A healthy lifestyle is the ideal to pursue at all times in our lives. Enjoying a good physical condition, emotional stability and mental tranquility, goals we should pursue to maintain a proper balance in our body and mind. However, not everyone can maintain perfect harmony in their mental health.
Mental disorders are still a taboo subject in society, as they are seen in a negative light and the last thing people want is to have to deal with it. Hollywood movies such as ‘Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Psycho’ and even the new ‘Joker’ movie show us that dark side of mental disorders.
However, this is not the case for some people who suffer from it in real life, since, with the right treatment they can enjoy an excellent life. This is the reason why it is necessary to carry out more awareness and sensitization campaigns on this subject, but above all, to encourage people to have a greater interest and an open mind about this reality.
Taking this into account, Here are the most common mental disorders that people can suffer from at any time in their lives. that people can suffer from at any time in their lives.
What are mental illnesses?
Mental disorders are characterized by an alteration in the brain activity of people, which can be caused by injuries, accidents, genetic inheritance, malformations, malformations or other causes.They can be caused by injuries, accidents, genetic inheritance, malformations or substance abuse. Consequently, they bring as consequences affections in the emotional areas, reasoning, impulse control, behaviors, conducts and moods that can have a negative impact on the spheres of a person’s daily life (work, personal, social, etc.).
Mental illnesses manifest themselves in different ways from one another, depending on their level of severity in different areas of a person’s life. Moreover, they can appear at any age (although most usually emerge in early adulthood, middle adulthood or late adolescence).
Most common mental disorders
Nowadays there is often a misrecognition of mental disorders, going so far as to normalize them (as is the case with anxiety or depression) but it is important to keep in mind that mental illness is a serious matter that affects both the sufferer and his or her family members.
So if you want to contribute a grain of sand, start by to know the most common mental illnesses in the world, as well as their characteristics, symptoms and causes.as well as their characteristics, symptoms and causes.
1. Major Depressive Disorder
This disorder is part of the general category of mood disorders and is one of the most common for people to suffer from. It is usually activated after suffering a traumatic event or an emotional impact so strong that it triggers negative feelings, hopelessness, distrust and loss of interest in general. It affects the person’s normal performance, relationships and overall physical, emotional and psychological well-being.
These symptoms have different prevalences, which may last only weeks (case of major depressive episode) or months (case of clinical depression) or even appear and disappear throughout the year (case of recurrent depressive disorder).
2. Bipolar Disorder
Formerly known as manic-depressive disorder, it also belongs to the classification of mood disorders. In this disease people usually go through uncontrolled episodes of immense sadness and hopelessness (symptoms of depression) as well as episodes of euphoria and risky behaviors (episodes of mania) in a constant cycle. Although there are those who have a higher prevalence of one episode over the other.
Sufferers find it difficult to maintain an emotional balance in any sphere of their lives, as their sudden and disproportionate mood swings affect the quality of their daily lives, as well as their relationships and even their self-confidence.
3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
This is both a classification for anxiety itself, as well as an overall classification for other disorders that we will see below. Generalized anxiety is the suffering of the common symptoms of anxiety (worries, tremors, nervousness and panic) but in an exacerbated, chronic and continuous form, so that it prevents the person from functioning regularly in his or her daily life.
Let’s remember that anxiety is a natural state of the human being whose function is to activate the system to solve a problem, surely at some point you have experienced it and it is not a very pleasant feeling. However, people who suffer from this disease live with these symptoms daily and in an exaggerated way, such as: insomnia, tachycardia, excessive sweating, tremors or nervous tics, muscular tension, lack of attention, etc.
4. Panic disorder
This disease belongs to the classification of anxiety disorders and is characterized by sudden, intense and paralyzing episodes of absolute fear. These have a very short duration of time (between 10 or 30 minutes) but there are those who report feeling them for up to an hour and continuously during the day.
Also known as panic attacks or anxiety crises, they can occur at any time of the day for no apparent reason. This leads the person to isolate him/herself from anything that may cause this type of exaggerated anxiety.
5. Phobic disorders
Commonly known as phobias, it also belongs to the classification of anxiety disorders and in turn is broken down into different types of phobias (zoophobia, specific phobia, social phobia and agoraphobia).
In this disorder, individuals are not only unable to face their fears, but the very idea of having to witness them paralyzes and terrifies them completely. They develop an irrational fear of having to be in front of the stressor stimulus or even to expose themselves to a situation where this could minimally occur, so they prefer to shelter in isolation and even total confinement.
6. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Also called OCD by its acronym, it is part of the anxiety disorders and one of the most common that people suffer from. It manifests itself in different levels but they have in common a repetitive behavior and a recurrent thought about something in particular. For example: cleanliness, order, organization, parity, equality, acceptable social behaviors, presentation, communication, etc.
This makes it difficult to concentrate and focus on other things in their daily lives, since these behaviors become part of the daily routine and if they are not fulfilled to the letter (as they believe in their minds) can generate stress and anguish.
7. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
The last of those belonging to the classification of anxiety disorders and one of the most difficult to cope with for those who suffer from it. It is characterized by triggering a series of altered thoughts, actions, behaviors and emotions as a result of having been exposed to a very strong trauma, which they continue to relive often when they perceive any element that reminds them of the incident.
It affects other parts of people’s lives, such as sleep, rest, work, relationships and natural social functioning. They also tend to generate feelings of guilt, anger and responsibility for what happened, which always aggravates their condition and leads them to withdraw.
8. Eating disorders
These are one of the most common disorders in adolescence and early adulthood, there are even cases where it can manifest in childhood, due to growth, exposure or trauma related to the person’s weight. It becomes an obsession to lose weight by any means, including vomit induction practices, taking laxatives and diuretics and uncontrolled exercise routines.
Bringing as a consequence health problems, muscle recovery, development of early degenerative diseases, problems to conceive and neuronal problems.
It consists of three types:
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Anorexia nervosa (avoidance of food intake, aiming at continuous and uncontrolled weight loss through excessive means of weight loss)
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Bulimia nervosa (irregular eating patterns, where there is massive binge eating and then behaviors to eliminate such food)
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Binge eating disorder (excessive food intake, where feelings of regret and concern about weight gain usually appear).
9. Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Another of the most common disorders in young ages (adolescence and early adulthood) that can affect both women and men, who are obsessed with their physical appearance. In the disorders people continuously find some anomaly, alteration or imperfection in their body features that only they are able to perceive, as well as the magnification of some body problem they may have.
Even though it is their own distortion, they claim that other people can see their defects and use them as a mockery. That is the reason why they make practices to hide or ‘repair’ it such as the use of elaborate makeup, continuous makeup retouching, checking their image in every reflective structure and in more serious cases abusing surgeries and aesthetic treatments.
10. Borderline personality disorder
This disease falls under the general category of personality disorders. It is the incessant and drastic change in a person’s behavior, also known as ‘borderline’, where the person experiences a need to live risky behaviors and intense emotions full of energy and danger.
They may also experience prolonged moments of anger, violence and exacerbated intimate relationships, where they indulge and idolize their partner to an unrealistic extent or seek intense sexual gratification. In general, people suffering from this disorder have a delicate and insecure personality and it is almost as if they seek to distance themselves completely from that image.
11. Antisocial Disorder
This disorder, which also falls under the classification of personality disorders, tends to be widely confused with asocial behaviors, due to their inclination to avoid social relationships and prefer isolation. However, in this disorder, people can acquire criminal, violent and manipulative behaviors.
This is because these people are too afraid of being exposed to others, being used or made fun of. Therefore, they may also develop other disorders such as depression, agoraphobia or generalized anxiety.
12. Autism Spectrum Disorder
This disorder is found within the classification of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, it develops during childhood and has different levels of severity in each child, although they tend to globally affect the social and emotional sphere, in the sense that children with autism prefer to be alone and tend to avoid interpersonal relationships, as well as displays of affection. Although it is recognized that they have a greater mental acuity, a great intellect, better organization and improvement management.
This is a completely genetic disease, that is to say, it is produced by an alteration in the genomes and the earlier the diagnosis is made, the more options the child will have to lead a regular and adequate adaptive life with the help of psychological and pedagogical therapies. .
13. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Also known as ADHD and as part of the neurodevelopmental disorders, it is one of the most common disorders in children and tends to be confused with an agitated behavior common in small children due to lack of energy discharge. Therefore, the best way to detect it is to observe the pattern of behavior, the intensity and regularity with which the symptoms are manifested in each sphere of his life (inattention, oppositional, challenging behaviors, impulsivity, extreme dynamism).
Some children may manifest both symptoms (attention and hyperactivity) or be more inclined to one of them. It can be controlled with psychological therapy and if necessary with psychotropic drugs that reduce neuronal excitation.
14. Child neurodevelopmental disorders
This disorder encompasses several conditions corresponding to different areas of child development (motor, emotional and cognitive) which may be associated with a genetic alteration, a hereditary disease or a skill not developed during childhood. If they are not treated in time and stimulated with psychological and pedagogical help, they can affect the child’s future.
Among the most common are: learning disorders, communication disorders, global developmental delay and intellectual disability.
15. Intermittent explosive disorder
Another disorder that manifests itself regularly during the infantile stage, especially after the preschool stage, is characterized by the child showing aggressive, oppositional behaviors, temper tantrums, hyperactivity, causing material damage or damage to other people, without having an apparent trigger. An extra characteristic of this disorder is that they tend to blame others for their actions, do not assume the consequences and show emotional manipulative behaviors (generally in parents).
It seems that they do not realize or do not care about their behavior or the chaos they generate and although this usually does not last more than a few minutes, to then give way to calm, there may be several exposures during the day and become more and more aggravated.
16. Delusional disorder
belongs to the classification of psychotic disorders, where the person tends to detach from reality (either as a kind of defense, a cognitive disturbance or to escape from a previous trauma).
In delusional disorder, the person experiences delusions, which are recurrent obsessive ideas and thoughts about something they are convinced is happening to them that is not actually happening. This is also known as delusional paranoia.
17. Schizophrenia
It is one of the strongest disorders of all, since the person not only manifests an alteration at social, emotional and cognitive level, but also experiences visual, auditory and in some cases kinesthetic hallucinations, which are so disturbing that can lead the person to isolate himself completely from society or have criminal and aggressive behaviors.
Although it has been shown in some studies that, some superior capacities such as intellect, memory, comprehension and creativity (which is very famous among schizophrenic patients) are not lost.
It is known that there is no cure, but with early detection, psychological assistance and pharmacological treatment it is possible to lead a quiet life and have an adequate social adaptation.
18. Dementia
This is a disorder that manifests itself during middle and late adulthood (old age) and consists of different degenerative symptoms, mainly affecting learned skills, the ability to relate socially, independence, attention, memory and also causes emotional alterations, so that people usually show intense states of sadness, distrust and loss of interest. In more severe cases, hallucinations, paranoia and irregular behavior may also occur.
It is also known as progressive dementia, one of the best known types of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.