ASPECTS OF ILL HEALTH 0

ASPECTS OF ILL HEALTH 0

ASPECTS OF ILL HEALTH

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Aspects of Ill health

Introduction

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined health to be the state of complete wellness, physically, socially and mentally well and not just merely the absence of infirmity or disease. However, this definition has over time been subject to controversy reasons being that the definition may be limited to implementation. Therefore, more recently health has been described to be the ability of the body to adapt to the new threats and infirmities throughout life. The meaning of health over time has evolved with the aim of keeping up with the biomedical perspective (Ackerman, 2019). The early definitions of health often focused on the theme of the ability of the body to function; it was viewed as a state of normal functioning which could be disrupted anytime with an illness. Such a definition of health is- a state that is characterized by mental, anatomic and physiologic ability to work and deal with stress. As a shift that came from viewing disease as a state of thinking to a process also caused a shift in the health definition to the ability of the body to maintain homeostasis and recover from insults. However, health, in general, is influenced and determined by various aspects which include social, economic and physical environment and a person’s behaviors (Ackerman, 2019). This paper is aimed at bringing together phycological theory and research to analyze an individual experience of several different biological and psychological aspects of ill health.

Cognitive distortions of depression

Cognitive distortion is defined essentially as a distorted often a negative way of thinking. Cognitive distortion is also known as the biased perspective that people take on themselves and the world that is around them, irrational thoughts and beliefs that people unknowingly reinforce overtime (Rnic, Dozois and Martin, 2016). Cognitive distortion is of many types. However, all this type of cognitive distortion has these three things in common: One, it is considered a persuasive way of thinking of perceiving reality. Two, that cognitive distortion is always inaccurate or false. Three, cognitive distortions can manifest into mental issues.

Interestingly, most people who suffer from cognitive distortion do not know that are suffering from the condition. This is because cognitive distortions are never ideal for obvious reasons; it is probably difficult to escape them for one’s life entirety. Cognitive distortions, however, becomes a big problem when this manner of thinking ends up being persistent and chronic and not anymore periodic which often manifest as depression., anxiety and at times mental issues. If the cognitive distortion gets chronic depression settles in which is described to be a state of one being in low mood and aversion to activity (Rnic, Dozois and Martin, 2016). It affects a person’s behavior, tendencies, thoughts, and sense of well-being. Depression is marked by inactivity; more time spent sleeping and significant decrease or increase in appetite.

This theory of cognitive Distortions of Depression has shown to be evident in the reviewed case of Eva-Marie Saunders a twenty-seven-year-old from Lincoln suffering from HIV. Eva-Marie contracted HIV four years ago from an on and off relation with Gordon. The theory of cognitive distortion of depression became evident from the time when Eva-Marie became aware of her status at the GP. It is shown that Eva-Marie became meager evidence of depression, she stopped from her normal routine and how she usually did things- she often would spend many hours sleeping. It is said that Eva-Marie was not able to focus and some days she would be too tired to get any work done and some sleepless nights losing her appetite and the feeling of being worthless shadowed her-evidence of various forms of cognitive distortion. Fortune telling as an aspect of cognitive distortion where a person tends to predict the future but often foresees adverse outcomes was evident in the case of Eva-Marie where she could not see how her life could continue suffering from HIV. Additionally, Eva-Marie withdrew from her friends and avoided any form of social contact which shows evidence of depression as she isolated herself from the rest of the world and only stayed enclosed to her feelings and thoughts (Rnic, Dozois and Martin, 2016). The theory of cognitive distortions of depression has fully explained the health behavior of Eva-Marie Saunders.

Health Belief Model

The health belief model is defined to be a psychological health behavior change model that was developed to explain and predict health behaviors in particular regarding the uptake of the health care services. The Health Belief Model outlines that people’s beliefs regarding health issues, perceived benefits of actions and barriers to action and also self-efficacy explain engagement or lack thereof in health-promoting behavior (Herold, 2016). The model has constructs which are proposed to be different for different individuals and predict engagement in behaviors that are health related like getting of vaccinations, getting screened or even exercising. These constructs include perceived severity which describes the assessment of the health problem’s severity and the potential consequences. The health belief model suggests that individuals that perceive a certain health problem to be serious are more likely to indulge in behaviors that prevent the health issue from occurring.

The perceived seriousness embodies beliefs about the issue itself together with the broader impacts of the health issue on functioning in social and work roles. Perceived Susceptibility which refers to the assessment of risk for developing a health issue. The model predicts that persons who perceive that they are susceptible to a particular health issue will engage in behaviors that aim at reducing the risk of developing the health issue (Herold, 2016). Those individuals with a lower perceived susceptibility may often deny that they are at risk of falling victim to a particular health issue-these individual are more likely to be engaging in risky, and unhealthy behaviors. Perceived barriers, which suggest that other health-related issues are as a function of perceived barriers to taking action. This refers to a person’s assessment of the obstacles to change in behavior (Herold, 2016). Even when one perceives a health issue as threatening and strongly believes that a particular action will effectively reduce the threat, barriers may potentially limit engagement in health promotion behavior. The perceived benefits need to outweigh the barriers to cause a change in behavior to occur. Modifying variables which suggest that an individual’s characteristics inclusive of their psychosocial, demographic and structural variables have the potential of influencing the perceptions of healthcare-related behaviors. These demographic variables include but not limited to the sex, ethnicity, education, and age.

The psychosocial variable is personality, peer and group pressure and the structural variable is the inherent knowledge on a health issue and recent contact with the health issue. Cues of action the health belief model posits that a cue is important for promoting engagement in health promotion behaviors. Examples of a cue to action include postcard reminders the intensity of the cues needed to prompt any action is different between individuals by seriousness, barriers, benefit and perceived susceptibility.

The Health Belief Model has shown to be evident in our reviewed case of Eva-Marie. It is seen that after she tested positive to HIV, he behavior changed from what she considered normal and also her view on healthcare and her belief also played a part in this (Herold, 2016). Eva-Marie took a considerate amount of time to come to terms with her status. Eva-Marie was an educated Asian-British what came from quite a traditional background which has a significant impact on how she processed her illness. This shows the aspect of the health belief model as in her tradition GP was not trusted within the culture even visiting the GP for stress was something people from her culture did not do. This is because in Eva-Marie’s culture they believed that illness was just a basic part of life and one needs to adjust to it and continue to live. Though the stigma that came with knowing her status she pushed herself to accepts her situation and adapt eventually. It is seen that Eva-Marie’s belief in God gave her the extra push in accepting the situation. Reviewing the case showed that she believed that God would take care of her no matter the situation that her ultimate purpose was not of this world and the suffering was for God’s greater good and its this that gave her the motivation to get up and return to the GP to discuss treatment options (Herold, 2016). Also, the aspect of perceived barriers in the Health belief model was evident in this case.

Even though Eva-Marie had the intentions of starting treatment, she actively resisted being part of an HIV support group. She could not possibly understand how hanging out with people talking about HIV could help her in any way. Eva-Marie did not potentially see any way she could lead a fulfilling life while being HIV positive and speaking about the situation would not help her in any way. This outlined the aspect of perceived benefit where she did not perceive the HIV support groups to be of any benefit. Therefore, this influenced her behavior where she for a long time contested the advice from the doctor to join a support group until she conformed and attended one meeting but after stayed weeks again before she could bring herself again to attend. The Health belief model fully explained the behaviors as evident in the case of Eva-Marie.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is described to be an individual’s belief in their own ability to achieve goals. It was defined by Albert Bandura as a personal assessment and judgment of how well an individual can execute courses of action that are required to handle prospective situations. The expectation of this concept determines if an individual will have the ability to show coping behaviors and for how long effort will prevail in case of an obstacle (Themes, 2019). Those with a high self-efficacy will put in an effort that if executed well will lead to successful outcomes while those with low self-efficacy are more likely to cease putting in the effort early and end up failing. The concept of self-efficacy has been studied in different perspectives, noting that various paths which lea to development of self-efficacy; the dynamics of self-efficacy and lack thereof in various settings; the interactions that are between self-concept and self-efficacy and habits of attribution which contribute or detract from self-efficacy. The belief in the innate ability means valuing one’s conative strengths-perseverance and determination to overcome hurdles that would interfere with the innate abilities to meet goals.

Self-efficacy has an effect on various areas of a personal endeavor. By determining an individual which they hold regarding their ability to affect situations, it strongly influences both the individual’s power actually facing challenges competently and choices that the individual is likely to make. However, these effects are in particular compelling and apparent with regard to behaviors which affect health. The choices affecting health are all dependent on self-efficacy. The beliefs of self-efficacy are cognitions which determine if a health behavior change will be affected, how much effort will be used and for how long will it be sustained to face failures and obstacles (Themes, 2019). This concept has its influence on how high individuals set their goals on health. With an increased self-efficacy an individual will tend to have much greater confidence in their abilities and are thus likely to indulge in healthy behaviors. An increased indulgence in healthy behaviors results in positive health outcomes like increased quality of life.

In our case with Eva-Marie, this concept came out. When Eva-Marie is asked how she was able to manage coming out of that phase of stigma she commends her inner strength. It is evident that though her cultural beliefs on treatment and medication she was considering to start treatment.

As much as she fell victim of the stigma that came with the situation, she always pushed to overcome it. She dragged for days to attend the HIV support groups but eventually manage to join one in her area from which she got to meet other people in similar situations and learned how different people handled the situation. This draws from the concept of self-efficacy where her will to accept and adapt to the new situation influenced her behaviors where she became open and move from isolation to making friends and socializing with others, and this has made Eva-Marie feel unstoppable.

Her effort to overcome and adapt was sustainable as it enabled her face obstacle that came her way. She revealed that she found it hard to keep up with HIV antiretroviral therapy. She found it difficult to take her daily medication as it was hard to fit it in in her busy work schedule, she often would forget and felt overwhelmed and incapable of managing it all (Themes, 2019). And with the stigma knowing her family does not generally trust doctors or medication and to some extent, she also felt the same-she however, decide to let go of these beliefs and made a concerted effort to take her medication. And with support from her doctor, she now learned to take her pills consistently.

Conclusion

Health has been considered an aspect of life that is significant in many ways. The state of well-being has its benefits to the life of an individual. There various factors which affect this state of well-being that need to be looked into to effect health promotion behaviors to avoid ill health. However, ill health is influenced by various aspects; also they include social, economic and physical environment and a person’s behaviors. These aspects play a significant on how an individual behaves in the case of being in a state of ill health. One of the theories as seen in the case of Eva-Marie is the Cognitive distortions of Depression. Where cognitive distortion as described to be a distorted often a negative way of thinking. It was reviewed that Cognitive distortions become a big problem when this distorted manner of thinking ends up being persistent and chronic and not anymore periodic which often manifest as depression.

Another model was the Health Belief Model which was a model that was developed to explain and predict health behaviors in particular regarding the uptake of the health care services. This highlighted that a person’s belief, values, and even culture affect how the individual takes up health services in out case Eva-Marie was an Asian-British from a culture rooted background who did not think best of doctors or medication and this at first caused Marie not to consider getting further treatment options. And finally, the concept of self-efficacy which is described to be an individual’s belief in their own ability to achieve goals- defined by Albert Bandura as a personal assessment and judgment of how well an individual can execute courses of action that are required to handle with prospective situations. Self-efficacy is evident in Eva-Marie’s as she attributed her success to overcome the stigma that came with the situation to her inner strength this showed will that Eva-Marie was putting in an effort to overcome and adapt to the situation and it was sustainable as the effort was able to help her face her struggles.

References

Ackerman, C. (2019). What is Self-Efficacy Theory in Psychology? Definition & Examples (+PDF). [online] Positivepsychologyprogram.com. Available at: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/self-efficacy/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].

Herold, E. (2016). The Health Belief Model. Journal of School Health, 53(1), pp.19-21.

Rnic, K., Dozois, D. and Martin, R. (2016). Cognitive distortions, humor styles, and depression. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(3), pp.348-362.

Themes, U. (2019). Socio-behavioral aspects of health and illness. [online] Basic medical Key. Available at: https://basicmedicalkey.com/socio-behavioural-aspects-of-health-and-illness/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2019].