There are many different mental disorders, with different presentations. They are generally characterized by a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behaviour and relationships with others. Mental disorders include: depression, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia and other psychoses, dementia, intellectual disabilities and developmental…
The law defines the following conditions as a serious mental illness: Schizophrenia Paranoid and other psychotic disorders Bipolar disorders (hypomanic, manic, depressive, and mixed) Major depressive disorders (single episode or recurrent) Schizoaffective disorders (bipolar or depressive) Pervasive developmental disorders Obsessive-compulsive disorders Depression…
Five seemingly different mental health disorders—major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—may be more alike than we think. A ground-breaking new study has identified a handful of genes that are shared by people with these disorders. This work could help find new and better ways to diagnose and treat…
Photo Credit Roman Muradov TWO months ago, the British Psychological Society released a remarkable document entitled “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.” Its authors say that hearing voices and feeling paranoid are common experiences, and are often a reaction to trauma, abuse or deprivation: “Calling them symptoms of mental illness, psychosis or schizophrenia…
Mental health issues are not matters of opinion. They are medical conditions that arise due to a complex mix of chemistry, environment, and genetics. In other words, mental health conditions are much like physical health conditions. Both come about due to issues that may or may not be under a person’s control. Both can be addressed, to some degree, with the proper…
The information you provided was not sufficient to narrow down the possibilities. You may want to try the Symptom Checker again, or you may find it helpful to browse our disorder guides or consult the Parents Guide to Developmental Milestones for younger children (ages 0-5). Note that the information provided by this tool is purely educational and is not intended…
Mental illnesses are diseases or conditions that affect how you think, feel, act, or relate to other people or to your surroundings. They are very common. Many people have had one or know someone who has. Symptoms can range from mild to severe. They can also vary from person to person. In many cases, it makes daily life hard to handle. But when an expert diagnoses…
Mental illness is a condition that affects a person’s thinking, feeling, and behavior. The mainstream medical community recognizes more than 200 classified types of mental illness. These conditions can alter your ability to relate to other people, work, and attend school, and can prevent you from living a normal life. Different types of mental illness offer different…
How do you think the most rational people in the world operate their minds? How do they make better decisions? They do it by “chunking” away a massive, but finite amount of fundamental, unchanging knowledge that can be used in evaluating the infinite number of unique scenarios that show up in the real world. That is how consistently rational and effective thinking…
What is a mental disorder? This is a question the American Psychiatric Association (2012) has been contemplating as it prepares the DSM-5, the soon-to-be-published revision of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The DSM-5 development website proposes the following new definition of mental disorder (APA, 2012): A behavioral or psychological…
Fact: Mental health problems are actually very common. In 2014, about: One in five American adults experienced a mental health issue One in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression One in 25 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in…
When people think of dementia, it’s common to think of it as a mental illness due to the effects the condition has on the brain. However, there are distinctions that should be made between dementia and mental illness in order to properly diagnose the individual. While dementia does affect mental health, it is not a mental illness, but a disorder of the brain…
It might completely transform your identity, the way you think of yourself,says Annemarie Jutel, author of Putting a Name to It: Diagnosis in Contemporary Society. A proper diagnosis, she says, doesn t change the way the disease feels or manifests. A person will still demonstrate social awkwardness, an affinity for flapping arms, and a hyperfocus on certain…
Deciding if a child has ADHD is a several-step process. This page gives you an overview of how ADHD is diagnosed. There is no single test to diagnose ADHD, and many other problems, like sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, and certain types of learning disabilities, can have similar symptoms. If you are concerned about whether a child might have ADHD, the first…
In our tireless fight against stigma, prejudice, and discrimination in order to help people understand that mental illness is no different than a physical disease, where do we draw the line? If we can’t discriminate against someone with a mental illness for a job — like an accountant or soldier — what are the jobs that require a different yardstick? Does being…
By Thomas Insel on Pulses of blue and yellow light precisely turn neurons on-and-off using genetically-targeted probes that take advantage of light-sensitive genes borrowed from primitive life-forms. Artist’s rendering. Source: Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University It has become an NIMH mantra to describe mental disorders as brain disorders. What…
As Congress delivers on the promise of delivering relief from the collapsing Affordable Care Act (ACA), we must be forward thinking and avoid re-purposing yesterday’s failed policies to solve today’s problems. In particular, we must include better strategies to advance mental health and addiction treatment. While promising mental health and addiction insurance…
There are significant benefits of early intervention and treatment for adults with mental illness, so it’s important to pay attention when you perceive sudden behavioral and mood changes in someone you love. Some of the signs listed below could be the result of recent trauma or substance abuse, but they may also indicate a mental disorder. Either way, it’s important…
In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness Month, this blog post will focus on getting rid of the stigma surrounding mental health. Mental Health Awareness Month was started in 1949 and continues to share resources to help people and heal emotional and psychological wounds. Those who are affected by mental illness continue to be treated differently by society…
The House approved changes in Section 298 to create a public statewide behavioral health managed care organization to manage covered state Medicaid services to about 350, people in Michigan who use the Medicaid behavioral health system. Currently, Medicaid moderate and severe behavioral health services are managed by 10 public regional prepaid inpatient health…
No, this isn’t a disorder for those of us who have woken up feeling “dead tired.” Rather, Cotard’s Syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome as it s colloquially known, is a belief held by a person that she is actually dead, or simply doesn’t exist. It has been linked to depression as well as to those who are chronically deprived of sleep or suffer drug psychosis…
The following are descriptions of the most common categories of mental illness in the United States. Anxiety Disorders Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fear or anxiety that is difficult to control and negatively and substantially impacts daily functioning. Fear refers to the emotional response to a real or perceived threat while anxiety is the…
Facebook and OkCupid, a popular dating site, have also conducted experiments in which the companies manipulated content presented to their own members to study the impact on their behavior. Now a handful of research and nonprofit groups are analyzing social media postings with the aim of detecting and predicting patterns in mental health conditions. The experience…
If there s one thing singer-songwriter Demi Lovato knows how to do, it s express her emotions on stage, detailing her trials and triumphs with mental illness through her lyrics. But in her downtime, she s also a vocal advocate for mental health awareness and acceptance, speaking publicly about her experience with bipolar disorder and addiction. I want to use…
