What is Your Mental Health Quotient?

 

     

    May is Mental Health Awareness Month first established in 1949. This month is dedicated to educate the public about mental illness, raise awareness surrounding research and treatments, reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, and celebrate recovery from mental illness. More than 43.8 million people are affected by mental health disorders each year. Less than half of those will seek a mental health professional's help.  

 In the ongoing controversy over gun control, many site mental illness as the cause for mass shooting while those in the mental health community don't want mental illness associated with gun vilonce. In this area alone, education regarding mental health is important.

    Violence is not a symptom of psychotic illness. The relationship between mental illness and violence is complex. Research suggests there is little relationship between mental illness and violence when substance use is not involved.

    Psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia can sometimes be associated with aggressive or violent behavior. People living with schizophrenia are no more violent or dangerous than the rest of the population, if they are:

• receiving effective treatment
• not misusing alcohol or drugs.

    They are more likely to harm themselves than others.

    There is a slightly increased possibility that someone living with a psychotic illness may be violent if they:

• are not receiving effective treatment
• have a previous history of violence
• misuse alcohol or other drugs
• are experiencing active psychotic symptoms (and are responding to hallucinations or delusions)
• are triggered by fear (for example, if they think they are in danger)
• are experiencing psychotic symptoms for the first time, or the experiences are unfamiliar.

    People living with schizophrenia are more likely to express their aggression, agitation or frustration towards themselves, or to family and friends – rarely to strangers.

    When it comes to knowing whether we are mentally healthy, we seem to choose to ignore this part of or physical wellbeing. More time is given to our intellect and recently or emotional state of being over our Mental Health Quotient.

    IQ is short for Intelligence Quotient. IQ tests are tools to measure intellectual abilities and potential. They're designed to reflect a wide range of cognitive skills such as reasoning, logic, and problem-solving. Intelligence is something you are largely born with. IQ tests are not a test of knowledge, which represents what you learn through education or life experience. A score of 116 or more is considered above average. A score of  130 or higher signals a high IQ. Average IQ is 100. An IQ of 70 or below may indicate limited intellectual fuctioning. Remember, the score represents how you compare to your PEER group in: language, reasoning abilities, processing speed, visual-spatial processing, memory, and math. IQ tests cannot predict how your life will turn out. Character, opportunity, ambition, and sometimes luck, affect how your life will turn out. People love to brag about their intelligence.

     EQ is your Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient. EQ is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. Five components of Emotional intelligence are:

SELF-AWARENESS: the ability to recognize and understand your moods and how they affect others.

SELF-REGULATION: This involves being able to control your impulses and moods and to think before acting.

INTERNAL(intrinsic) MOTIVATION: As the opposite of external motivation, this means being driven to pursue goals for personal reasons, rather than for some kind of reward.

EMPATHY: Essential for building and leading teams. Empathy is the ability to recognize and understand other's motivations and to put yourself in their shoes.

SOCIAL SKILLS: The ability to manage relationships, build networks, and connect with people.

    People with a high EQ have greater mental health, job performance, and leadership skills. The EQ test score average is around 100 with a maximum score of 160, unlike an IQ test score which is limitless. 115 is a great EQ score while a score of 85 or less indicates a need for improvement. To be aware of your EQ score is trendy.

    The MHQ, Mental Health Quotient, provides a fast, easy, and comprehensive way to assess population mental health and well-being; identify at-risk individuals and subgroups; and provide diagnosis-relevant information across 10 disorders and was developed by Sapien Labs. According to the World Health Organization, WHO, mental health is "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community." Mental Health Quotient scores range from -100-+200. Negative scores reflect clinical or clinically at-risk populations with a score of 100 being centralized.

    Most affective ways to combact the stigma and shame surrounding mental health issues is to:

TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES OPENLY

EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS ON THE WARNING SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF MENTAL ILLNESSES

PRACTICE KINDNESS AND COMPASSION

TAKE AND SHARE A FREE MENTAL HEALTH SCREENING

PARTICIPATE OR VOLUNTEER IN MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS EVENTS

TAKE A HOLLISTIC APPROACH TO HELP IMPROVE THE MENTAL WELLBEING OF YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND YOURSELF: Self care or even focusing on physical health through exercise and healthy eating habits.

MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

    It is important to note:

• 48 million have an anxiety disorder
• 21 million have major depression
• 9 million have post-traumatic stress disorder
• 7 million have bipolar disorder
• 3.5 million have borderline personality disorder
• 3 million have obsessive compulsive disorder
• 1.5 million have schizophrenia
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• You are someone you know may have a low Mental Health Quotient. Improvement in this score is possible if you are aware of the problem. During this month, take a free mental health screening test, readily and easily assessable online Take a Mental Health Test - MHA Screening (mhanational.org) and according to the results follow up with resources within your community. Please SHARE this bblog post with friends and family.