Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It impacts our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Additionally, it influences our capacity for managing stress, relating to others, and making wise decisions. Every period of life, from childhood and adolescence to maturity, is vital for mental health.
Mental illness and poor mental health are two different things, even though the terms are sometimes used synonymously. Even if a mental disorder is not identified, a person can have poor mental health. The same is true for those who have mental illnesses; they might go through phases of mental, emotional, and social health.
If you have mental health issues, they may have an impact on your thinking, mood, and behavior over the course of your life. Numerous elements affect mental health issues, such as:
- Biological components, including DNA or the chemistry of the brain.
- Experiences with trauma or abuse in life.
- A history of mental illness in the family.
Mental Health Problems
An early indicator of a problem could be one or more of the following feelings or actions:
- Consuming too much food or getting too little sleep.
- Removing oneself from people and routine tasks.
- Lacking or having no energy.
- Feeling numb or as if nothing is important.
- Experiencing undiagnosed aches and pains.
- Sense of helplessness or despair.
- Consuming alcohol, tobacco, or drugs more frequently than normal.
- Experiencing exceptional levels of confusion, forgetfulness, agitation, rage, sadness, anxiety, or fear.
- Arguing or shouting at loved ones or friends.
- Enduring extreme mood swings that complicate relationships.
- Enduring persistent ideas and memories that you can’t shake.
- Hearing voices or accepting false information.
- Consideration of self- or other-harm.
- Inability to carry out daily chores including caring for your children, traveling to work or school, or taking care of yourself.
Well-being and Mental Health
People with good mental health can:
- Realizing all of their potential.
- Manage your stress and work productively.
- Make a real difference in their communities.
- Obtaining expert assistance if necessary.
- Establishing relationships.
- Positive attitude.
- Engaging in physical activity.
- Assisting others.
- Getting sufficient rest.
- Acquiring coping mechanisms.
Types of Mental illness
Many different conditions are recognized as mental illnesses. The more common types include:
- Anxiety Disorders
- Mood Disorders
- Psychotic Disorders
- Eating Disorders
- Impulse Control & Addiction Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Stress Response Syndromes
- Dissociative Disorders
- Factitious Disorders
- Sexual & Gender Disorders
- Somatic Symptom Disorders
- Tic Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
People with anxiety disorders exhibit unhealthy physical symptoms of anxiety or panic, such as a rapid heartbeat and perspiration, as well as feelings of fear and dread in response to certain things or circumstances. When a person’s reaction is inappropriate for the circumstance, when they are unable to regulate their reaction, or when their worry affects their ability to carry out daily tasks, an anxiety disorder is identified. Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and particular phobias are all examples of anxiety disorders.
Mood Disorders
These diseases, often known as affective disorders, are characterized by ongoing melancholy, excessively cheerful spells, or swings from tremendous happiness to extreme depression. Depression, bipolar disorder, and cyclothymic disorder are the most typical mood disorders in health.
Psychotic Disorders
Mind and consciousness are warped in psychotic illnesses. Hallucinations, the perception of unreal pictures or sounds, such as hearing voices, and delusions, which are false fixed beliefs that the ill person accepts as true despite evidence to the contrary, are two of the most prevalent symptoms of psychotic diseases. One example of a psychotic condition is schizophrenia.
Eating Disorders
Extreme feelings, attitudes, and actions surrounding weight and food are characteristics of eating disorders. The three most prevalent eating disorders are binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa.
Impulse Control & Addiction Disorders
People with impulse control problems are unable to control their urges to do things that could hurt them or other people. Impulse control disorders include pyromania (setting fires), kleptomania (stealing), and excessive gambling. Drugs and alcohol are two major addiction triggers. People with these health diseases frequently become so preoccupied with their addiction’s targets that their obligations and interpersonal connections start to slip.
Personality Disorders
Extreme and rigid personality qualities that are distressing to the individual and/or cause issues at work, in school, or interpersonal relationships are characteristics of people with personality disorders. The person’s thought and behavior patterns also drastically deviate from what society expects of them and are so inflexible as to impair their ability to function normally. Examples include antisocial personality disorder, an obsessive-compulsive disorder of the mind, a histrionic disorder of the mind, a schizoid disorder of the mind, and a paranoid disorder of the mind.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD patients have persistent thoughts or concerns that drive them to engage in particular rituals or routines. Obsessions and compulsions are the terms used to describe unsettling thoughts and practices. An illustration would be someone who has an excessive fear of germs and continually washes their hands.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
A severe and/or horrific experience, like a physical or sexual attack, the unexpected loss of a loved one, or a natural disaster, can lead to the development of PTSD. People who suffer from PTSD frequently have disturbing recollections and thoughts about the event and frequently exhibit emotional numbness.
Stress Response Syndromes
When a person has emotional or behavioral symptoms as a result of a stressful event or circumstance, it is known as stress response syndrome. The stressors might be interpersonal issues like a divorce, the death of a loved one, losing a job, or a problem with substance misuse. They can also be events or crises like a car accident or the diagnosis of a serious illness. In most cases, stress response syndromes start three months after the stressful condition or occurrence and conclude six months after it has passed or been removed.
Dissociative Disorders
These illnesses cause serious disruptions or alterations in memory, consciousness, identity, and overall awareness of oneself and one’s environment in affected individuals. These diseases are frequently linked to extreme stress, which may be brought on by traumatic experiences, accidents, or disasters that the person may have personally experienced or watched. Examples of dissociative disorders include depersonalization disorder and dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder or “split personality.”
Factitious Disorders
A person with a factitious disorder willfully and knowingly fabricates or complains of physical and/or emotional symptoms to present as a patient or someone in need of assistance.
Sexual & Gender Disorders
Disorders that impact sexual desire, performance, and behavior are among them. Examples of sexual and gender disorders include paraphilias, gender identity disorder, and sexual dysfunction.
Somatic Symptom Disorders
Whether or not a doctor can identify a medical basis for the symptoms, a person with a somatic symptom disorder—previously known as a psychosomatic disorder or somatoform disorder—experiences bodily symptoms of a disease or pain with an excessive and disproportionate level of anguish.
Tic Disorders
People with tic disorders make repetitive, fast, sudden, and/or uncontrollable sounds or exhibit non-purposeful body motions. Vocal tics are uncontrollable sounds that are made. A tic disease like Tourette’s syndrome is one example.
