Eight aspects of mental health education

The current implementation of domestic mental health education generally revolves around eight core directions, namely self-awareness education, emotion management education, interpersonal communication education, learning adaptation education, frustration response education, career planning education, sex and marriage mental health education, and crisis identification and intervention education. These eight dimensions are not a rigid academic classification framework, but are implementation paths that have been repeatedly polished through nearly two decades of front-line practice in mental health services for all ages, from adolescents to adults. They basically cover the psychological confusion scenarios that ordinary people are likely to encounter in their lives.

During the three years when I was a resident psychology teacher, I received at least 30 cases related to self-perception bias. The one that impressed me the most was a high school sophomore boy who had average grades, couldn't beat the school team in basketball, and was always complained about by his teammates even when he played games. When he came for consultation, his head was buried on the table, and the first thing he said when he opened his mouth was "I can't do anything well, and my life is useless." Many people think that self-awareness education is just "teaching children self-confidence by pouring chicken soup". In fact, the entry logic of different schools is very different: Psychoanalytically oriented counselors will give priority to helping individuals dismantle the gap between "the me my parents expect", "the me I want to be" and the "real me", and remove unnecessary shackles ； Practitioners of positive psychology tend to help individuals tap into their own existing advantageous resources - for example, this boy is actually very observant and won a provincial award for his science fiction essay, but he himself ignored all these advantages. There is no distinction between the two paths, they are just suitable for different individual situations.

Don’t think that everything will be fine once you understand self-awareness. When things happen, emotions are always the first to collapse. This is why emotion management education is the most popular among the eight directions, but it is also the one with the most misunderstandings. Nowadays, any search on the Internet will show "3-second method to calm down anger" and "Quit your emotions and you will win." Some people even equate emotional management with "tolerance" and say, "If you endure breast hyperplasia and uterine fibroids, it is better to vent your anger on others." These are all extremes. The cognitive-behavioral school believes that the source of emotions is irrational beliefs. Adjusting cognition can adjust emotions. For example, failing to pass the entrance examination is not "I am finished in this life", but "I am not ready for this exam/the competition is too fierce."” ； However, the humanistic school believes that "allowing emotions to flow" is more important than "controlling emotions". Cry when you are sad and curse when you are angry. If you hold it in, it will easily lead to psychological problems. When I do my own consultations, I usually use a combination of the two methods. You can't go up to someone and tell them, "You're wrong in your thinking," when someone is crying so hard that you're just trying to beat them up.

Talking back to the campus scene, apart from conflicts with classmates, the most likely cause of psychological problems is learning to adapt to education. Last year, I received a case from a freshman from a top 2 university. He was in the top 3 of his grade in high school. He failed the calculus exam in his first calculus exam. He just lay flat in the dormitory without even leaving the door. He felt that he was "just a waste". Many parents and even teachers think that learning to adapt to education means "teaching learning methods". In fact, this is not the case at all - this student has no problem with his learning ability at all. He just went from being "pushed around by teachers and parents" in high school to "relying on his own arrangements" in college. He has not adapted at all. There are also differences on this approach: Behaviorist-oriented educators will suggest using small steps to check in and timely rewards to help him rebuild his learning habits. ； Researchers who agree with the self-determination theory will pay more attention to helping him find the intrinsic motivation for learning, not "learning so as not to fail", but "learning this will help me do what I want to do in the future."

The situation of the new student just mentioned actually touches on the current pain point of dealing with setbacks in education. When the concept of "frustration education" became popular in the past two years, many parents deliberately made things difficult for their children: deliberately not buying toys that they could obviously afford, and even scolding them for not getting 100 points after scoring 98 points. It was called "training the ability to resist frustration", but in fact, it was easy for children to develop learned helplessness. The most exaggerated parent I have ever seen was that her child ranked second in the class in the first grade of elementary school. She refused to let her child eat dinner, saying, "If you don't scold him now, he will not be able to bear the blow when he enters society." The real education on dealing with setbacks is not about artificially creating setbacks in advance, but when setbacks do occur, teaching children how to use resources to solve problems and how to accept the bad results that have occurred. Even if they cannot solve the problem, they still know that "it is not my fault."

Many people think that mental health education is only about "comforting in the moment". In fact, in the long run, life planning education is also a core part. Last month I received a consultation from a 30-year-old Internet programmer with an annual salary of 450,000, but every day I opened my eyes and wanted to quit. After working for 7 years, I had no idea what I liked. When I was in school, I only focused on getting high scores. When I graduated, I listened to my parents and chose computers. Now I feel that life is meaningless. There is also a lot of noise in the field of career planning now: one group is more tool-oriented and will give you the Holland Vocational Interest Test and MBTI, and recommend jobs to you based on the test results. ； The other group is more value-oriented and does not look at these tests at all. It prioritizes helping you sort out "who do you want to be in this life" and "what is most important to you." I usually talk to the client about the latter first, and then use tools to assist. After all, the job that is suitable for you may not necessarily be the one that you like. If you choose a job that is suitable for you but you hate it, problems will still arise after you work for a long time.

There is another area that many schools and companies deliberately avoid when providing mental health education, but in fact, the problem outbreak rate is extremely high, which is mental health education on sex and marriage. Two years ago, I received a case of a female college student. She had an affair with her boyfriend when they were in a relationship. Later, she broke up with her boyfriend and he also made pornographic rumors about her. She was depressed for more than half a year. She always felt that she was "dirty" and "no one will want her in the future." Even her parents did not dare to tell her. This area is even more controversial: Conservatives believe that sex education is about teaching morals about marriage and love, and the need to remain chaste and clean. ； Most front-line psychological workers prefer universal sexual safety education, consent education, and intimacy boundary education. It is more important to teach children how to protect themselves and respect others first.

Among the eight directions, the one that is most likely to be regarded as "cover work" and no one pays attention to it in ordinary times, and only regrets it when something goes wrong is crisis identification and intervention education. After a student fell from a building in a middle school in the south last year, the school urgently conducted a half-day crisis identification training for all teachers. In fact, if the suicide warning signs had been popularized to teachers, students, and parents - such as suddenly giving away one's precious things, frequently saying "living is boring", and suddenly changing from a low mood to an extremely calm mood, the child would have had a chance to be rescued. Until now, many people still think that "you should not take the initiative to mention suicide to others, because if you mention it, it will cause him to think about it." However, the latest clinical intervention guidelines have made it clear: proactively asking the other person about his/her suicide intention will not trigger suicidal behavior, but will make the other person feel cared about and reduce the risk.

In fact, there is no strict order for these eight aspects, and there is no rigid framework. Sometimes a 50-minute group counseling session can cover several modules of self-awareness, emotion management, and interpersonal communication at the same time. I have been doing psychological work for 7 years, and my biggest feeling is that mental health education has never taught us to be "perfect people without negative emotions", nor has it put a tight spell on everyone "must be positive". It just helps us build more armor to cope with life, and also leaves more outlets for releasing emotions. After all, the days are so long, who hasn’t stumbled and lost his mind?