mental health disorders

Top 10 Mental Health Disorders

In otherby Emotional Pet Support Team1 Comment

Good mental health increases considerably, enhances, and maintains the emotional wellbeing of any person regardless of their age. It indicates how an individual thinks, feels and acts towards life, and how he handles stress and other associated problems life throws at him.

A mental health disorder/disease is an illness that causes mild to severe disturbances in thoughts and/or actions, resulting in an ability to deal with life’s ordinary routines and demands. There are over 200 classified types of mental disorders, some more common than the others. Often times, victims of this disorder seek therapy, medication, or emotional support animals to help them alleviate the symptoms of their specific mental disorder. Unfortunately, America has a mental health crisis in its hands because roughly 800,000 people to die each because of an untreated mental illness.

Please read onward to find out the top ten most frequently occurring mental health disorders, and their symptoms:

1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder is a long-term condition that is characterized by exaggerated, excessive, blowing-out-of-proportion and suffering an anxiety attack going through daily life events. The constant state of anxiety eventually ends adversely affecting the individual’s relationships, his school or work life, etc. This mental disorder can cause both physical and mental symptoms including headaches, muscle tension, and irritability.

2. Psychotic disorders

Psychotic disorders involve distorted thinking and awareness. The two most common symptoms of psychotic disorders include hallucinations (experiencing unreal sounds and images) and delusions (believing false fixed beliefs, in spite of evidence that suggests the contrary).

3. Substance Abuse

Also referred to as drug abuse, substance abuse is a patterned use of harmful drugs. Commonly used substances include cannabis, bath salts, TCP, LSD, cocaine, opium, and heroin.

4. Impulse Control Disorders

People with impulse control disorders are unable to resist temptation or urges, to indulge in acts that could be dangerous to others or themselves. Compulsive gambling, kleptomania (stealing), and Pyromania (starting fires) are common examples.

5. Personality disorders

Individuals with personality disorders have inflexible and extreme personality traits that are upsetting to the person and can significantly affects his/her personal life. Furthermore, this person thinks and behaves so differently and their personality is very rigid. Paranoia, Obsessive-compulsive disorder and antisocial personality disorder are all examples.

mental health

6. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that limits a person’s ability to concentrate and control inappropriate behavior and promotes excess activity.

7. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a form of anxiety disorder that is usually the result of a traumatic life event. People with PTSD experience persisting and terrifying nightmares, memories and thoughts of the event, and tend to be emotionally numb. Symptoms of PTSD usually starts within three months of the event. In rare cases, they begin years after the traumatic event.

8. Autism

Autism is a life-long developmental disability that impacts a person’s perception of the world and their interaction with others. Common symptoms of autism include problems with social interaction and communication. According to Autism Speaks, the most-obvious signs of this disability tend to appear between 2 and 3 years of age. However, in some cases, it can be diagnosed as early as 18 months!

9. Mood Mental Health disorders

Also known as affective disorders, mood disorders are characterized by tenacious feelings of melancholy or sudden periods of excess happiness or fluctuations from extreme sadness to extreme happiness. Most common type of mood disorders includes bipolar disorder, cyclothymic disorder, and depression.

10. Eating Mental Health disorders

People with eating disorders experience extreme emotions, behaviors, and attitudes regarding food, their shape, and weight. This can result in them making real unhealthy choices about food with destructive consequences to their health. Bulimia nervosa, binge eating, and anorexia nervosa are the most prevalent types of eating disorders.



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