Mental health issues are diverse and not limited to certain disorders. They can be grouped into mood, psychotic, organic brain, personality, developmental, behavioral, addictive, and sexual disorders. Poor parenting and genetics may also contribute to mental health problems.
Describing all mental health issues could be a daunting task. There are many things that affect mental well-being. Contrary to popular belief, mental health problems are not only related to certain mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. There are several other conditions that qualify as separate problems. Fortunately, there is also a useful grouping of some of these conditions, which can give a broad sense of the definition and how broad it is.
As mentioned above, conditions such as depression or bipolarity are well known in Western medicine. They are usually associated with other mental health problems such as PTSD, panic or generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These tend to be grouped into what are called mood disorders, although those based on anxiety can also be called anxiety disorders and are linked to severe phobias.
Another grouping is psychotic disorders, including conditions such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Here, the goal of keeping mental health issues separate starts to become problematic. There are people who have bipolar disorder with schizophrenia, or people with bipolar disorder who only have signs of schizophrenia when they’re manic. Additionally, those recovering from drug or alcohol use may have psychotic episodes.
Most of the time, people recovering from addiction are said to suffer from mental health problems called organic brain disorders. Others who have conditions that fit into this group include those who have suffered from brain damage, from traumatic injury or stroke. Some people have degenerative brain conditions such as multiple sclerosis, which will eventually affect brain functioning and mood. Dementia, resulting from things like Alzheimer’s disease, is another example of an organic brain disorder.
A number of mental health conditions are called personality disorders and these can be quite severe, such as borderline personality, making it difficult for a person to interact socially with others without significant problems. Some other personality disorders mean that people become antisocial or self-absorbed. There can be many ways these conditions play out and they may or may not respond to traditional treatments.
Other mental health issues can affect how people develop and learn. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Scale Disorders are considered to be part of this group. People might also have disorders that affect their behavior, such as conduct disorder, which typically occurs in children. Most addictive behaviors such as compulsive shopping or gambling are seen as mental health problems, as are conditions such as eating disorders. Additional mental health problems arise when people experience paraphilias or sexual arousal from things that don’t typically cause these feelings.
There are many who suggest that these mental health issues are just the beginning of what should be a much longer list. Some people argue that really poor parenting can remain a huge problem for many people because it can be the genesis of some, though not all, mental health issues. Certainly both environment and genetics may have some effect on the development of more than some of the conditions mentioned here, and others, as has been shown in more recent times, appear to stem almost exclusively from brain or body dysfunction.
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