Notes

Recognize and manage different types of stresses as they arise.
Develop awareness of mental and emotional disorders (such as ADHD and eating disorders) and possibilities for their treatment.
Recognize self-esteem and understand its process when developing and maintaining relationships with family, friends, and members of the community.
Grieve effectively.
Make healthy decisions.
Express emotions and feelings in ways that are appropriate for a given context.
communicate
defense mechanisms
emotions
empathy
hierarchy
phobia
self-actualization
self-esteem

Emotions are sometimes also called feelings. Emotions are what you feel when your mind and body communicate to let you know how to react to the world. Emotions can sometimes be easy to identify—you can be absolutely mad that your brother borrowed your DVD without asking; you can be elated about meeting a new best friend. Other times, emotions can be confusing—did she really mean that hurtful thing she said or was she joking? Do I feel good about how I handled that confrontation, or should I feel guilty? Knowing the different types of emotions and healthy ways to express them is an important part of staying healthy.

Types of Emotions
Love
Love involves the expression of affection, respect, and concern. Love can take the form of self-love and love of others. Love of things is not actually love, because love must have the potential for mutuality—what you love must have the potential to love you back.

Think and Click What are some ways a person can appropriately show love for self or love for another?

Happiness
Expressing happiness comes easily to many people: when a person is truly happy, he or she often smiles or acts excited and animated or serene and content. Happiness describes the emotion people feel when they are personally satisfied or feel positive in reaction to something that has happened. When a person is happy, he or she has increased energy and creativity and is generally able to be more socially open with others
Anger
Often people express anger in reaction to being hurt either physically or emotionally. People express anger in different ways, from suppressing and hiding it, to resorting to hostility toward self or others. Expressing anger appropriately, while not hurting self or others, is one key to developing mental and emotional health.

Think and Click What are some ways a person can appropriately express their anger?

Sadness
Sadness is a normal and often healthy reaction to things that happen to people every day. People feel sad for many reasons, including feeling rejected by someone, being disappointed in oneself or in some bad news, or in response to losing a loved one. Sadness can be a brief reaction or it can last for an extended period of time, as in the case of managing the process of grief. People often express sadness by withdrawing physically and emotionally, by showing lower levels of energy, and being discouraged more than normal.

Fear
Fear is a natural reaction to surprise or threat. When a person is startled by something unexpected, he or she often responds first with a reaction of fear. Fear often causes reactions of heightened alertness, or a “fight or flight�? response that helps the body act to keep itself safe in the face of danger. Fear, though an unpleasant emotion for most people to experience, can be very useful in maintaining both physical and emotional health.

Fear becomes unhealthy when it becomes habitual in response to an imagined threat. At this point, fear has developed into a phobia. For example, someone who has xenophobia is afraid of strangers. Xenophobes might imagine that every stranger they meet wants to bring harm to them. A xenophobe can no longer function normally in daily activities. Since they are often very serious and sometimes life-threatening, phobias often require a person to get help by seeking professional counseling