This paper mainly introduces the concept and standard of mental health, the psychological problems that middle school students are prone to and the significance of mental health.

I. The meaning of mental health

(A) the concept of mental health

In daily life, we often hear people say "someone has a psychological problem" and "someone has a psychological problem". The implication is that this person is mentally unhealthy. "Mental health" has become a hot issue that people pay attention to, which is the objective requirement of modern social progress and human development. Mentalhealth is mental health or mental health, which means a good mental or psychological state. Scholars have expounded the definition and connotation of the concept of mental health from different angles. The definition of "mental health" in the Third International Conference on Mental Health is: "Mental health refers to being able to maintain a psychological harmony with others physically, intellectually and emotionally, and to develop an individual's mental state to the best state." ① The Chinese version of The Concise Encyclopedia of Britain (1985) defines mental health as: "Mental health refers to the best functional state that individual psychology can achieve within its own and environmental conditions, but it is not a perfect absolute state." A healthy person should have both a healthy body and a healthy mind. The so-called mental health means that an individual has a good and sustained mental state and process, which is manifested in his vitality, positive inner experience and good social adaptability, and can effectively exert his physical and mental potential and positive social functions as a member of society.

Mental health standard

Mental health standard is the concretization of the concept of mental health. Because of the different basis for establishing mental health standards, scholars at home and abroad provide different judgment standards.

1. The mental health standards put forward by American psychologists Maslow and Misman.

(1) Moderate sense of security and self-esteem, with a sense of value for personal achievement.

(2) Moderate self-criticism, don't be too boastful or harsh on yourself.

(3) Life goals and ideals are realistic.

(4) Being able to maintain good contact with the real environment, being able to tolerate setbacks in life and not having excessive fantasies.

(5) Be able to accept personal needs moderately and have the ability to meet their own needs.

(6) have self-knowledge, understand their own motives and purposes, have an appropriate estimate of their own abilities, and do not excessively deny or suppress their desire to violate social norms and moral standards.

(7) can maintain the harmony and integrity of personality, personal values can change with the changes of social standards, and can concentrate on their own work.

(8) Have a realistic purpose in life. In the personal purpose of life, there are two components: self-interest and benefiting others. Most of the work that individuals do is practical.

(9) Have the ability to learn from experience, adapt to the needs of the environment and change yourself.

(10) can establish a harmonious relationship with others in the group, pay attention to the needs of the group, accept the tradition of the group, and control as a group.

Personal desires or motives that are incompatible with the body.

(1 1) Under the principle of not violating the group, they can maintain their own personality, have their own independent opinions, have the ability to judge right and wrong, good and evil, and do not flatter others excessively or pursue social identity excessively.

2. Some educators in China described the mental health standards of primary and secondary school students from four aspects.

(1) I have confidence in myself, that is, I have a basic understanding of myself and can make a correct self-evaluation. We should not only know our weaknesses, shortcomings and limitations, but also know our strengths, advantages and development potential; Have a positive attitude and confidence in yourself, have a good self-image, self-esteem, self-love and self-confidence; Have realistic hopes for your future.

(2) I am interested in school life, that is, I like my studies and work tasks. I can give full play to my wisdom and talents in my study and work activities, gain a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, recognize and affirm my own value, and thus love my study and class work.

(3) I like to associate with people and have good interpersonal relationships. At home, I care about my family and communicate well with my parents. At school, I have more contact with my classmates and teachers, establish friendly and harmonious relations with them, and share joys and sorrows; Like to make friends; Can help others, but also willing to accept others' help.

(4) Have good psychological adaptability, that is, be able to adjust yourself according to environmental changes and actively adapt to environmental changes; Can face their own growth and changes, learn to adjust themselves; When encountering failures and setbacks, don't be too anxious and decadent, and have certain frustration tolerance.

When understanding and grasping the mental health standards, we should mainly consider the following points: First, to judge a person's mental health, we should give consideration to internal coordination and external adaptation. Secondly, the concept of mental health is relative. The level of mental health is high or low. High-level (positive) mental health is not only the absence of mental illness, but also the ability to give full play to personal potential, develop constructive interpersonal relationships, engage in activities with social value and creativity, pursue high-level needs and pursue the meaning of life. Third, mental health is both a state and a process. Mental health is not the absence of failure, conflict and pain, but the effective self-regulation under these circumstances to maintain good work efficiency. Finally, mental health can be said to be a social evaluation problem to a considerable extent. Different societies often make different judgments on whether the same behavior is normal because of their different mainstream cultures, values and social norms.

Second, middle school students are prone to mental health problems.

Words referring to various mental health problems, such as mental disorders, behavioral disorders, mental disorders, behavioral disorders, personality disorders, mental illness, etc., are often used interchangeably in a less strict sense, and the difference between them is only in the emphasis and severity of mental health problems. Traditionally, people refer to several mental health problems with low to high severity as psychological distress, psychological disorder and mental illness. The psychological barriers that middle school students are prone to have listed below belong to psychology.

Scope of application of consultation and treatment.

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorder is a kind of neurosis characterized by anxious reaction that is not suitable for objective threats, that is, anxiety is treated as an independent neurosis. In addition, anxiety is also a common feature of various neurosis, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia and so on.

Anxiety is an emotional state in which tension, anxiety, uneasiness and fear are intertwined. Normal people will also have anxious reactions when facing stressful situations, especially when their self-esteem is threatened, but their anxiety is commensurate with the degree of threat of objective situations. The manifestations of anxiety disorder are: nervousness, anxiety, difficulty in concentration, extreme sensitivity, overreaction to minor stimuli, and difficulty in decision-making. Physical symptoms include rapid heartbeat, excessive sweating, persistent muscle tension, frequent micturition and urgency, and sleep disorder.

The common anxiety reaction among students is exam anxiety. Its performance is that the exam is approaching and the mood is extremely tense; Can't concentrate during the exam, narrow the scope of perception, rigid thinking, panic, unable to play the normal level; I can't relax for a long time after the exam.

The causes of students' anxiety symptoms are the unified examination of the school and the continuous and excessive pressure to enter higher schools; Parents expect too much from their children; Students compete excessively; Experience of many academic failures, etc. Some people have a personality foundation that can easily induce anxiety, are nervous and timid, overestimate difficult situations, pay too much attention to slight physical discomfort, and blame themselves too much for setbacks and failures. These personality tendencies can be called anxiety qualities.

Using muscle relaxation and systematic desensitization methods and self-help cognitive correction procedures to guide students to use positive self-dialogue in the exam, such as "I can cope with this exam", "academic performance is not important, learning is important" and "no matter what the exam result is, it will not be the last time", which has a good effect on relieving students' exam anxiety.

(2) Depression

Depression is a neurosis characterized by persistent depression. Excessive depression is usually accompanied by severe anxiety. Anxiety is an individual's first reaction to a tense situation. If one is convinced that this situation cannot be changed or controlled, depression will replace anxiety as the main symptom.

The manifestations of depression: first, negative emotions, sadness, decadence, indifference, loss of satisfaction and joy of life; Second, negative cognitive tendency, inferiority, incompetence, looking at things from the negative side, blaming themselves, and not having much hope for the future; Third, lack of motivation, passivity and enthusiasm; Fourth, physical fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite and so on.

Depression is caused by psychological reasons and there are various theoretical explanations. Most patients with depression can gradually return to normal with or without treatment, but some people have a tendency to relapse. When counseling students with depressive symptoms, we should first pay attention to giving emotional support and encouragement to the parties; Encourage students to do what they can with a firm and gentle attitude, take active actions, and experience success and the fun of interpersonal communication from activities. Secondly, cognitive behavioral therapy can also be used to change students' habitual self-deprecating thinking.

Type and inappropriate attribution model of success or failure, cultivate a more positive view of yourself and the future. Finally, taking antidepressants can relieve symptoms.

(3) obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder includes obsessive-compulsive concept and obsessive-compulsive behavior. The concept of compulsion means that the party concerned can't help thinking about what he doesn't want to think about; Compulsory behavior refers to the repeated behavior that the parties are unwilling to perform. If he doesn't think and do this, he will feel extremely anxious. Forced hand washing, forced counting, repeated examination and forced ritual movements are common compulsive symptoms in life. Most people have had the concept of compulsion, but only when it interferes with our normal adaptation is it a manifestation of neurosis.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder has various explanations. Some people think that compulsive ideas and behaviors are an alternative way for us to unconsciously prevent threatening impulses from entering consciousness. A person who is busy with compulsive ritual actions and is full of trivial compulsive thoughts will inevitably have no chance to think about those threatening events and thoughts. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is also related to one's personality characteristics. Some patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have such characteristics: subjective willfulness, excessive love for cleanliness, excessive caution, attention to trivial matters, rigid living habits, and often strong moral concepts. In addition, adults forbid children to express negative emotions, which is a very representative background feature of children's obsessive-compulsive disorder. Morita therapy in Japan emphasizes the client's efforts to control obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and the concentration and expectation of symptoms caused by such efforts, which plays a role in maintaining and enhancing obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Therefore, in order to correct obsessive-compulsive symptoms, we should give up the intention of useless control over obsessive-compulsive concepts and adopt the attitude of "enduring pain and letting nature take its course". Another effective way to treat obsessive-compulsive behavior is to "expose and stop the reaction", such as letting people who have compulsive washing behavior touch the "dirty" things they are afraid of, and at the same time resolutely stop their washing impulse and forbid washing.

(4) Phobia

Phobia is an irrational fear of certain things and scenes that are not really harmful. Fear: phobia can be divided into simple phobia (that is, fear of a particular thing, action or situation; Fear), agoraphobia (that is, fear of large areas: waters, empty streets) and social phobia. Social phobia is common among middle school students, including fear of interacting with the opposite sex. People with social phobia are afraid to speak in social situations (such as speaking at a party or at a public dinner), afraid that they will expose their anxiety because of trembling hands, blushing, trembling voice and stuttering, and feel that they are not natural in speaking, and they are afraid to look up at each other's eyes.

Psychoanalytic sources believe that terror is the replacement of anxiety. That is, individuals transfer anxiety to less dangerous things, thus avoiding anxiety about the source of anxiety. Behaviorism holds that horror is learned from direct experience (for example, being attacked by a dog develops into fear of dogs), or from observation (for example, observing parents' fear of a certain scene makes children form similar horror), or from signals (for example, when a student picks yellow flowers).

It's horrible to be stung by a bee and form a yellow flower. Cognitive psychologists believe that phobia comes from an individual's unrealistic assessment of the danger of certain things or situations.

Systematic desensitization is a common method to treat phobia, and it is best to use this method in time. Parents should have perseverance and patience to help students overcome school phobia; On the one hand, we should resolutely and kindly ask our children to go back to school and adapt to school life. On the other hand, improve the interpersonal relationship in the class and create a free and relaxed learning atmosphere. In addition, it is also of great significance to reduce the study pressure appropriately and let students have a successful experience.

(5) Personality disorder and personality defect

Personality disorder is a long-term fixed maladaptive behavior pattern, which consists of some immature and inappropriate stress coping or problem solving methods. People with personality disorders are similar to those with neurosis, and they are not divorced from reality and have no obvious behavioral confusion. There are many kinds of personality disorders. For example, people with dependent personality disorder have a passive life orientation, can't make decisions and accept responsibilities, and have a tendency of self-denial; People with antisocial personality disorder have two remarkable characteristics: one is the lack of sympathy and care for others, and the other is the lack of shame and guilt. Personality disorder is mostly used in adults, and similar behaviors of children and adolescents under 18 are usually called personality defect, conduct disorder or social deviance behavior.

Personality disorder is the product of personal innate quality and acquired education. Losing parents' love from childhood, being spoiled from childhood without punishment or inconsistent punishment, being protected and never frustrated, so I can't understand and sympathize with others' pain. Examples of incorrect behavior provided by parents are all important factors affecting the formation of personality disorder. Bandura's social learning principle provides an example of good behavior for people with personality disorders, rewards them for imitating good behavior, and urges them to incorporate social norms and external values into their self-structure, which has a certain effect on correcting their anti-social behavior.

(6) Sexual deviation

Sexual deviation refers to the bad adaptation of teenagers in the process of sexual development, such as excessive masturbation, infatuation with pornographic books and periodicals, puppy love, improper sexual games, mild gender identity difficulties and so on. , and generally do not belong to sexual psychological disorder. However, effective intervention should be given to these maladaptive behaviors. Masturbation itself is not a psychological obstacle, it is not harmful to the body, nor is it a sin, but we should pay attention to the psychological conflict brought about by the wrong concept of masturbation. Excessive masturbation should be corrected by diverting attention, such as participating in cultural and sports activities.

(7) Eating disorders

Eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia and pica, among which anorexia nervosa is a serious weight disorder caused by improper dieting. Anyone who suddenly loses 25% of his normal weight because of the patient's aversion to eating is regarded as a symptom of anorexia. Anorexia nervosa mostly occurs in women (20 times more girls than boys). Its symptoms are extreme aversion to food, even fear, weakness of limbs, and amenorrhea in some girls. Due to the constant pressure from the family, the parties may become grumpy. The formation of anorexia nervosa may be related to teenagers.

It is related to the wrong practice of extremely restricting diet because of obesity and the attitude of parents who pay too much attention to their children's body shape or posture. Anorexia nervosa can be corrected by behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy.

(8) Sleep disorder

Sleep disorders include insomnia, oversleeping, sleepwalking, night terrors and nightmares. Insomnia may be caused by stress events, mental or physical overwork, or it may be a companion of neurosis. Night terrors may be related to temporary mental disorders in children's development. Nightmares are related to students' emotional stress. Usually, muscle relaxation can be used to treat insomnia.

Third, the significance of mental health education

(A) the need to prevent mental illness and protect students' mental health

Relevant surveys show that the mental health status of students in China is worrying. In recent years, the direct motivation of primary and secondary school teachers in China to spontaneously carry out various forms of mental health education is to help students overcome various psychological obstacles and prevent the occurrence of psychological diseases. School is the main place for students' mental health education.

(2) Improve students' psychological quality and promote the sound development of their personality.

Before becoming independent members of society, students will experience a series of contradictions in development and life problems. The psychological conflicts, contradictions and troubles experienced by children are quite special. Children are eager for teachers to give them sincere guidance and help in their life journey on the premise of respecting their growing independence. In a more positive sense, mental health education is to improve students' psychological quality and promote their sound personality development.

(c) Cooperate with and supplement the daily education and teaching work of the school.

Improving students' psychological quality through mental health education can provide a good psychological background for the effective implementation of moral education.