A Mini Guide to Common Mental Health Disorders

For the longest time, we didn’t know too much about mental health and how it affects a person’s daily life. However, as science evolves and we learn more about mental health issues we realize that there is a need for more awareness and education on this topic. 

Most people still don’t know too much about mental health issues and spend their entire lives trying to suppress mental health issues of one kind or another. 

If you are someone who is curious to learn more about mental health disorders, you have come to the right place. Here are some of the most common mental health disorders that people suffer from every day: 

Clinical Depression

It is hard to define clinical depression because it generally refers to a number of mental health issues where the patient suffers an absence of positive emotions along with low mood and loss of interest in ordinary things.

Everyone feels sad, lonely, and depressed at times; however, when these feelings keep lingering for an extended period of time without any obvious reason, it can be identified as depression. 

Some of the most common symptoms of depression include fatigue, feelings of guilt, helplessness, and worthlessness. Insomnia, restlessness, irritability, trouble concentrating, headaches, and suicidal thoughts. 

Depression can be hard to diagnose because there isn’t really a test that you can take that will tell the doctors whether you’re suffering from depression or not. The doctor will want to know about your symptoms. They might want to know how severe the symptoms were, how long they lasted, when they started, or if you have a history with alcohol and drugs. 

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly known as OCD, can be identified by repetitive patterns of behavior induced by unwanted thoughts or fears. These obsessions can cause a lot of distress in the person’s daily life and interfere with their normal daily functioning. 

The more you try to stop or ignore these behaviors the more they start bothering you. The only solution is to engage in those repetitive behaviors to ease your discomfort. Some of the most common obsessive behaviors include washing your wands way more than necessary from a fear of getting contaminated by germs.

Sometimes OCD patients wash their hands so much that they become sore or start to get chapped. Some of the most common symptoms include wanting things to be symmetrical, horrifying, aggressive though, unpleasant sexual images, and getting annoyed at small things.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Everyone feels some amount of anxiety in their daily life; however, people who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder constantly feel anxious and have intense worry about daily situations. Often patients have recurring episodes of feelings of fear and anxiety that spiral out of control within seconds. 

Consequently, the patient might start avoiding places or situations that induce such episodes which will interfere with their daily functioning. Symptoms can start during the teenage years and become more and more intense as the patient grows older.

Some of the most common symptoms include having feelings of looming danger, restlessness, nervousness, and weakness. Many people self-medicate these days by using different recreational herbs before doing things or going to places that might trigger anxiety. 

Some people try marijuana while others prefer mushrooms. However, once you’ve done mushrooms it is best to stay home. Plus, make sure you know how to store shrooms as they go bad quite quickly. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event or an accident. Even if the patient didn’t experience the accident firsthand, simply witnessing can be enough to cause PTSD. Common symptoms of PTSD include having flashbacks of the event, severe anxiety, and nightmares. 

When most people go through a traumatic event, it’s natural that they have a hard time coping and adjusting. If you experienced some kind of trauma and haven’t recovered by yourself, you might have PTSD. One of the biggest risks with PTSD is that the symptoms keep getting worse as time goes on rather than getting better. 

Some of the most common symptoms include recurring memories of the event, reliving the event, having nightmares about the event, and severe physical reaction to things that make you remember the traumatic event.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder refers to sudden feelings of extreme fear and anxiety, and fast breathing that can increase your heart rate. A panic attack can be identified by brief feelings of fear in response to seemingly non-threatening situations. 

While having a panic attack you might feel like you are having a heart attack because of how much extra work your heart is doing. Panic disorder is becoming so common that over 11% of all Americans suffer from the disorder in total.  

It is difficult to pinpoint the cause of the panic disorder, however, doctors believe that it is caused by a combination of factors including family history, mental health issues, substance abuse history, and genetics. Some of the most common symptoms include chills, chest pain, feeling like you are about to die, racing heart, nausea, sweating. And trembling. 

Social Anxiety Disorder

Everyone feels a bit nervous in certain social settings, for example going for an interview, going on a date, meeting new people, or making a speech. However, in social anxiety disorder, the patient feels anxiety, embarrassment, and self-consciousness in everyday interaction from a fear of being criticized or judged by other people. 

It can lead to the patient avoiding certain social interactions which can disturb their day-to-day functioning. Social anxiety disorder is not something you can fix with medication, it requires regular psychotherapy where you learn different techniques to cope with anxiety and stress of social interactions. It helps you build confidence over time to bring you back to normal so that you can resume your daily functioning once again.

Conclusion:

So there you have it, these are some of the most common mental health disorders that people are suffering from. If you see someone around you who might be suffering from one of the above-mentioned disorders, you should reach out to them and ask them to confide in you. Be sure to not force them to speak to you, allow them to take their time, so they feel comfortable talking to you. The best thing you can do is to be as empathetic as possible and encourage them to get professional health.