Positive Mental Health - The Jewish Link
In 1989, public health educator Dr. Mark Kittelson wrote a research article titled “Mental Health vs. Mental Illness. ” Through reviewing leading textbooks on health education, Kittelson discovered that writers placed more of an emphasis on mental illness than mental health. Mental illness refers to psychological conditions and symptoms such as ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal ideation […]
In 1989, public health educator Dr. Mark Kittelson wrote a research article titled “Mental Health vs. Mental Illness. ” Through reviewing leading textbooks on health education, Kittelson discovered that writers placed more of an emphasis on mental illness than mental health. Mental illness refers to psychological conditions and symptoms such as ADHD, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal ideation and depression. Although mental illness is just one part of the broader issue of mental health, when many people hear the phrase “mental health” they think only about mental illness. Kittleson suggests that educators and parents should educate children about skills that facilitate positive mental health. He argues that the absence of a mental health condition does not make someone mentally healthy. Kittleson describes three attainable skills that facilitate positive mental health. Acquisition of each skill can help children, students and adults achieve personal growth through improving their mental health. Kittelson suggests that developing positive self-worth provides the vital foundation for becoming a mentally healthy person. He provides two accessible strategies to improve positive self-worth. His first strategy is to connect to a community through joining a club or simply being part of a group. This brings a sense of belonging, which generally helps people see themselves as valuable to others and improves one’s level of self-worth. Examples of this include joining a running club, a book club, a Torah learning chabura or a weekly board or card game. Kittelson’s second strategy is to help people see how they possess combinations of personality traits, experiences and perspectives that combine to make them one of a kind. The idea is to learn to embrace the quirks and special qualities that make you who you are. Embracing one’s unique quirks and qualities tends to improve one’s self-worth. Another important skill Kittelson deems vital to becoming a mentally healthy person is developing effective decision-making skills. When equipped with effective decision-making skills a person can evaluate the short- and long term-consequences of their behavior and make educated choices. He encourages those who raise and work with children to help them develop a system to make effective decisions for themselves. Finally, Kittelson says that becoming a mentally healthy person includes the learning of appropriate risk-taking skills. He breaks risks down into three categories: intellectual, physical and emotional. An intellectual risk refers to something like trying out a new job or hobby. A physical risk relates to things like training for a marathon or going camping. An emotional risk refers to asking brave questions or sharing openly about your difficulties. This is all related to what is called The Strength Perspective of Social Work, which was first developed at the University of Kansas in the 1980s. As simple and intuitive as it sounds this approach pushed back against focusing on a person’s problems or pathologies. Much good can be accomplished by working with a person to see their powers even in hard times. During this hard time of the Jewish year we can tend towards being down. Our Jewish tradition teaches that we always need to hold on to an element of confidence and positivity, even in dark times. There are many sources that teach this idea. The first words we say every morning are the words of Modeh Ani which express gratefulness to God for giving us our souls. While we generally focus on the gratefulness to God with which we start our day there is something else at play here. We start our day by reminding ourselves that we have a pure soul and that is the essence of who we are. As Rav Dovid Werner (a long-time rebbe at the long-ago Yerushalayim yeshiva BMT) put it: Just as it is a mitzvah to believe in God, it is also a mitzvah to believe in ourselves. Our goal in this article has been to remind us all that good mental health and good mental health treatment goes beyond addressing and attempting to reduce anxiety and depression. Therapists, teachers, parents, relatives and friends yearn for themselves and for the people who are dear to them (which includes everyone) not only to survive life’s hardships, but to appreciate the good inside us and to grow into the best versions of ourselves that we’ve always wanted to be. [Kittleson, M. J. (2019). “Mental Health vs. Mental Illness: A Health Education Perspective. ” American Journal of Health Education, 50(4), 210-212. https://doi. org/10. 1080/19325037. 2019. 1616011]By Yosef Silfen and Rabbi Neil FleischmannLeave a Comment