Hubris

Mahangin. This is a colloquial term given to people whose self-confidence is so strong it is similar to being near a low pressure area. In Physics, when the pressure is low, speed of air is fast. This could cause trees and other things be toppled down. Self-confidence is the key to success, of course! But, too much of it could be annoying and unhealthy.

In one review of earlier studies on self-esteem, researchers found that high self-confidence could sometimes have undesirable consequences. People with high self-esteem also tended to have worse relationships because they blamed their partners for any problems with the relationship. High self-esteem was also linked a higher frequency of violent and aggressive behaviors (Cherry, 2018).

In social encounters, there is really a balance of giving information about yourself and achievements and keeping professional silence if the information is not needed. Yet these loud people often display themselves as if they are the entitled individuals to do so while we (the lesser beings) ogle at their feigned “greatness”.

Maslow clearly stated that we all have needs. The lower version of esteem is the need for respect from others. This may include a need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher version manifests itself as the need for self-respect. Ergo, it is human nature to feel the need to be recognized.

Yet this might fall into a mental health issue once again. According to scientificamerican.com, new research suggests that nearly everyone will develop a psychological disorder at some point in their lives, but for most it’s temporary. But those who would hold on to such delusions and be held by the collar of their unmet needs might fall into the trap of being mentally ill.

So what then are these people who manifest hubris? Are they ill? Of course, we often get sick of their ways to the point that we want to get out of their zones to feel fresh air rather than die with their stink. Were they deprived of recognition when they were still young to the point that they want to fill in such need now that they have the power and the capacity? The answer could be yes. It has been researched many times and results stem down to childhood trauma.

Experiencing severe deprivation and neglect in childhood can have a lasting psychological impact into early adulthood, according to a study conducted at the University of Southampton, which has followed the mental health of a group of children adopted from Romanian institutions to UK families in the 1990s.

It is in this anchorage that psychologists view hubristic behavior as a counter-mechanism to cope on the traumatic experiences during childhood which grew to become a strong need to cope. Owen and Davidson (2009) said that Hubris syndrome is seen as an acquired condition, and therefore different from most personality disorders which are traditionally seen as persistent throughout adulthood. This is seen as a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has associated with overwhelming success.

In this times when we direly need cohesion and co-existence rather than division, it is but practical to view ourselves in the middle of the communities where we belong and scrutinize our contributions. It could be fair to lean on our strengths but to make this to make others feel inferior could be counterproductive. But the alarming thing is if we are the cause of turmoil and confusion due to the uncontrolled quirks blown out proportion. We might be thinking that we are the BEST among others yet they see us as pitifully SICK!

So, what then? It is now going back to journeying to the inner self. It is the ability to ask yourself: Am I being a tropical depression or a super typhoon in terms of presenting myself to others? If so, how can I make myself breeze into the lives of others like summer rain?

Cuckoo

During the eighties, being star-struck has a different reaction. The shriek is there and the religious awe of having the O-shaped mouth and the screaming were present as well. But the fans’ urge was to hug the star and try to plant a kiss or two on the personality. For months, the experience will be relived through the staccato delivery of the event to friends and acquaintances.

Today, the fans still scream and shriek shrilly. But the main goal is to get a selfie with the star so that they could post the pictures on the social media sites to be ogled by real-life and virtual friends.

Again, the question could be raised: is the picture more important than the experience? Is there a need to take a picture with famous personalities so that such fame could be experienced by the person once he/she posts the pictures on Facebook and other sites?

Social media have introduced a contemporary shift from broadcast to participatory media, through which content can now be produced, manipulated, and distributed by everyone with internet access (Jenkins, 2006). Because of this fact, anyone could now be a model, an actor or a singer in their own ways since there are platforms where they could upload their own versions of being a model, actor, musician, etc.

Humans have long demonstrated an interest in self-exploration. From early Greeks to present day, people have used self-study and self-observation to explore identity and sense of self. Trying to figure out who we are and what we’re about is a distinctly human pursuit for almost everyone (Ruthledge, 2013).

To date, discourses about the cultural meanings of selfies have tended to extremes. For understandable reason, marketers deploy selfies as an indicator that one is young, fun, and connected. Yet in news stories, it is almost impossible to encounter a discussion of selfies that does not dabble in discourses of pathology. Each month or so, a news article appears linking taking selfies to harmful mental states such as narcissism (Nauert, 2015), body dysmorphia (McKay, 2014), or even psychosis (Gregoire, 2015).

Lately, there seems to be an alarming data on people taking their own lives. Suicide cuts across culture and social status to the point that there seems to be a trend on be a collective concern on mental health. Depression is of course a serious matter but it is only one of the many illnesses of the mind. So, discussions on mental health must not be limited to being depressed. What about people with delusions of grandeur? What about those who have insecurities even if they are already adults? What about those who wallow in envy and those who thrive on anger all the time?

A strong relationship has been found between selfie addiction and various mental health issues like poor self-esteem, narcissism, loneliness and depression. Addiction with selfie in youth, especially teenagers and mental health issues are on the rise as many psychiatrists are seeing number of parents coming with the same complaint. Therefore, it is right time to sensitize parents, teachers and educators about the alarming increase in selfie addiction and its deteriorating impact on mental health of adolescents (Kaur & Vig, 2016).

It stems back to the journey within the SELF. It has been mentioned countless times that self-assessment is a healthy option since we could perform transcendence. There is a continuous quest of improving our own selves since we are the only persons in control with our quirks. We also need to listen to feedback since there are instances when our illnesses are our blind spots. 

Having the mental health law recently signed is a soothing balsam to the impending ailment threatening the society. There will be policies and laws to be created for the betterment of the people. Yet, it takes a strong and self-observant person to know whether he/she is trekking the SANE ground or he/she is flying over the cuckoo’s nest.

Narcissus

When all discussions start to become interesting, they would then pull back the gears towards them. They would then relate everything about themselves… You then experience being lost in the world of the Me Myself and I people. You are having an interaction with persons who have SFA - self-focused attention.

SFA is considered a cognitive bias that is closely interconnected with the experience of acute and chronic negative effect (Morris and Winquist, 2002). It is defined as an “awareness of self-referent, internally generated information that stands in contrast to an awareness of externally generated information derived through sensory receptors” (Ingram, 1990).

Relationships, like friendships, sometimes lead to conflict when one of the members of the group persistently point everything back to him/her. It is as if a broken record is being played that irritants would be triggered which often result to the exclusion of that “irritant”. Other members of the group start talking about the person on how they feel about the individual’s self-centered remarks.

As adults, it is but proper for us to have self-assessments on how we talk and how we deal with our discourses to others. We could recount the number of Me, Myself and I in each discussion for us to get alarmed with the SFA syndrome. There was even an experiment  conducted by a psychologist when he recorded a conversation and allowed the concerned individual to listen to his discussion tallying the number of times he mentioned Me, Myself and I. The individual then realized how he reroute the discussions to his achievements and experiences most of the time that other members of the group got alienated.

Most theoretical models assume that Self Focused Attention becomes dysfunctional if an individual experiences a negative discrepancy between a current and a desired personal state. Such discrepancies are more likely to occur in the face of negative events such as losses or failures. It appears plausible that increased SFA following negative but not positive events leads to increased negative effect (Pyszczynski and Greenberg, 1987).

There is a direct correlation to persons with SFA to their moods. Most of them are moody and very sensitive especially if attention is not focused on them. In the study of Flory, Raikkonen and Matthews, results revealed that a self-focusing style was associated with higher negative mood and lower positive mood at the time of a negative social interaction during three days of everyday activities. Women who were chronically self-focused were particularly vulnerable to these negative social interactions in the daily environment, they were more likely than men to report lower positive mood during the interaction. In addition, 30 minutes after the negative social interaction, self-focused individuals with higher levels of negative mood and lower levels of positive mood relative to individuals who were not self-focused and did not report higher depressive symptoms.

It has been mentioned all the time that maturity is a continuum of travelling from the SELF to the SELF. This means that we need to understand the inner person and consider if this person is consistent to the  NORMS of the society. We could not say WHO CARES? since we belong to social groups where others are also considered NOT just the self.

Our mental health could sometimes show symptoms of being imbalanced. Sturgeon (2006) mentioned that it is of great concern that mental health promotion is frequently overlooked by the individual and even in health promotion programs. This should not be since mental health is an integral part of the body’s well-being.

In the Philippines, the landmark Mental health Law (RA 11036) was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte which will provide affordable and accessible mental health services for the Filipinos. This is considered as laudable since the law sets the path for the government in integrating mental healthcare in the country’s public healthcare system (Rappler, 2018).