also include fatigue, pain, shock,
trauma, and other physiological conditions in our body. Mental stressors include academic
overload, reviewing for exams, running after deadlines or situations that call for sustained mental
effort. Social, emotional, and psychological stressors are somehow interrelated because they
involve relating with other people. As we interact with others, we encounter conflicts and
disappointments leading to feelings of frustration, tension, anxiety, and even anger or depression.
Economic stressor may involve one's socio-economic condition such as limited financial resources
to meet our essential needs in life. Lastly, stressor affecting our spirituality involves loss of joy
and peace or disturbance of tranquility.

Effects of Stress
The effect of stress cannot be easily felt
except in cases of trauma where the incident
happens quickly and intensely such as a car
accident or parental separation. Stressors
that happen almost every day take time
before they finally take a toll on our health.
Sometimes we get used to it that we simply
ignore the signs of stress. Think of a ticking
bomb or a whistling kettle. Before the bomb
explodes and before the kettle start*
"whistling" takes some time. The same
happens in prolonged stress. Our body and our
mind can no longer take the pressure, thus,
causing fatigue that eventually lowers the
immune system. You often get colds and
cough when your body is under stress—a
physiological process that our body
undergoes when under prolonged stress.
Stress and the Immune System
The immune system is the body's natural defense against any disease. It helps the body fight
infection that can lead to more serious health problems. Handling chronic stress causes fatigue and
consequently weakens our immune system or our body's defense.
Researchers recognized that thoughts, emotions, attitudes and beliefs relate to our health.
Nurturing anger and bitterness, for instance, can result in the lowering of our immune system.
There are interrelated mechanisms that link the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems through
the neurotransmitters, chemicals that are responsible for transmitting messages in our nervous
system. Chronic stress can affect insulin secretion, the sex hormones and even the thyroid
hormones. If stress is prolonged, any or all of the bodily chemicals, hormones, organs and systems
involved will be affected until fatigue occurs. We need to strengthen our immune system so as to
resist infection to enter the body.

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 STRESS FACTORS
You will be able to understand more about stress by taking a look at the physiological and
psychological factors involved in a stress response—the processes and structures in our body
system responsible for these reactions.
Physiological Factor
Think for a while how you felt when you were stressed out.
Did your heart beat fast, your muscles got tense, your hands
and feet felt cold? Hans Selye, an Austrian-Canadian
endocrinologist, proposed the General Adaptation Syndrome
(GAS) to explain our body's response to stress (Selye,1974). It
consists of three stages: (a) alarm stage; (b) resistance stage,
and (c) exhaustion stage. You probably remember that there
was a burst of energy at the onset of a stressor, followed by a
resistance or attempt to adapt to the stressor, and finally a
feeling of tiredness or fatigue when the energy is already
depleted.
To illustrate the General Adaptation Syndrome, suppose
your parents often quarrel, but before the actual fight, you
sense that the atmosphere gets tense and you become upset. This is the alarm stage, signaling that
there is a problem starting to brew in your family environment. Yet, you try to ignore it and pretend
that it does not affect you — the resistance stage. However, your parents' conflict continued on with
their fighting day after day until you are fed up listening to their squabbles. You now enter the
exhaustion stage where you feel that you have become tired and stressed out. Now you react to the
stressful situation by going out with your friends.
The body's resistance to stress differs depending on the individual's capacity to contain its effects or
their flexibility to adapt to their situation. The ill effects of stress occur only when the individual
fails to adapt and gets exhausted by chronic or prolonged stress in his life.
When stress becomes a threat or perceived as dangerous, the stressor signals our body by alerting
it and increasing our energy level. For instance, when there is fire in the neighborhood, we can
easily carry heavy objects that we normally could not even lift without such impending danger. We
try to resist or fight back stress until our energy is finally depleted.
But what happens to our body? Why do we feel this exhaustion? The hypothalamus-pituitary-
adrenal or HPA axis explains the bodily changes and the source of disease that may eventually
happen when one undergoes prolonged stress.
The HPA axis is a hormonal response system to stress. It involves the release of stress hormones
such as glucocorticoids and primarily cortisol which are regulated to ensure that the body can react
quickly to stress and return to its normal state. However, prolonged or extreme stress increases the
cortisol level in the blood and affects our health substantially.
Whenever one encounters a physical or psychological stressor, the HPA axis is activated. The HPA
response starts when the hypothalamus, a part in the limbic system, secretes corticotropin—
secretes releasing hormones (CRH) that stimulates the pituitary gland to release the hormone ACTH
or adrenocorticotropic hormone. ACTH then directs the adrenal glands to secrete more hormones,
including epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol which releases sugars into the blood, helping in
preparing the body to respond to threat. Thus, when a person is under stress, the hormonal level in
the blood increases and may cause high blood pressure and other diseases.
Psychological Factors
Psychological stress stems from one's own mental and emotional reactivity patterns to
environmental factors such as persons, places, or events. In other words, there are individual
differences in the way we appraise or interpret a situation. Our appraisal may or may not elicit a
stress response.
When we are overwhelmed with stress, it is not only the body that suffers but our mind and
behavior as well. We feel lonely and depressed. Others become forgetful, irritable, and anxious.
Some tend to isolate themselves from others. Below is a list of common signs and symptoms of
stress that we may have experienced These signs and symptoms are often shown by people
undergoing stress but they may also be manifestations of a deeper psychological problem. student

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is advised to take precaution in making his or her own diagnosis. It is safe to consult a professional
when difficulties hamper your psychological functioning.

MANAGING STRESS
After knowing the harmful effects of stress, how do you think can we manage them? In Activity 6. 1
and 6.2, you have accomplished the exercises that could help you become more aware of the
various sources of your own stress and its effects on you. Now try to check your current lifestyle,
particularly habits and attitudes that have become automatic responses to your daily life. Are your
coping strategies effective? Do you think there is a need for you to change certain coping patterns?

Coping Strategies
How we handle stress depends on several factors such as the person's characteristics the situation,
and the type of stressor that he or she faces.
People differ in their coping styles. One may evaluate a situation as threatening but another person
may not see it that way. There are people who are easily discouraged and fearful but there are also
people who are confident and sees problems as challenges. Richard Lazarus, an American
psychologist and professor, defines coping as a cognitive or behavior response to stress aimed at
managing or reducing stress. A situation is stressful depending on how one perceives it. In his
Appraisal Theory, Lazarus talks about two components of cognitive appraisal, the primary appraisal
and secondary appraisal. When one does primary appraisal, he evaluates the meaning of the
situation and checks if it will affect him. The secondary appraisal involves how one feels about the
situation. For instance, when a person recognizes that there is a threat, he or she may confront
such a situation and say, "Tell yourself the difficulties are not important" or "For everything bad,
there is also something good." A change in thinking is one way to cope with psychosocial stressors.
Physical stress may be relatively easier to handle but requires self-discipline in order to apply
changes such as having a balanced and nutritious meal, a regular sleep pattern and regular
exercise. Sleep provides the best form of rest while exercise prevents the accumulation of toxins and
improves blood circulation. Eating vegetables and fruits and taking Vitamin C can also largely help
enhance the immune system.
Social and emotional stress arising from strained relationships may be a little bit difficult to handle
yet they can be managed. As social beings, we seek other people to fulfill our emotional needs.
Complying with demands of strict and overbearing parents or dealing with break-ups may not be
easy. Accepting change or changing the way we think about a situation can help. Have supportive
friends around you or communicate your difficulties with a counselor or psychologist if you could
not find a trusted and mature person to talk to.
Emotion-Focused and Problem-Focused Coping
There are two types of coping responses: emotion-focused coping response and problem-focused
coping response (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Emotion-focused coping response involves shame
and embarrassment, fear and anxiety, excitement and depression. It is necessary to learn how to
control our impulses to be able to take the appropriate action. However, there are people who have
weak control over their impulses or they have no control over the situation. For instance, binge
eating and drug use focus on the emotional reaction to stress.

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Emotion-focused coping is used when a person has no capacity to deal with the source of the
problem. Thus, he or she uses different strategies to deal with the problem such as avoiding,
distancing, accepting the situation, or turning to alcohol or asking for professional help.
Problem-focused coping deals with the stressors directly in practical ways. People with problem-
focused coping take control of their situation by removing the source of stress or reducing the effect
of stressors. may also get enough information or research on the nature of their problem so that
they can better understand the cause of their stress. For instance, a woman who undergoes
battering may read books, articles or search the internet to better understand the nature of
battering.
Problem-focused coping is the alternative we use when we think we can solve the problem after
assessing it. Several steps can be used in problem-focused coping such as defining the problem,
looking for alternative solutions, learning new skills to deal with stressors, and reappraising to find
new standards of behavior.

Activity 2: Identifying Your Stressors

Identify the things that stresses you out. Write down your answers on the first box. With the
stressors you write down, think of the ways on how you deal with these stressors and
identify if these ways are healthy/helpful or unhealthy/unhelpful.

Stressors

Healthy/Helpful Unhealthy/Unhelpful
Coping Strategies Coping Strategies

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 1. What do you think are the things you can do to improve your unhealthy/unhelpful ways
of coping with stress?

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Activity 3: Mental Health Poster

In line with the celebration of Mental Health Month this October, you will be making a
computer-generated poster about mental health. The poster should be in JPEG format. It will be
posted in your Facebook account with your caption stating the importance of mental health. Use
the #mentalhealthmatters at the end of your caption and mention me on the comment section for
me to see and check your work.

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Parent’s/ Guardian’s Signature Over Printed Name

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