You or the person who is currently at your side may be living with a disorder affecting their mental health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in four people will develop, at some point in their lives, a serious disorder. The data provided by this institution also indicated that these problems are more frequent in women than in men.
Schizophrenia, depression, addiction, and dementia are some of the most common mental disorders in the world; they do not respect gender, economic level, age, or race. According to this international institution, a mental disorder “is characterized by a disturbance of intellectual activity, mood or behavior that does not conform to beliefs and cultural norms. In most cases, symptoms are accompanied by distress and interference with personal functions.”
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Here are the signs that could indicate that your mental health could be at risk. Before you get started, you need to know that a self-diagnosis is totally inaccurate. To find out if you have a real problem, you should see a specialist for a professional assessment.
Physical Symptoms
Even if you don’t hear it, your body is talking to you. Elevated cortisone levels affect our body and this manifests itself in sleep problems, sudden weight gain, the appearance of wrinkles, and muscle pain, especially in the back.
Affective Symptoms
At any time in our lives, we are likely to feel sad, fearful, or anxious. The everyday world is stressful enough to justify our tensions; however, recurring emotional discomfort can be a symptom of a serious problem. This is visible, especially if you have no apparent cause to feel this way. That is when you feel anxious or very nervous, and you are asked why, you do not know what to answer.
Cognitive Symptoms
This is not a mere distraction. If it becomes increasingly recurrent to divert your attention from what is important, if you have had comments made to you about noticing that you are “somewhere else,” and if you also find it difficult to think clearly or catch yourself holding beliefs that you later find abnormal, it could be a symptom of problems. The incipient birth of a mental disorder: they impair memory processes and alter our mental states.
Behavioral Symptoms
Aggressive behavior alone may not be a sufficient sign to suspect a mental abnormality. However, when coupled with an inability to perform the ordinary tasks of daily life, it can be a warning sign. Another determining factor is substance abuse -whether legal or not- drugs, alcohol, and tobacco alter the brain structure; however, regular consumption is only the tip of the iceberg of problems that are brewing inside the individual.
Perceptual Alterations
If you have had alterations in your visual or auditory perception -seeing and hearing things that do not exist- it may be a symptom that things are wrong. These alterations can occur as a consequence of the damage produced by the consumption of drugs or alcohol, even if you are not under the effects; however, it can also be due to a mental alteration. Only a specialist could give you the right diagnosis.
To know what is abnormal, we would have to have a reference to normality or health; according to the WHO, mental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual is aware of his or her capacities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can make a contribution to his or her community.”
This definition is somewhat confusing. One might wonder who are the people who are fully mentally healthy, as it seems that continuous well-being is, if not impossible, then very difficult to achieve. However, despite the ambiguities that this may represent, a little self-awareness can reveal whether there have been drastic changes in our personality and that these remain for a considerable time, not mere episodes.
Feeling sad or having sudden mood swings does NOT mean you are “bipolar” or have a psychiatric problem, that’s why we recommend you to know these myths about schizophrenia that you should stop believing.
On the other hand, having depression is not something to be taken lightly, it is an illness and, if left untreated, can lead to suicide. If what happens to you is that you are rather sad, check out these ideas to overcome the common sadness.
This story was originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
