What Are The Most Common Mental Illnesses?

Mental illnesses cover varieties of disorders and each of them has a common characteristic i.e. the problem affects the individual’s thought process, personality and social interaction in an adverse way. Unlike physical illnesses, doctors often find diagnosing the problems related to mental problems difficult.

You will find a few common conditions or symptoms to recognize the problem of mental illnesses, which are as follows-

People suffering from anxiety disorder type of mental illness respond to specific situations or objects with dread or fear, along with a few common physical signs, like panic or anxiety combined with sweating and rapid heartbeat. Doctors may diagnose the anxiety disorder in case response of a patient is inappropriate for a particular situation, in case anxiety interferes with a person’s normal functions or if an individual fails to control his/her response. Anxiety disorders may take place in any form, which include panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and phobias in specific forms.¹

Mood disorders or affective disorders type of mental illness involves persistent sadness feelings or periods of feeling happy overly. In simple words, the disorder involves a huge fluctuation from extreme sadness to extreme happiness and vice-versa. Common forms of disorders under this category are bipolar disorder, depression and cyclothymic disorder.²

Psychotic disorders consist of distorted thinking and awareness. Common symptom under the mentioned type of disorder include delusions i.e. false fixed beliefs, which ill individuals accept as true even though they have evidence to oppose their beliefs. In addition, the patients suffering from psychotic disorders experience hallucinations i.e. hearing unreal voices or viewing unreal images and similar others. Schizophrenia constitutes an example to explain psychotic disorder.³

Eating disorders consist of extreme emotions, behaviors and attitudes, which involve food and weight. Accordingly, a patient suffers from a few common eating disorders, like bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and binge eating disorder.⁴

People with addiction or impulse control disorders fail to resist the urge or impulse to perform any activity, which may cause harm to them or other individuals. Compulsive gambling, pyromania i.e. starting fires and kleptomania i.e. stealing are major examples associated with impulse control disorders. Drug and alcohol are common objects to cause addiction in people. When patients suffer from such disorders, they involve with addiction objects so much that start to overlook their relationships and responsibilities.⁵

Individuals with personality disorders experience inflexible and extreme personality traits, which cause them distress or create problems in their school life, work or social relations. Moreover, the way of thinking and as well as behavior of the person differs significantly from the society’s expectations, while in some cases, it becomes too much rigid that they interfere easily with normal functions of the patient. Common examples of personality disorders mention problems include obsessive-compulsive type of personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder.⁶

Individuals suffering from OCDs i.e. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders often remains plague due to consistent fears or thoughts, which force them to follow specific routines or rituals. These disturbing thoughts refer to obsessions, while rituals imply compulsions. For instance, a person washes his/her hand consistently because of an unreasonable fear associated with germs.⁷

PSTD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder refers to a specific medical condition, which develops following any terrifying or traumatic event, such as a physical assault or sexual assault. Alternatively, it may cause because of natural disaster or unexpected death of any loved one. Individuals suffering from PSTD often have frightening thoughts and bad memories of the unpleasant event, while tend to stay emotionally numb.⁸

To conclude, we should say that mental illnesses come in different types but with a few common symptoms. Hence, to deal with the problem, you have to identify symptoms and approach for diagnose immediately. Regardless the type of disorder, you will stay at benefit, if you opt to undergo diagnose and treatment early as possible.

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• Are Mental Illnesses Hereditary?