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Concept and essence

In psychology, the concept of “problem” has several meanings.
To identify difficulties that are psychological in nature, you need to focus on the root of their occurrence. For a psychological problem, it is internal: it is associated with a person’s idea of ​​the world, himself, and interpersonal interactions. Psychological problems often have subtle symptoms and interfere with implementation in several areas of life. There are 4 main zones that affect psychological problems:

1. Individual difficulties. Closely related to physicality. A person who has disorders in this area often has physical health problems. He has obvious or imaginary flaws in appearance, sexual dysfunction, and may have a disability or chronic illness.
2. Subjective difficulties. Associated with the implementation of purposeful actions. People who have problems in this area have a weak will, a low level of intelligence, and they do not have enough motivation for self-development. Subjective problems not only limit opportunities, but also prevent them from looking for ways out of difficult situations.
3. Personal difficulties. They prevent a person from being a full-fledged member of society and participating in social life. Such people have low self-esteem and do not feel part of the group.
4. Individual difficulties. Associated with self-realization. The most difficult type of problem to understand because it is difficult to describe and classify. Such problems include fears associated with life losses: the sudden death of loved ones, illness, a feeling of emptiness, loss of the meaning of life.

Almost every person has psychological problems, but the level of psychological literacy remains low. Often a person lives with a problem all his life, not realizing that he can get rid of it. Therefore, it is important to be able to notice the symptoms and get rid of them in time.

Losing the meaning of life

About those who do not look for easy ways

There are also people who, seemingly unconsciously, but constantly create difficulties and severe trials for themselves in life.

Psychologist Vadim Petrovsky has a series of works devoted to what he calls “risk for the sake of risk” and “sublimation of the level of difficulty.” He experimentally showed that there are people who steadily strive for the boundary of a given situation. They approach it to test their capabilities and the capabilities of the border. A classic example is extreme athletes who create the most dangerous situations for themselves. This is also exploratory behavior. In children, by the way, the motivation to explore boundaries is also highly developed. They test themselves: can I hang by my hands, say, at a dangerous height, or eat something inedible. And this often ends badly.

These are not exactly the kind of people I had in mind: those who walk on the edge and those who create problems for themselves are usually completely different people. Although, perhaps, they have something in common - people strive to overcome difficulties in order to feel alive. As Proust wrote, “life is an effort in time” - and if there is no effort, then there is no feeling of life.

Yes, you overcome difficulties to feel the reality of your existence. You feel it especially after the test. It can also be very different here. One person told me how he and his friends suddenly stopped skydiving after one of them crashed. I think they treated it like a game. But real death changed everything. But it also happens differently when this feeling of the authenticity of life in extreme conditions becomes a super value. Often, for example, pilots do not want to leave their flying profession and try to feign health when they can no longer fly. Because for them, flying is a completely different quality of being.

Psychosomatics

At first glance, mental health does not have much impact on physical health. Patients, when visiting a doctor, describe only physical symptoms, without mentioning psychological difficulties. The doctor cannot make a correct diagnosis, treatment is delayed and does not produce results. The physical manifestations of the disease will not go away until the true cause, the psychological one, is eliminated.

To understand how nervous tension affects the body, you need to open an anatomical atlas. All organs are connected and united by two systems: circulatory and lymphatic. Normally, all processes function continuously: nutrients enter the body with the blood, and together with the lymphatic fluid they are removed from the body.

But if the psychological balance is disturbed, nervous tension arises. The brain, as an internal manager, triggers a survival mechanism that causes the adrenal glands to produce a stress hormone. In a situation of real danger, this gives a person the strength to run away or fight. The psychological problem is not perceived as an objective danger, the person remains tense and the excess hormones are not consumed. Gradually, the stress hormone interferes with the functioning of the brain, digestive and cardiovascular systems.

The somatic manifestation of the disease is the presence of symptoms in the absence of a physiological cause. Wandering pains, muscle spasms, swelling, migraines, a sudden attack of allergies - all these signs can be somatic. If tests and ultrasound do not help find the cause of the malaise, you need to consult a psychologist.

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Kinds

It is difficult to create a unified classification of psychological difficulties: there are too many of them and they are often specific. The most common problems:

1. Communication problems. These include a feeling of loneliness, inability to establish contacts with other people, fear of people and communication. In advanced cases, communication problems deprive a person of all development opportunities: in relationships, work, personal life.
2. Age crises. The most well-known problems of the teenage crisis are aggression, mood swings, and a tendency toward antisocial behavior. Crises accompany a person throughout his life. Knowing this makes it easier to bear them.
3. Family problems. A common type of psychological difficulty that affects other aspects of life. Child-parent relationships determine a person's goals and aspirations, even if he denies it. Solving problems within the family usually requires long-term therapy and is associated with strong emotional experiences.
4. Problems in relationships with the opposite sex. These include emotional and sexual disorders, fear of relationships.
5. Problems of individual development. These include problems that were provoked by the external situation. A person who grew up in a traditional family has a high level of trust in the world and low anxiety, while a person from a dysfunctional, dysfunctional family has the opposite.

It is impossible to unambiguously determine which problem is the main one. It is always a complex of reasons affecting a person. And they also need to be eliminated comprehensively, otherwise the symptoms will constantly return.

What kind of future are we preparing children for?

Aren’t you afraid of a future without difficulties - when robots will work for people, and computers will think? In such a future, research activity is not really needed.

But I don’t believe in such a future. Everything is new for a child, and he will explore the world one way or another - this is how a person is biologically designed. Like a monkey, he will first explore all this. Now there is a funny video going around the Internet, a cat rides a robot vacuum cleaner and plays with it. And the child will use forms of exploratory behavior characteristic of a person in relation to such an object. I think there's only more incentive to smarten up.

As for smartphones, as computers learn to perform some human functions, humans will take on other tasks. Computers, like vacuum cleaners, simply free up our resources, giving us a chance to do something more meaningful. I remember a saying about one book: “Smart people, after reading this book, became even smarter, and stupid people - even dumber.” It's the same with a computer.

When will artificial intelligence overtake human intelligence?

I don’t believe this - human intelligence will always be needed. I think that our intelligence will be hybrid or, as they now say, augmented. Our mind will become more powerful due to interaction with different computer systems.

So, should we not worry about artificially creating constructive difficulties for children - they will find them themselves?

Difficulties are necessary, and we all create difficulties for children, including developmental ones. For example, when we play chess with them and do not give in or give in moderately, adjusting the degree of difficulty. Here, of course, the issue of balance is important - for example, losing greatly demotivates children, but the child must still face the fact that he can lose. There is no easy solution, it is the art of balance. A person must have experience of failure. If someone thinks that he succeeds in everything, this is an inadequate attitude towards life.

This is similar to the story with stress - there is developmental stress and destructive stress.

Absolutely right. If a child is very passionate about the game itself, losing will not upset him too much; he is interested in the activity itself. And losing then is simply an indicator that you don’t know enough yet. And if the main thing for you is to win on a personal level, losing can really have destructive consequences. It is important not to lose the child’s trust.

There is a trick for teaching how to swim - throwing someone into the water. Once upon a time, I read a novel in which the character had such an experience as a child, around five or six years old. His father threw him into the pool so he could swim out. And the mother looked at it. And this character lives his whole life with the feeling that his father may have done the right thing, but he cannot forgive his mother, who stood and watched. Such subtle nuances can greatly influence the result.

Perhaps there is some personality trait that allows some people to easily tolerate such things, while others find it difficult?

There are people who are very sensitive to provocations; they perceive them as undermining trust in the world. I often give students an example from a story about a talented teenage fencer who had a psychological problem: in training he fenced very well, but in competitions he lost and behaved too constrained. He had a coach who also used various provocations. He believed that all means are good to achieve results.

So, the time has come for some important performance, the shackled guy is warming up, a coach comes up to him and shows him an expensive ballpoint pen; in those days they had just appeared and were very rare. “Look what they gave me for a while,” and walked away. The guy is about to leave, then the coach returns: “Where is the pen?” - “I think he left it there on the bench.” “There’s no pen,” the coach says. - They gave it to me for a while. You betrayed me". And the guy, in a state of complete prostration, goes out onto the platform and wins, because his psychological dominant has shifted. The coach correctly understood that he just needed to be distracted. When the guy comes down, he is met by a smiling coach and says: “I did this on purpose. Here’s the pen, everything’s fine.” And then the guy leaves this section.

So this is a failed strategy?

The important question here is about the planning horizon, about what goals the person creating the difficulties sets. The coach took into account only a short horizon, setting the goal to win the competition. But from the point of view of the distant planning horizon, he did not achieve his goals - he lost a talented athlete.

This athlete turned out to be sensitive to deception, but at the same time he would cope well with honestly created, albeit extreme, difficulties. If we talk about personality types, there are people who are more sensitive to physical difficulties, and others - to interpersonal ones. There are people with fighting qualities who cope more easily with difficulties created by others, simply because they are mobilized by fighting motivation. And if there is no enemy, they cannot mobilize. And there are people who give up if they know that someone is doing something specifically against them - this awareness alone completely unsettles them.

It turns out that there is sensitivity to physical tests - and there is ethical sensitivity. What is their optimal level?

I think that the optimum here is determined by our basic ideas about the future, about the hostility or benevolence of this world. If we believe that everything will be bad, everyone will be at each other’s throats, then we must, like it or not, cultivate fighting qualities in a person. And if we believe that everything will be fine in the world, on the contrary, ethical sensitivity.

I also want to remind you of one story - a fantastic one, “All the Tenali Borogovs.” Children accidentally find a package sent from the future. There, the scientist conducted an experiment with a time machine, put his children's toys in a box and sent them into the past. And children found these puzzle toys, specially designed to adapt the brain to the perception of an unknown dimension of space. Thanks to these toys, their minds change, and they eventually leave our world, from adults who no longer understand them, into another dimension. In reality, we also have to prepare children for a completely different life - in the future, but we ourselves do not understand what this life will be like and often prepare them, on the contrary, for life in the past.

It is precisely because children must prepare for a future that we do not really imagine that we must in every possible way contribute to the development of the child’s own research activity. We need to motivate him to research and create comfortable safe spaces for this. Although if a person is creative, then her research will certainly touch upon some dangerous or socially unacceptable areas. But the motivation to explore the world still needs to be developed. Here we can create “developmental difficulties”, gradually complicating the level of tasks, creating problematic situations.

It seems to me that it is also important that when we prepare children for some kind of future, even unconsciously, we thereby create this future.

Yes, sure. And if we prepare all children for life in a hostile, aggressive world, then most likely this is how the world will become.

Causes of difficulties

A psychological problem is a reaction of the psyche to the external environment, and the cause should be sought not in the person, but in his environment. Factors that make adaptation difficult:

1. Mistakes in education. Too much parental control is just as dangerous as indifference. In the first case, the child is deprived of the feeling of himself as an independent person. In the second, he cannot trust his parents, feels unnecessary and lonely.
2. High expectations. If a person is successful in his dreams, but in reality he fails to realize himself, he develops narcissistic disorder. It often develops in adolescents and becomes the cause of drug addiction, aggression, and loss of contact with reality.
3. Being in a dangerous situation. When a person finds himself in a situation that poses a real threat to life (for example, in a war zone), the psyche mobilizes all resources and is quickly depleted. If you manage to get out of the situation, PTSD develops - a disorder in which a person re-experiences the emotions that he experienced during the danger. Without treatment, this can lead to the development of paranoia and schizophrenia.

A psychologist should look for the cause of problems. If it detects an advanced disorder, medication may be needed. A psychiatrist is already doing this.

Aggression in teenagers

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Typical symptoms

The symptoms of psychological problems are wide-ranging. The appearance of one symptom does not indicate the presence of problems, but a combination of 3 or more signs should alert you. Typical signs:

• headache;
• nausea that appears in the morning, aversion to food;
• bloating, constipation;
• tingling in fingers;
• frequent viral diseases (colds, herpes)
• hand tremors, aching bones, like flu;
• severe itching, desire to wash hands;
• increased sweating;
• sudden weight loss or weight gain;
• cardiopalmus;
• cough and sore throat without other symptoms of acute respiratory infections;
• enuresis (especially in preschool children);
• strong feeling of hunger, constant overeating;
• feeling tired for no apparent reason;
• problems with potency, lack of sexual interest.

Separately, it is worth highlighting a panic attack as a unique set of symptoms indicating the presence of a psychological problem. A panic attack is a prolonged (from several minutes to several hours) state of discomfort in which the patient experiences a number of unpleasant sensations:

• coldness in the extremities, itching, goosebumps;
• difficulty breathing, chest pain;
• disorientation, feeling of “waking sleep”;
• attack of weakness;
• dizziness, fainting.

A panic attack, like other symptoms, appears suddenly. At first they happen rarely, then the frequency of manifestations increases. If it has been established that the cause is psychological and not physiological, special treatment will be required to eliminate it.

It turns out that the problem is the end of all joys?

What if we look at the problem differently, as something that helps us grow and develop? A businessman has much more problems than a saleswoman at a kiosk, at least they are larger-scale, but he also has larger goals, and if he is an honest businessman, then it is thanks to him that we - and thousands of other people - will drink high-quality dairy products or wear beautiful clothes.

A girl who lives with her mother and shuns men, who wants a family but is afraid of difficulties, also has fewer problems than a mother of 4 children. But the results in 20 years will be different - loneliness or a friendly, cheerful family. Although right now a mother with many children may be a little jealous of her single friends.

If we don’t want any problems at all, then we should live as quietly and unnoticed as possible, suppress any of our desires, not want anything, agree with everything, and only sometimes become indignant - when it really boils over. You can even consider it humility and patience and be completely satisfied with everything.

Diagnosis of mental state

The cause of a psychological problem can only be determined through personal consultation with a specialist. Psychologists use several search methods:

1. Conversation. Diagnosis begins with this. It is usually not possible to find a problem during the first conversation, but the psychologist notes which area of ​​life the client is reluctant to talk about and then works with it.
2. Tests. Various questionnaires, graphic techniques, and free choice tests help to identify hidden experiences and evaluate worldview.
3. Observation. It is carried out within a hospital, emergency room or simulated problem situation. A psychologist observes how a person behaves, how he speaks, gestures, and in what position he stands or sits. Gestures are almost impossible to control and can reveal information about a person's self-perception and worldview.
4. Hypnosis. If the patient is secretive, the psychologist puts him into a state of hypnosis. This allows you to identify repressed memories and get to experiences that the patient ignores.

Having identified what caused the development of the problem, the psychologist selects a suitable means of therapy:

• consultations (individual and group);
• therapeutic games;
• toning and relaxation exercises;
• art therapy, creative exercises, color and sound therapy;
• fairytale therapy, record keeping.

The duration of treatment and the need for more serious medications are selected individually. At the same time, the psychologist is engaged in education, increasing the patient’s level of awareness.

Attitude to problems

Yes, you can live your whole life without really achieving anything. It will only be difficult when a person really wants something, but does not have the skill to achieve goals. This is where suffering and torment begin - or you can think about what prevents us from having goals, having difficulties and at the same time living quite cheerfully and calmly? How to live joyfully and have difficulties at the same time? Isn't this masochism? But it is quite possible to enjoy life just like that and at the same time effectively solve problems that arise. I will even say that most of the joys come from the fact that you are satisfied with how you spent the day - you did a lot, did what you need and what you want, and took another step forward towards your goals.

What matters most is how we approach challenges. Either we go to meet them, look for ways, or we are tight and don’t want to see them. If we choose the second, then most often the situation does not budge for a long time or worsens. Only when I learned to motivate myself to take action did my attitude towards difficulties change and there was more joy in life. It becomes interesting, what new things will I learn, and how will I solve this. Overthinking only aggravates the problem and slows down its solution. Although the first impulse is usually the desire to think and worry alone. The main thing is that the problem does not stop us, but motivates us to take action and solve it.

Life without problems begins at the moment when we change our attitude towards problems and make the goal of our life not to avoid them, but to something larger, something that inspires and ignites us, for which we want to live and wake up in the morning.

How to prevent the development of mental disorders?

People are susceptible to stress to varying degrees, but even the most resilient need a regular “reset.” To prevent the development of psychological problems you can use:

1. Short meditations. This is a real phenomenon in the field of psychology: 5-7 minutes a day are enough to feel the result. Meditation is self-contemplation. You just need to close your eyes and breathe deeply, not paying attention to the surrounding noise. Meditation will help you regain strength in the afternoon and relieve fatigue in the evening. Practitioners claim that it helps not to age longer and maintains mental clarity.
2. Grounding. A technique close to meditation, but you don’t need to close your eyes. You need to focus your gaze on some beautiful object. For example, look at a flower or a painting. You should try to prevent extraneous thoughts from arising, thinking only about the chosen subject.
3. Keeping a diary. Writing down past events and impressions helps you rethink them and not get hung up on negative emotions.
4. Morning pages. A method to relieve obsessive thoughts. Immediately after waking up, you need to write 5-10 pages, writing down everything that comes to mind.
5. Water procedures. Washing is not only about hygiene. It has been proven that water calms and energizes. After a difficult day or unpleasant event, you need to take a bath or shower.

Also, the prevention of psychological problems will be maintaining a healthy lifestyle: a sufficient level of physical activity, proper nutrition, maintaining water balance. This is important for both young people and older people.

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