Chapter 5:
The Basics On Mental Disorders
Synopsis
A mental disorder is defined as a condition that affects how a person feels, thinks and behave with or without the influence of other people around them. The person who is suffering from a mental disorder might show some mild to severe signs of mental disability, depending on the person’s condition. Most of the sufferers finds it hard to cope with even the simplest routines and demands from work and home.
How to keep a Healthy Mind
There is no exact cause of mental illness. However, studies show that mental malady is triggered by one of the following factors or combined psychological, biological, hereditary and environmental problem and not really a personal weakness. Thus, in most cases this condition cannot be alleviated by simple self-discipline as it apparently needs the intervention of doctors and medicine.
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Following the cause is the types of mental disease. Mental conditions can be treated effectively using the right approach. Thus, knowing its type can help enhance the recovery process. Below are the most known types of mental disorders.
Psychotic disorders – It is described as having a distorted thinking aandawareness pattern. Its most common symptom is hallucinations.
The person with a psychotic disorder may experience weird images and sounds that they perceive as true events despite their clear notion of delusion. One known example of a psychotic disorder is schizophrenia.
Personality disorders – These disorders are characterized by extremely stubborn personalities that causes the person or the people around to feel stressed and upset. This is the reason why people with personality disorders always encounter problems at work, school, home and even personal and social relationships with people. This is because the way they think and behave is extremely different from thenormal individuals. Some examples of this condition are obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.
Mood disorders – These disorders are also known as affective disorders. They are described as having a relentless feeling of sadness or happiness or fluctuation of the two extreme emotions. For instance is the condition of being extremely happy to feeling extremely sad.
Examples of this disorder are bipolar disorder and depression.
Anxiety disorders – A person with an anxiety disorder responds to certain situations with great fear and horror resulting in serious nervousness, sweating and rapid heartbeat. Examples includes but are not limited to specific phobia, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disordersand social anxiety disorder.
Addiction disorders – These are characterized by uncontrollable urges to perform things that are detrimental to our own self and others. Examples are stealing, gambling, alcohol and drug dependency.
Eating disorders – These disorders are characterized by extreme attitudes, emotions and behaviors relating to food and weight.
Examples of this include Bulimia Nervosa, binge eating disorders and Anorexia Nervosa.
Chapter 6:
The Basics On Stress
Synopsis
Stress is defined as a reaction to something that bothers us physically, mentally and emotionally, which as a result affects our equilibrium.
Therefore, stress is innate and can be triggered when something adverse happens. When a stressful event takes place the fight/flight response is triggered causing the adrenaline and cortisol in the body to rise to keep us alert and alive.
Relax!
Having a small amount of stress is good but keeping it for a long period of time can significantly affect our overall health. While stress is unavoidable, the best way to prevent it to linger more is to change your reaction towards stress. How will you do that?
You need to understand stress and why it has to be present in our lives. Stress has several types and levels. Therefore, it makes sense that we get affected by it in so many different ways. For us to manage it effectively we must understand first what types ofs tress we are experiencing. That way we can condition our mind and body to expel stress as quickly as possible.
Stress should not be perceived as something bad at all times because in life stress can either be good or bad. What makes stress becomes bad is when we allow it to stay in us for a long duration. The good side of stress when present in moderation is the energy that it gives us that keeps us alive and stimulated to do our tasks. Recognizing the good stresses from the bad ones will allow you to use it to your advantage.
Our health can be greatly affected by stress when taken for granted. It can cause us to get sick every so often. Not only that, “chronic stress” can also affect our mental health which could possibly lead to emotional instability. Before that happens, you have to stop the madness before it ruins you completely.
Research also shows that stress has an effect on your physique. This is because when you have stress overload, chances are you will care less about yourself. You won’t pay much attention to your looks and worse you will not care about your eating pattern and the type of foods that you are consuming which can cause change to how your body processes the food. If this happens, your weight and body figure will be greatly affected.
Stress can also affect our way of life and relationships. When we are stressed we are likely to feel that there is never enough time for us to complete our responsibilities. As a result, involvement becomes less and you hardly see your friends and family. Also, since stress can make someone moody, you might hurt your loved ones because of your erratic mood.