Check Yourself: 10 Signs of a Mentally Healthy Person

The human psyche is a very complex physiological mechanism, the normal functioning of which is not so difficult to damage in our time. In clinical psychiatry, it is rather difficult to determine clear limits, violating which, a person can be called mentally ill by experts. However, the world’s leading psychiatrists have nevertheless developed a number of criteria by which one can judge mental health. If you want to check yourself for the presence of mental illness, then check your condition with the properties below that are inherent only to a healthy psyche.

10 The presence of a conscious value system

This means that in a healthy person, abstractly speaking, the understanding of good and evil is made up of impressions and assessments of what is happening around. At the same time, in a mentally complete person, values ​​can undergo certain adjustments associated with the normal course of life, growing up and the emergence of certain experiences.

9. The ability to love another person

Here we are talking about conscious love, that is, about a process that implies a certain type of interpersonal interaction. At the same time, love should be manifested not only by the presence of a certain obsession with a certain object (be it a loved one, parent, child, brother, sister, etc.), but also by the need for the active manifestation of this love, for example, care, responsibility, tenderness, etc. P. It is also important for a healthy person to realize that in love it is necessary to strive to open up to the beloved, because only if this condition is present, it is possible to build relationships based on mutual affection and cultivate love for many years.

Love based on obsessive sexual attraction, fetishism, or unhealthy fanaticism can be a sign of a mental disorder.

8. Realistic and sustainable self-assessment

Delusions of grandeur or pathological self-flagellation are objectively unhealthy conditions. These extremes indicate a violation of a realistic assessment of oneself and one’s capabilities. The consequences of such a “failure” can be the development of depressive conditions, chronic stress and frustration.

7. The ability to accept your powerlessness

This means that it is common for a healthy person to experience disappointment, sadness, anger and despondency, but still be aware that there are situations that we cannot change. In this case, the only possible way out will be to simply accept and accept reality as it is.

Very often, an unhealthy, from the point of view of psychiatry, reaction occurs to the death of a loved one, divorce or unrequited love. Complete denial of the situation does not give a person the opportunity to perceive its inevitability and come to terms with it as a given. Against the background of such a disorder, more severe mental pathologies may occur that will require long-term treatment.

6. Ability for autonomy and self-reliance

Simply put, it is the ability of a person to make choices, make decisions, perform certain actions, realizing his personal responsibility for all the ensuing consequences. Understanding individual responsibility for one’s actions is a sign of a psychologically mature and developed personality.

5. Health care

Every living being, one way or another, is characterized by the instinct of self-preservation. This is the basic physiological mechanism that ensures the viability of the species. People who cannot realistically assess the extent of approaching threats are at great risk of falling into a life-threatening situation.

Caring for the state of one’s health is a kind of this instinct, that is, a person realizes that his neglect of his own well-being will lead to negative consequences. The opposite situation is when a person gets hung up on his illnesses (imaginary and real), because of which his circle of interests sharply narrows and the “imaginary patient” begins to degrade both intellectually and emotionally.

4. Flexibility and adequacy in the use of psychological protection

When we are in a state of danger or severe stress, our subconscious mind tries to protect us from experiencing these unpleasant emotions, so it gives the command: “Run!”. A person with a mental disorder is likely to completely succumb to this instinct. At the same time, avoiding negative emotions, he exacerbates the problems that only get worse during his hesitation. A healthy person, in turn, has the opportunity, in spite of his subconscious fears, by squeezing all his will into a fist, to act as circumstances require of him, and not as primitive fear dictates to him.

3. The ability to look at oneself

In the professional terminology of psychiatrists, reflect. This term means a person’s ability to look at the situation, abstracting from his personal attitude to what is happening, and look for ways to solve the problem, implemented in these conditions.

2. The ability to experience any emotion and endure the stress associated with it

Do not run away or distance yourself from unpleasant emotions, while not allowing yourself to be completely “absorbed” by them. In any situation, even extreme, a mentally healthy person finds the strength to hear the voice of reason, that is, to balance with the rational and emotional sides of his personality.

1. Balance in focus on self and others

This refers to the ability to pursue personal goals, while taking into account the interests of others, or the desire to achieve a collective goal, when one’s own interest will be secondary. Such a property of the human personality is inherent only due to the ability to reason and self-sacrifice for the sake of loved ones. A person suffering from any mental illness is unable to sacrifice his interests or adjust his actions in accordance with the moral and ethical standards established in society or the needs of others.