Mental disorders include a number of different problems. They include depression, as well as pervasive developmental disorders in children and dementia typical of the elderly. Mental disorders are also eating disorders, sleep disorders and personality disorders, but these are just some of the mental disorders. What symptoms can you tell when a certain behavior is caused by a mental disorder?

There are many causesmental disorders , just as many - and even more - are varieties of mental disorders themselves. Individual mental disorders differ, inter alia, in the extent of their symptoms (sometimes they are related to mood and sometimes nutrition), as well as to what age groups they occur.

Mental disorders: mood (affective) disorders

A mood is defined as an emotional state that lasts for a long time. Mood can be leveled, depressed, or inflated. Individual mood disorders may be associated with its depression, as is the case in various types of depressive disorders and in dysthymia. However, affective disorders can also take the form of variable episodes of low and high mood, as is seen in bipolar disorder or cyclothymia.

Mental disorders: dementia disorders

Dementia is a mental disorder that is characteristic primarily of the elderly. Dementia disorders are sometimes associated with cognitive dysfunctions (such as impaired attention, concentration or memory abilities), but they can also lead to the fact that the experiencing patient will not be able to live independently. These types of mental disorders include many diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body dementia.

Almost a quarter of the population suffer from mental disorders

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Mental disorders: delusional disorders, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders

One of the more disturbing mental disorders of the patient are those with disturbances in the content of thinking inform of delusions. Delusions are incorrect beliefs in which the patient unquestionably believes the truth - no, even the most rational, arguments can convince him that he is actually wrong.

In the course of these mental problems, the patient may display delusions of persecution as well as grandeur or hypochondriac. There are also specific delusional disorders, such as, for example, Cotard's syndrome, Capgras syndrome or induced paranoia and Fragoli's syndrome.

Delusions are also a problem that occurs in other psychiatric units: schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is associated with a wide variety of symptoms: patients may experience both delusions and hallucinations, and movement disorders (the extent of symptoms depends on the type of schizophrenia the patient suffers from). Schizoaffective disorder, in turn, is a condition in which there are both mood disorders and symptoms similar to psychotic disorders, however, the range of ailments experienced by the patient does not allow for the diagnosis of pure schizophrenia or the affective disorders themselves.

Mental disorders: neurotic disorders

A feature that connects mental disorders in the form of neuroses is the experience of various types of anxiety by patients. Nowadays, even quite often the term "neurotic disorders" is replaced with another. These problems are sometimes referred to as "anxiety disorders".

The neurotic disorders include a number of various problems, such as:

  • generalized anxiety disorder,
  • phobias (such as agoraphobia or social phobia, but also specific phobias - e.g. arachnophobia),
  • anxiety disorder with panic attacks,
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder (commonly referred to as obsessive compulsive disorder).

Among the neurotic disorders are also problems that are related to the reaction to severe stress, such as:

  • adaptive disorders,
  • acute stress reaction,
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The discussed group of problems also includes dissociative and conversion disorders. Both of these are associated with psychological conflicts, however, in dissociative disorders, various changes in the patient's consciousness occur, while in conversion disorders, nonspecific somatic ailments appear. It is worth mentioning that conversion disorders belong to a wider group of somatomorphic disorders, in which mental problems lead to various symptoms on the part of the body. Nearmentioned, somatomorphic disorders also include, inter alia, persistent psychogenic pains or hypochondriac disorders.

Mental disorders: eating disorders

Eating disorders are mental disorders that are most common in adolescents and young adults. The best known of them are anorexia (anorexia nervosa) and bulimia nervosa (bulimia nervosa), but it is now postulated that eating disorders should include more and more problems - examples of such problems include binge eating disorder, orthorexia or drunkorexia.

Mental disorders: sleep disorders

Sleep disorders include dyssomnias (associated with an abnormal amount or quality of sleep) and parasomnias (these are phenomena that occur during sleep). Among dyssomnia, there are insomnia, as well as excessive sleepiness (hypersomnia), as well as narcolepsy. Parasomnia are sleepwalking (somnambulism) as well as night terrors and nightmares.

Mental disorders: personality disorders

Personality disorders are mental disorders in which there are permanent and extreme disorders of various personality traits (there are noticeable differences from the average personality traits occurring in most people, and in addition, these differences lead to disorders in the functioning of patient in various environments, including work or family).

There are many types of personality disorders. This group of mental disorders includes both the anankastic personality with a tendency to constant control, the histrionic personality with the need to attract the attention of the whole environment, and the borderline personality, where there are e.g. impulsiveness, instability of emotional relationships and unclear self-image.

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Child-specific mental disorders

Children, unfortunately, like adults, can experience various mental disorders. Some of these problems also occur in adults (we are talking here about depression, tic disorders or schizophrenia), others are typical for childhood. The second of the mentioned groups includes such childhood mental disorders as:

  • behavioral disorders,
  • motor hyperactivity syndromes (e.g. ADHD),
  • anxiety disorders (e.g. separation anxiety),
  • hospital disease (anaclitic depression),
  • mutism,
  • pervasive developmental disorders (such as autism, Asperger's or Rett's syndrome),
  • bedwetting.

Mental disorders: psychosexual disorders

Psychosexual disorders generally fall into two categories. The first of these are sexual dysfunctions unrelated to organic changes or some somatic diseases. It includes problems such as loss of sexual needs, sexual aversion or premature ejaculation and non-organic dyspareunia.

The second type of psychosexual disorders are gender identity disorders. This group of problems includes, for example, fetishism and exhibitionism, but also pedophilia or disorders of sexual preferences (in the form of, for example, necrophilia or zoophilia).

Substance use-related mental disorders

Psychoactive substances - alcohol, drugs or even drugs - can lead to specific disorders while taking them, and they can cause various mental disorders in the future. The mental disorders that are a consequence of long-term, excessive alcohol consumption are widely known - including, for example, alcohol paranoia, Othello's syndrome or Korsakoff's amnestic syndrome.

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

Category:

Psychiatry