There are so many illnesses that are categorized as mental illness; however, some are more common than the others.
The diagnosis of mental illness can be somewhat tricky and confusing, and there have been countless debates in the medical community about what is categorized as a mental illness and what isn’t.
Mental illnesses are health conditions that affect your thinking, behavior, and mood. Sometimes, they might be temporary and mild, and other times they might be long-lasting and chronic.
Let’s look at a few mental illnesses, and what differentiates one from the other, because it has become a frequent occurrence to misinterpret one for the other.
Mood Disorders
These disorders can sometimes be called an affective disorder, and it comes with a frequent feeling of sadness or excess happiness. Sometimes it can fluctuate between overjoy to extreme despair. The most common types of these disorders are depression and bipolar disorder.
Eating Disorder
Eating disorders have to do with extreme behaviors towards food and weight. This disorder can make you eat more than you should, even when you aren’t hungry. People who are diagnosed with this specific condition have no control over what goes into their mouth and it most times results in obesity. They tend to eat when they are nervous, sad, scared, or even excited. The most common types of this disorder include binge eating disorder and anorexia nervosa.
Personality Disorder
People who have this kind of disorder often face problems in their relationships, workplace,o or schools. Personality disorder causes a person to have extreme and unrelatable personality traits that can even be disturbing to the person in question. People living with this condition have different perceptions and expectations from society, and they are so rigid that it becomes impossible to get through to them, and this can interfere with their normal functioning. The most common types of this disorder include paranoid personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
Impulse Control Disorders
People who have this mental condition find it difficult and sometimes extremely impossible to resist urges or impulses. Hence, they can do things that are harmful to others and even themselves. Impulse control is also linked to addiction disorders, which happens when they become so fixated on the object of addition – drugs or alcohol – and forget about other important things, including work and relationships. The most common types of impulse control disorders include stealing and compulsive gambling.
Anxiety Disorders
People who have this condition are scared or anxious 95% of the time. They respond to stimuli with a feeling of nervousness and dread, and also they experience physical signs like panic, rapid heartbeat, and sweating. This type of mental illness can sometimes be easy to diagnose because it is easy to see when a person reacts inappropriately to a situation. Anxiety disorder occurs when a person cannot control their response to a problem, and this can interfere significantly with one’s normal functioning. The most common types of anxiety disorders include specific phobias, panic disorder ad generalized anxiety disorder.
Psychotic Disorders
This involves distorted thinking and awareness, and can significantly tamper with a person’s state of mind. The most common symptom of this disorder is hallucination and delusion. Hallucinations occur when you see or hear things that aren’t real or experience images that do not exist. Delusion is a condition where you get to believe or accept things that aren’t true, despite having glaring evidence to the contrary. The most common type of psychotic disorder is schizophrenia.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD
This is a mental condition that develops after a series of traumatic or terrifying events. It can happen after a person experiences physical assaults, or witnesses the death of a loved one, or even a natural disaster. Those who have PTSD have long-lasting frightening thoughts, and this can cause them to zone out entirely out of what’s currently happening around them.
Causes of Mental Disorders
There is no particular cause of mental disorder because several factors can contribute to increasing your risk of developing one, such as:
- Genetics or family history
- Traumatic brain injury
- Excessive use of drugs/alcohol
- Medical conditions like cancer
How Are Mental Illnesses/Disorders Diagnosed?
- Family’s medical history
- A psychological evaluation, to understand your thinking, emotions, and behaviors
- A physical exam can sometimes be conducted if your healthcare practitioner feels that the cause of your symptoms could be an underlying medical condition
