Abstract

SEABRA, Paulo et al. The happiness of people with mental illness: An integrative literature review. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2018, n.19, pp.45-53. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0201.

BACKGROUND: The way each person lives and feels satisfaction with their life experience, naturally has a subjective but revealing dimension of intrinsic aspects of the human dimension. Happiness can be an aggregating concept of these dimensions although difficult to define for people with or without mental illness. AIM: To identify the happiness perception in people with mental illness, the factors that contribute to increase or reduce this perception. METHODS: Integrative Literature Review. Research in international databases, held in August 2016. A set of descriptors and inclusion criteria were used. A final sample of 7 studies, published between 2006-2014, was obtained. RESULTS: There were no in-depth definitions of the concept expressed by participants. It emerges as an approach to the concept, the capacity for social interaction or as an intrinsically phenomenon related to religiosity. Happiness depends little on external events and is reinforced by enduring factors and a more inward and predetermined dimension prior to illness. The factors that contribute are essentially personal, family, extended social support and emotional. Those that contribute to lower happiness are personal, side effects of medication, lack of broad social support, affective and emotional dysfunction. The family did not arise as a factor associated with less happiness. CONCLUSION: Happiness is intertwined with social experience and well-being, with resilience, with person internal protective factors.

Keywords : Happiness; Mental disorders; Quality of life.

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