Stigma against mental illness is still powerful, largely due to media stereotypes and lack of education, and that people tend to attach negative stigmas to mental health conditions at a far higher rate than to other diseases and disabilities, such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease.
MENTAL
HEALTH
What Is Mental Health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
Over the course of your life, if you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behavior could be affected.
Mental illnesses affect 19% of the adult population, 46% of teenagers and 13% of children each year. People struggling with their mental health may be in your family, live next door, teach your children, work in the next cubicle or sit in the same church pew.
However, only half of those affected receive treatment, often because of the stigma attached to mental health. Untreated, mental illness can contribute to higher medical expenses, poorer performance at school and work, fewer employment opportunities and increased risk of suicide.
TWO MOST COMMON MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS:
1. Anxiety Disorders
A mental health disorder characterised by feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities. Symptoms include stress that's out of proportion to the impact of the event, inability to set aside a worry and restlessness.
Treatment includes counselling or medication, including antidepressants.
PTSD
Get briefed about PTSD...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who
... have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury.
OCD
Get briefed about OCD...
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition where a person has
... obsessive thoughts and compulsive activity.
An obsession is an unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters a person's mind, causing feelings of anxiety, disgust or unease.
A compulsion is a repetitive behaviour or mental act that someone feels they need to carry out to try to temporarily relieve the unpleasant feelings brought on by the obsessive thought.
Panic Attacks
Get briefed about Panick Attacks...
Panic disorder is where an individual has reoccurring and regular panic attacks which can
... often appear for no apparent reason, and without warning. Feelings of anxiety of fear will often be present and can at points be crippling. Those who experience panic disorder will be plagued by intense periods of terror and anxiety and the time spent in between attacks is a highly stressful time because a sufferer will be living in fear of another attack occurring.
2. Mood Disorders
A mood disorder is a mental health problem that primarily affects a person’s emotional state. It is a disorder in which a person experiences long periods of extreme happiness, extreme sadness, or both. Mood disorders can cause changes in your behavior and can affect your ability to deal with routine activities, such as work or school.
Depression
Get briefed about Depression...
Depression, a mood or emotional state that is marked by feelings of low self-worth
... or guilt and a reduced ability to enjoy life. A person who is depressed usually experiences several of the following symptoms: feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or pessimism; lowered self-esteem and heightened self-depreciation; a decrease or loss of ability to take pleasure in ordinary activities; reduced energy and vitality; slowness of thought or action; loss of appetite; and disturbed sleep or insomnia.
Bipolar Disorder
Get briefed about Bipolar Disorder...
Bipolar disorder, also called "manic-depressive" disease, is a mental illness that causes
... people to have high and low moods. People with this illness have periods of feeling overly happy and joyful (or irritable) or of feeling very sad or feeling normal. Because of the highs and the lows – or two poles of mood – the condition is referred to as "bipolar” disorder. A definite cause for any type of depression is difficult to determine but include:
• Genetics
• Changes in the brain
• Environmental factors like stress and major life changes
Dysthymia
Get briefed about Dysthymia...
Dysthymia, sometimes referred to as mild, chronic depression, is less severe and
... has fewer symptoms than major depression. With dysthymia, the depression symptoms can linger for a long period of time, often two years or longer. Those who suffer from dysthymia can also experience periods of major depression--sometimes called "double depression." In modern diagnostic classification systems, dysthymia and chronic depression are now both referred to as persistent depressive disorder.
