Everyone may have their own judgment about being mentally normal, so do you know if you are right? Find out what the science says. Mental health and mental disorders are not opposing poles, but rather a continuous spectrum. By mental health, we mean a state of successfully performing one’s mental functions, which means being able to produce constructive activities, maintain good interpersonal relationships, and adjust oneself to adverse circumstances. So, how can you tell if a person is mentally normal? In fact, there is a lack of clear boundaries between mental normalcy and abnormality, just like a spectrum that is a continuous band, and the recognition and evaluation of normal or abnormal behavior and its criteria are not quite consistent in different historical periods. For example, if a girl wears a super short skirt nowadays, everyone thinks she is beautiful, but in the 1970s, everyone may suspect that she is mentally abnormal. Therefore, whether a person is normal or not should be analyzed in the context of the nationality, environment and era to which she belongs. (1) Unity of psychology and environment – social scale: that is, behavior is accepted by the culture of the society in which it is located, and its behavior is acceptable to the common people without any obvious deviation or out-of-the-ordinary place. If this unity is disrupted, it may be a mental abnormality. For example, it is common to wear tank tops and underwear at home, but if you wear a tank top or underwear to work, listen to lectures, or go shopping in the street, it seems incongruous with the environment. In summer everyone wears short sleeves you wear cotton pants cotton jacket, that is very incompatible with the environment. A beautiful girl’s hair is very long, her mother out of concern told her to cut some short, she “a gas” shaved bald. Her mother felt that her behavior was too extreme and came to consult, and the result was that her daughter was suffering from schizophrenia. A girl who shaves her head is neither against the law nor against the system, so why should she be considered mentally ill? Because shaving a girl’s head is not in line with the most basic social norms, our customs and habits. Of course it is not necessarily the case that this is psychosis; there are other clinical manifestations and indicators for diagnosing schizophrenia. A comprehensive consideration is needed. (2) Coordination of one’s mental activities – coherence and integrity: that is, the coordination and consistency between various mental activity processes such as thinking, emotions and behavior. For example, experiencing a happy event should have a pleasant expression. Under normal circumstances, there should not be persistent hallucinations and delusions, such as hearing sounds that do not exist, believing in things that do not exist, always suspecting that someone is following and watching them, and having a strong sense of insecurity, etc. are abnormal. Disruption of the coherence and integrity of the mental activities of the self is an important sign of mental abnormality. (3) Relative stability of character – the concept of before and after contrast: a person’s character has relative stability, such as a mild-tempered person in the vast majority of cases are relatively mild, a grumpy person will often be angry over trivial matters, this is something that everyone has experienced. It is often said that “the mountains are easy to change, but the nature is difficult to change” is the truth. We emphasize the concept of “comparison”, which is to compare his performance with his past. When we say that a person is “abnormal today”, we mean that his performance is different from his usual performance in the past, where “abnormal” has the meaning of “unusual”. If a person who is very introverted talks a lot during this period of time, is very happy and busy all day, the psychiatrist may suspect him of being “manic”. But if the person is usually very outgoing, like to joke, itself is a “happy-go-lucky” type of character, then it is a different story. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the contrast – here is a vertical contrast, the present compared to the past. If there is a significant change in personality and it does not fall into the category of normal psychological variation, we should consider whether it is a mental abnormality. However, it should be noted that the stability of personality is relative. It is understandable that some people have some degree of change in personality after suffering a major stimulus. For example, a cheerful couple whose son has been relatively silent after a car accident and whose personality has become introverted is completely understandable. (4) Statistical majority – cross-sectional comparison: It is generally accepted that most people behave normally in the same environment and context. For example, if a 2-year-old boy often plays with his genitals in public, not only do people not see this as pathological, but they find it quite amusing. Why is it not seen as pathological? Because most children do this, and if he still does it when he reaches 20, then we suspect that he is sick, because most people do not do it when they are 20. It is important to note that “minority” is not synonymous with “abnormal”, for example, some women do not marry for life, the proportion is less than 5%, which is not in the normal range statistically speaking, but “not married” There is no harm to society, and we would not say that this is a psychological pathology. Therefore, statistical criteria should be combined with other criteria to make a comprehensive judgment. The concepts of “normal” and “abnormal” are relative and should not be understood in absolute and isolated terms. It is meaningless to discuss normal and abnormal in isolation from the environment in which a person lives. For example, if A punches B, is it normal or abnormal? If A hits B for no reason, then A may not be normal; if B abuses A, A attacking B is understandable. Therefore, specific problems should be analyzed specifically, not only the behavior itself, but also to analyze the background and premise of the emergence of the behavior. If you suspect that you or your family has a psychological problem, the most reliable way is to see a psychiatrist. Of course, the above are mainly criteria for determining whether or not a mental abnormality is present. In fact, there are other criteria to determine whether the person is mentally healthy, and the following criteria may be more appropriate to determine whether the person is normal or subnormal. Rather than abnormal.