Download What Causes Mental Illness?

What Causes Mental Illness?
 Environment
– Experiences
– Self-esteem
 Physical Causes
– Body chemistry
– Disease
– Toxins and drugs
 Heredity
– Genetic
Warning Signs




Anxiety
Depression
Sudden change in mood or behavior
Physical complaints
– Psychosomatic
 Poor performance
Classifications of Mental Disorders
 Neurosis
– Anxiety disorders, depression & phobias
– Common and easily treated
 Personality
– Dissaociative disorders
– Not curable
 Psychosis
– Schizophrenia
– Difficult to function in the real world
Eating Disorders
 Behaviors that are the result of deep emotional
problems related to self-image and self-esteem.
 Disordered eating as a result of a mental
condition.
 Bulimia:
– Bingeing on food then purging to avoid weight gain
 Anorexia Nervosa:
– Excessive dieting resulting in a state of self-starvation
Anxiety Disorders
 General Anxiety Disorder: Constant feeling of
anxiety and fear with physical symptoms like
increased heart rate, shortness of breath,
perspiration, shaking, and diarrhea
 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Persistent
recurring thoughts accompanied with the need to
repeatedly perform some action, such as
repeatedly washing one’s hands.
Anxiety Disorders Continued
 Panic Disorder
– Intense feelings of terror that occur suddenly
without cause
 Phobia
– Persistent fear of something: Hydrophobia (fear
of water), claustrophobia (fear of small,
enclosed spaces), Agoraphobia (fear of public
places)
Dissociative Disorders
 A person believes that sometimes he or she is
really someone else.
 Amnesia
– Loss of Memory
 Multiple Personality Disorder
– Having two or more distinct personalities, which can
show different physical conditions and are often the
exact opposite of each other
Mood Disorders
 Mood Disorders:
– One mood is experienced almost to the exclusion of
other feelings
– Usually for a long time and interrupts a person’s ability
to complete daily activities. Depression is the most
common.
 Bipolar Disorder (Manic-Depression)
– Experiencing exaggerated feelings of euphoria,
irritability, depression; exaggerated mood swings;
reckless behavior
 Depression
– Experiencing feelings of sadness, loneliness, and
hopelessness for an extended period of time
Personality Disorders
 Traits that negatively affect a person’s ability to get
along with others
 Aggression
– Behavior that displays an inner conflict between being
dependent and being assertive, which results in erratic
moods
 Paranoia
– Consistent mistrust of others for no reason
 Antisocial Personality Disorder
– Showing a preference to remain distant from others
Other Disorders
 Organic Disorders
– Mental and emotional disorders resulting from a
physical cause
 Schizophrenia
– Impaired perceptions, thinking processes, emotional
health, and physical activity
 Hypochondriasis (A Somatoform Disorder)
– Believing and showing signs of serious illness without
any physical cause
Seeking Help
 When to seek professional help:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Prolonged feeling of depression and hopelessness
Feeling that life is out of control
The inability to concentrate and make decisions
Difficulty getting along with family and friends
Intense fears
Persistent difficulty sleeping
Emotional problems coping with a physical illness
Inability to stop destructive behaviors like drinking,
overeating, and abusing drugs
Therapy
 Medication
 Talk Therapy
 Group Therapy
 Play Therapy
 Alternative
–Relaxation techniques, meditation,
music therapy or art therapy
Professional Careers in Mental
Health
 Psychiatrist
–Prescribes medicine
 Psychologist
–Diagnoses and treats
 Counselors
People With Healthy
Personalities…
 Are self-disciplined
 Are trustworthy
 Like themselves
 Are responsible
 Will help others
People With Healthy
Personalities…
 Feel valuable
 Get along well with others
 Express emotions in healthful ways
 Solve problems in a constructive
manner
 Have a philosophy and purpose of
life
Optimism
 Make a list of all the positive things you
expect will happen to you in the future. Then
list any of the bad things that you think could
happen in the future as well. Now look at
your lists. Have you described more positive
things or more negative things? How could
you revise your lists to look at each negative
event with optimism?