IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH IN POPULATIONS CHARACTERIZED BY HARDSHIP, ADVERSITY AND VULNERABILITY
Mental health is a state characterized by the capacity to regulate cognitive, affective and social conditions, enabling adaptability and the resolution of demands required in different contexts. The capacity to respond to these demands requires competencies involving functional learning, memory and attention, as well as the ability to regulate emotions, control impulsivity, and frequently exercise awareness, intelligence, planning and flexibility.
These are abilities structured during the modeling of the central nervous system that occurs during development, involving biological, neurological and environmental factors. This modeling begins at fertilization, but the greatest impact on the organization of these competencies occurs in childhood and adolescence, as a result of the stimulating action of the environment and its impact on the CNS, shaping neurological responses and structuring circuits that automate behaviors beneficial to adaptability.
Stimulation with positive reinforcement, and assistance in nutrition, health, recreation, education and affection, increases the likelihood of shaping positive cognitive, affective and behavioral competencies. In contrast, environments marked by neglect, abuse, and lack of assistance in nutrition, reinforcement, and support in educational and family processes increase vulnerability and the likelihood of shaping a CNS prepared to process adverse, difficult and stressful conditions poorly.
The impact generated by adverse environments is identifiable from childhood and adolescence, manifesting in learning and attention problems, emotional problems such as depression and suicidal ideation, anxiety, and behavioral problems involving impulsive, explosive, aggressive and antisocial actions, as well as a tendency toward addiction and joining groups that promote actions against humanity. In adulthood, these problems manifest as difficulties in workplace and family coexistence, with the possibility of intrafamily abuse and the use of punishment in child-rearing, as well as the development of unhealthy habits such as poor diet, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and addictions; and in old age, as a result of the irregular regeneration of cells and tissues, difficulties increase with pathological aging and chronic metabolic diseases (diabetes, hypertension, obesity) and neurodegenerative diseases (dementia, Alzheimer’s).
In Latin America, there is high vulnerability to problems in adaptability and deficits in mental health, caused by society’s exposure to adverse circumstances such as inequality, corruption, conflict, poverty, and difficulties in achieving, with dignity, healthy nutrition, public services, education, recreation and justice, increasing the vulnerability of shaping individuals with selfish, antisocial traits and impairments in cognitive and behavioral processes.
Improving social and environmental conditions remains a utopia, and this has broadened reflection toward structuring lines of research focused on improving mental health conditions and neuropsychological functioning in individuals who develop in extreme environments such as war and extreme poverty, and under the constraints of managing ecological and emerging strategies of resourcefulness available to their inhabitants. It is necessary to open a reflective space to identify successful, reliable and valid experiences with impact on the mental health of our populations, allowing for the structuring of protocols for their monitoring and evaluation.
