Mentall Illness Faced By Adult

Mental Illnesses are known to have devastating impact on a person’s quality of life. Below are some commonly known mental illnesses affecting adults:

Depression

Depression is classified as a mood disorder, and affects a person’s feelings and emotions. Everyone feels sad from time to time, due to situations such as the loss of someone close, or a major disappointment. However, depression is of a greater intensity and lasts for a much longer period of time, to the point where it severely affects your daily functioning.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is another common mood disorder. While it is normal to experience a variety of moods throughout the day, Bipolar Disorder is evident when you have an extreme change in mood, usually swinging between extremes. These extremes or “poles” range from “mania” (a highly excited and elevated mood) to depression (extreme low and sad mood).

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects a person’s sense of reality, and the sufferer can be affected by delusions, hallucinations, or be extremely disorganized in speech and behaviour.

A person with Schizophrenia may develop false beliefs of grandeur or persecution (delusions), or experience sights, sounds, smells, tastes or touch that others do not experience (hallucinations). Such symptoms make it difficult for sufferers to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined.

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders are mental illnesses that may be caused by problems with a person’s self esteem and his/her concept of self and identity. It is argued that in a society with an ever-increasing focus on beauty, perceptions about dieting and body types can become distorted, and in turn can have an adverse effect on one’s eating habits.

Bulimia and Anorexia are two forms of eating disorders. Bulimia is characterised by purging after binge eating, whilst Anorexics suffer severe weight loss caused by an extreme reduction in food intake. Both can be life-threatening. People who suffer from anorexia or bulimia are extremely frightened of becoming fat, and this deep fear persists even after they have lost a lot of weight. Both conditions can be life-threatening once sufferers lose excessive amounts of weight.

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders arise from stress factors bearing down upon the individual, for example, worries about work, finances and health. If you have anxiety disorder, you are likely to display symptoms such as frequent and inappropriate worry, fear, breathlessness, tension, trembling/shaking, dizziness, muscular tension. Other symptoms include irritability, restlessness, insomnia, hyperventilation and frequent sweating.

Prolonged periods of anxiety can also lead to complications such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). People who suffer from OCD characteristically tend to repeat certain actions excessively or entertain recurrent unwanted thoughts, such as the washing of hands or excessive double-checking.

Ironically, OCD sufferers perform these ‘rituals’ in the hope of preventing and dispelling obsessive thoughts. Such repetition only gives an OCD sufferer temporary relief, and more anxiety is experienced when these repeated actions are not performed.

Where to Seek Help

Physicians, GP Clinics, Counselors and Psychiatrists are avenues where you can seek treatment for the above conditions. There are also many hospital support groups in various hospitals which you can turn to for help and support.