Do you feel anxious doing everyday house chores to the extent that it troubles you? Do you repeatedly wash hands thinking that they're dirty, and still won't get satisfied? Do you feel unreasonably sad and gloomy all the time? While I wish with all my heart that none of you reading this article experiences any of these issues, these symptoms may actually be suggestive of a mental health problem!
The reason why mental health awareness is so important is a lot of people keep suffering in silence, and their issues remain undiagnosed. The result? The suffering prolongs and takes a toll on the sufferer's life. WE CAN CONTROL THIS!! While mental health awareness is an extremely broad topic, everybody should be aware of the basics. Talking about the basics, let's discuss the major types of mental health issues.
5 MAJOR TYPES OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Although there are more than 200 types of mental disorders, classified into categories. Everybody should educate themselves about the types of mental illnesses, their symptoms, and treatment so that we can make this world a better place for everybody. Here are 5 main categories of mental problems:
1. ANXIETY DISORDERS
Experiencing anxiety in everyday life is common, but experiencing it to the extent that it tarnishes your mental peace and disrupts your normal functioning is alarming! And that's when it becomes a disorder. Simply put, anxiety disorders are a type of mental illness that involves distressing thoughts and emotions. There is a host of mental illnesses that come under the large umbrella of anxiety disorders, depending upon the nature, frequency, and reason for distress. These disorders are more common than any other type of mental illness. Approx. 40 million American adults suffer from them. The symptoms of these disorders may vary from person to person but usually includes obsessive thoughts, physical symptoms (such as nausea, sweating, headaches), fear, and even panic attacks.
Some prominent types of anxiety orders include:
● OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
● GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder)
● PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
● Panic Disorder
● Social Phobia
2. MOOD DISORDERS
While experiencing mood swings once in a while is completely normal, some people experience them very frequently and intensely. So much so that their bad moods last for days and even months! This severe disruption affects their mental as well as physical health. Some of the most common symptoms of mood disorders include irritability, sadness, confusion, aggression, etc. Depression and Bipolar Disorder are the most common types of mood disorders.
3. PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
Psychotic disorders fall on the more serious spectrum of mental illnesses and involve serious cognitive and emotional dysfunction. Schizophrenia, for example, affects life aspects such as thoughts, perfection, communication, and includes very severe symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, abnormal speech, abnormal reasoning, social withdrawal, etc.
4. EATING DISORDERS
As the name suggests, eating disorders are characterized by eating abnormalities. People with eating disorders either eat excessively or abnormally less. These abnormal eating behaviors are accompanied by distressing thoughts and body image issues, which makes it even worse. The main types of eating disorders include:
● Anorexia Nervosa
● Bulimia Nervosa
● Binge Eating Disorder
5. DEMENTIA
Dementia is primarily a memory disorder characterized by loss in memory, as well as other symptoms like loss of motor skills, weakening of consciousness, and changes in cognitive functioning. Some common types of Dementia include:
● Alzheimer's
● Parkinson's
FINAL WORD
Getting awareness about the major types of mental illnesses is crucial for their timely diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.
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