Disorders

Disorders are mental illnesses that affect the mood, thinking and behavior. The DSM-5 is a book classifying mental disorders; there are currently 297 disorders in the book. The most common mental illness types include:

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders cause feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear. GAD, OCD, PTSD, and panic disorder are all types of anxiety disorders. GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, causes people to have excessive worry about a number of things. People with GAD usually expect disasters even if everything is actually normal. They don't know how to stop this worry cycle which worries them even more; they avoid situations or miss opportunities due to this disorder. They worry about things such as health and money. Therapy may help these people learn ways to cope with their worries.

OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, is when people have uncontrollable and excessive thoughts--obsessions--about certain things that lead to uncontrollable and repetitive behaviors--compulsions. This disorder cannot be cured. The way an OCD person copes with their disorder is by completing their compulsions, otherwise they will feel bad. Examples of OCD actions include: checking the door lock multiple times, checking the water tap in case a flood occurs, and rereading a passage several times due to uncertainty it was understood.

PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, occurs to some people after a traumatic and scary event, such as a car accident, earthquake, sexual assault, sexual abuse, or violence. People with PTSD get triggered which brings back memories from the event. Some may have nightmares or flashbacks; people avoid situations that may cause them to remember the event, such as driving a car if the person's PTSD was caused by a car accident.

Panic disorder causes people to have unexpected panic attacks for no reason at all. During these panic attacks, people experience fear, a racing heart, sweat, a shortness of breath, and feel as if something terrible is about to happen. They may feel like they are dying. People with panic disorder usually have a panic attack when they think about the next time they will have a panic attack because they worry about how long it will take. Panic attacks can last up to two hours.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders cause a serious change in mood; the two mood disorders are major depressive disorder and manic disorder. Major depressive disorder is basically severe depression. Depression is a disorder that may last more than 2 weeks. Most people associate depression with sadness, but depressed people usually feel empty. They are hopeless and pessimistic. Another symptom may be the loss of interest in almost everything, even their hobbies that they used to enjoy. Some find it difficult to get out of bed or even take care of themselves. Weight changes occur, either from eating more or less. Thoughts of suicide during depression are not uncommon. Many people turn to unhealthy activities to stop feeling empty; this can lead to addiction. These activities include drug/alcohol abuse, self harm, and binge eating comfort food.

Manic disorder, or bipolar disorder, is a disorder characterized by mood swings over a period of a few weeks. For a few weeks, people with this disorder are in their depression phase. For the next few weeks, they are in their manic phase where they are extremely happy. The manic phase is very dangerous because people believe they can do things that usually seem impossible. People with bipolar disorder usually commit suicide when they are in their manic phase which may sound odd. This is because they actually have the energy to prepare but when they are depressed, they have enough energy only to think about the action.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders affect eating habits making them abnormal. Anorexia and bulimia are the two eating disorders. Both these disorders have something in common: the desire to lose weight. One may have both disorders or just one. The difference between a person who wants to lose weight and these disorders is that these people are blinded by these disorders to believe they are fat even when their bones are visible. It's hard for these people to hide their disorder because at one point they will have to be hospitalized possibly due to fainting because of a lack of nutrition. Anorexia nervosa is the avoidance of eating food. Anorexics become addicted to counting calories, drinking tea, eating celery, and weighing themselves every day. Bulimia nervosa is the purging of food. Bulimics often use laxatives to throw up in order to lose weight. They may overuse laxatives when they want to get rid of the food from a binge episode; this can lead to an O.D. The difference between anorexia and bulimia is that bulimics eat food but anorexics try to avoid it so they won’t need to purge. Therapists can help people with eating disorders recover.

Conclusion

Mental illness is just like any other illness, except it isn’t physical, it is mental. This, though, does not make it any less real. Therefore, it is difficult to pinpoint those who have mental disorders because it isn't visible. Percentages of people who have disorders are never accurate because there are many people who don't get diagnosed. This may be because some people just don't know they have a disorder. Or it can be because people are afraid of the stigma associated with mental illness; some people may not understand the disorder and shrug it off as if the person is making it all up. Most disorders become even more severe if left untreated.

Sources

Psych Central

Most of this information comes from a psychology class I have taken.