Disorders

Be Kind To Your Mind

Mental disorders cause significant disturbances in a person’s thinking, emotions, or behavior. These conditions can create distress and impair the person’s ability to function well in important areas of life. Mental disorders are also referred to as mental health conditions, which include psychosocial disabilities and other mental states that cause significant distress, impair functioning, or pose a risk of self-harm.

Disclaimer: The information and resources shared on this page are meant as tools for learning and understanding, and not to be used for self-diagnosing or in place of seeking medical or mental health providers for help. Please seek out local providers in your area for professional help.

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Types of anxiety disorders

A specific phobia is an intense fear of something, such as spiders or heights. For example, a person with a phobia about germs may find it unbearable to be touched by other people.
Generalized anxiety disorder is anxiety that feels constant or near-constant.
Panic attacks are sudden feelings of overwhelming fear when there is no real danger. Panic disorder develops when fear of another attack becomes crippling.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is a form of anxiety brought on by unwelcome, uncomfortable, and persistent thoughts that keep coming into a person’s mind. To control those thoughts and quell the anxiety, a person might engage in compulsive behavior, such as hand-washing in response to thoughts about infection.
Social anxiety disorder is disproportionate anxiety in response to social interactions, which often causes sufferers to avoid meetings or social situations.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a form of anxiety that develops in response to trauma, such as time spent in a war zone or being the victim of a crime.(info provided by Yale Medicine)

Types of depressive disorders

Major depression includes symptoms of depressed mood or loss of interest, most of the time for at least 2 weeks, that interfere with daily activities.
Persistent depressive disorder (also called dysthymia or dysthymic disorder) consists of less severe symptoms of depression that last much longer, usually for at least 2 years.
Perinatal depression is depression that occurs during or after pregnancy. Depression that begins during pregnancy is prenatal depression and depression that begins after the baby is born is postpartum depression.
Seasonal affective disorder is depression that comes and goes with the seasons, with symptoms typically starting in the late fall and early winter and going away during the spring and summer.
Depression with symptoms of psychosis is a severe form of depression in which a person experiences psychosis symptoms, such as delusions (disturbing, false fixed beliefs) or hallucinations (hearing or seeing things others do not hear or see). (info provided by NIMH)

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