Mental Health and Disorder: Knowledge Required to be healthy as a whole

People say that our body is a temple. If that’s true then our mind would be the one true God that makes all the magic happen and makes us alive just like the magic of our creator made this world come to life. Every part of our body and mind is delicately made and should be treated and maintained as such. The structure of our mind and its workings is still a mystery in the scientific community. It is our mind that makes us different from all the other species that ever roamed on this planet. Our mind is the reason we might be one step closer to solving the grand mystery of the Universe around us. Therefore paying attention to mental health is just as justified if not more in a quest to ultimate knowledge as well as to a healthy body.

Since the very beginning of human civilization, humankind has seen many great minds that made life easier for those who came after them in their attempts to solve the mysteries of the Universe. Not all minds are the same but every mind has the potential of greatness lurking inside it somewhere.

Yet there are only a handful of us who can achieve the greatness all of us secretly wish for. We all daydream about it, some of us have ‘grown out of it’ but very few of us have ever asked a leading question why we can’t do what some other among us perfectly set the example of doing before.

Human civilization has come a long way. Maybe even longer than anyone who contributed their share of hardship has ever imagined. Our life has become really comfortable. Physical health improved quite a lot we can easily see that if we compare it with the last few decades. Many incurable diseases that terrified mankind before no longer possess the ability to wipe out entire populations of a certain area.

We can see the awareness to be physically healthy growing for quite a while now. All the articles about health and fitness in magazines and now online are an indicator of it. All the gyms that have numerous members are proof of that. In this heist to achieve peak physical health, some of us might be ignoring one most crucial aspect of health. The health and well being of the part that looks after all others, our mind.

In recent times awareness towards mental health is increasing which is very delightful to witness. It is great to finally see the main worker who runs our whole body getting some care and attention for itself.

There are many factors that might be making our mind weaker and weaker by the second like that blast that emitted radiation and made the atmosphere poisonous to live in after the Chernobyl disaster. ( Did anyone watch the HBO show Chernobyl by the way. If not, you should, it’s great). Not all the factors that weaken our minds are as dangerous as a nuclear disaster.

Many of them, however, are dangerous enough to hinder the proper function of your body and some might even kill you. At the least, they are powerful enough to try and stop you from living your life to the fullest. I am pretty sure no one wants that. Some of us might believe in reincarnation and seven lives, but so far we only get the proof that we live only once. So why would any of us want something in us that stop us from living the only life we get to the fullest.

What Exactly are Mental Diseases?

As most of us might have guessed from the name mental diseases refer to diseases that originate in our mind and affect either our body or our mind or both.

Mental disorder or in other word mental illness affects its victims internally. Mental health issues make the life of its possessor difficult, much more difficult than an average person. In some cases, it also makes life difficult for those who are around those who are the victims of the diseases we are talking about.

Different people might interpret the word ‘effect’ in different ways. Daily, we all also come across various emotions that does not make life any easier for us. We all might have had at least one of those blinding episodes of rage or frustration in everyday situations at least once in our life. No one is above feeling incredibly bored at a boring lecture or waiting in traffic.

Although these emotions also make our life fairly difficult, there is a difference between everyday emotions and mental diseases. It is perfectly healthy to cry when your favorite animated deer died on the screen. If you don’t feel any sadness then there might or might not be a problem.

When Do We Call Someone’s Mental Health Stable?

When we say that a person is mentally healthy we mean that they are fairly able to interact with the society that they live in without any problem. They are psychologically and emotionally stable. An emotionally stable person can the problems that come in front of everyone in a calm and logical manner. They feel all the emotions whenever it is appropriate, and they basically possess an optimistic outlook towards life.

There are a lot of sources available on the internet nowadays that can help us take a mental disorder test. While some of them might be reliable and some might just be for fun it is always best to be sure and seek the help of a mental disease specialist. There are a lot of mental disease specialists out there thanks to the increasing awareness among people.

How Mental Disorders Happen to a Person

Now that we have got an idea of what mental health issues are and how important it is to take care of our mental health. Some of us might be wondering how exactly a person acquires such a dangerous disorder. Some of us might even be curious to know the answer to the question, is mental disease contagious?

The answer to this question is a little bit tricky. While there might be zero chances of you catching the mental disease by just touching a person that unfortunately has a mental disease like anxiety or OCD, but people around us do play a major role in our mind’s well being.

There is a phenomenon by the name ‘emotional contagion’. The definition of this phenomenon suggests that the state of our mind or as we call it in common language our mood is greatly dependent on the people and environment that surrounds us. That does make sense, practically we all have experienced this. The day we spend around a yelling boss, our mood too stays down even after we leave the office. And being around happy bright people naturally makes us happy.

So we can say that although mental health issues do not spread with touch, we might acquire some of them from those who are around us.

Mental disorders and hereditary are also very closely related in some cases. We might just acquire some of the disorders from our ancestors, some mental health issues are hereditary.

Some mental health problems for example autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, etc might have a genetic factor to its origin.

One other common factor that might add to your chances of obtaining a mental health issue is stress. Mental disease due to stress is a very common occurrence. However, interestingly, stress is also a symptom of many mental disorders. Stress also has a very close connection with many other health problems like migraine, back and leg pain, asthma, ulcers, etc.

Different Kinds of Mental Diseases

There are a lot of mental illnesses and disorders out there. Some so minor that you might not even be aware of it. Some like depression that might take away all the fun and happiness from your life. Did you know that the need to constantly change the position of your legs while sleeping is also a mental disorder?

Different mental disorders have different symptoms. The mental disorder symptoms may vary from washing your hands too frequently to having suicidal thoughts. While it does not necessarily mean that you have a mental disorder just because you have a symptom or two, but it is definitely helpful to look out if you check in more than half of the symptoms.
Lists are always helpful, aren’t they? If you are looking for a mental disease list then here is a list and brief general information of some mental disorders that we all need to look out for.

OCD

OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The disorder is a result of stress. It drives the one who has the disorder to repeat specific behavior multiple times when they get stressed. The patient of this disorder basically gets obsessed with an idea or thought that is unpleasant or unwanted, and they have a hard time letting go of the idea and it compels them to keep repeating a behavior.

They basically get obsessed with cleaning and organizing the space around them as if in order to compensate for their lack of the ability to organize and edit the thoughts of their own minds. To an outsider, the behavior might seem a bit strong and even unusual, but to the people who have it, these repetitive behavior helps them keep their thoughts and mind sane. If they for some reason are not able to perform such behavior, they end up getting even more stressed.

Some common obsessive-compulsive behaviors are cleaning, arranging and rearranging, checking again and again whether they have turned the gas off or not, etc. Famous fictional character who are deep into the OCD hole are Monica Galler from the show ‘Friends’( We all know about her obsession with cleaning right, she even went to her brother’s girlfriend’s house to clean it after hearing it was dirty, even went on to say that she won’t be able to sleep if she does not get to clean it), Sheldon Cooper from ‘The Big Bang Theory’, Roy Waller from ‘Matchstick Man’ etc.

Not only movie characters, but many celebrities in real life also suffers from this behavior. Pop queen and one of the most gorgeous women in the planet Katy Perry who sang inspiring songs like ‘Fireworks’ and ‘Part of Me’, dashing and charming singer Justin Timberlake who was once a part of the boy band *NSYNC, footballer and one of the most handsome man on the planet David Beckham, all of them suffered from OCD.

The treatment of OCD includes therapy from a psychologist, the patient might also need to take on some chemical medication if their disorder gets too intense.

OCD might sound like a lot but actually, OCD might even help some people to get their job done more easily. I mean it is much less likely for a person to get in an accident if they keep checking on their gas and light switch.
To know more about this disorder you should check out our article on OCD.

Sleep Disorders

We all know that sleep is a much needed and amazing phenomenon that happens to people unless you are unlucky enough to be the victim of insomnia.

A good night’s sleep is important for us because it gives our mind a much-needed break from running all day. A proper and deep sleep refreshes our mind up, just like a cold shower refreshes us up after a long hot day. With sleep happens another mysterious and intriguing phenomena, dreams. Nobody has the proper explanation of why we dream, but a dream created a lot of inspiration for a lot of artists and creators. Did you know, the author of the controversial but popular book series ‘Twilight’ got the inspiration for the story in her dream. Now we don’t know how many favors that did to the world, but the whole thing did help a lot of people make a lot of money.

Anyway, there are a lot of disorders out there related to sleep. The most notable ones are Insomnia as discussed before, nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, restless leg disorder, etc.

Sleep disorder in children can be seen in the form of night terror or nightmare mostly, but it is not uncommon in even adults. We all have suffered from those scary demons that used to chase us around in our dreams. I used to dream about monsters of all kinds. Generally chasing was involved and just when they were about to catch me I would wake up. I would be all sweaty and my heart would be beating so fast I could hear it.
To know more about this kind of disorders check out our article on sleep disorders.

Depression

Aah depression, many of us use this term to describe our sad lives, and how unhappy we have been lately. While it is one of the most common and deadly mental disorder out there, it is very much different from the sadness we might face on a daily basis.

Sadness is an emotion, just like much other depression it is short-lived. Depression is long, hard, mind-numbing and long. To determine if you might be depressed you might ask yourself this one question. When was the last time you felt happy? If the answer to this question is just a moment earlier, or I was quite happy yesterday or the day before that then you might not be depressed. But if you can’t remember yourself being happy for a long time, or you don’t remember the last time you really felt joy, then my friend, you might have been struggling with depression.

When you are suffering from depression you find yourself losing interest in stuff you loved before. You feel your mood being gloomy for no particular reason and it does not change. You are overwhelmed by a sadness that just leeches onto you and does not let go.

Depression, as we discussed earlier, is a long torturing disorder. It lasts from 6 to 8 weeks but it might also last longer. Often people who suffer from this disorder lose interest in everything including living their own lives. In this situation, quitting seems to be the easiest way out. But we need to tell you something, there always is another way.

If you find out that you might be depressed then don’t be shy to ask for health. Everything can be solved even though there seems to be little hope. There is a lot of option available in the form of psychotherapy and chemical drugs. The best thing, however, is to make people realize that there is hope. Hope can be powerful medicine, there always is someone who cares for you. It is worth living just for the reason that you got a chance to live.

Phobia

Phobia is basically an extreme fear for some specific object that might seem irrational if you are not the one suffering from the phobia.

There are some of us that had their lives made more difficult due to these phobias. Imagine you have claustrophobia, and your office at work is on the top floor of the building. Now you always have to use the stairs to reach your building as your phobia does not allow you to be in a lift. So every day you have to walk all those stairs wasting all that extra time and energy. That is because you would rather climb a million chair than be in a tight space. Now to your credit, you are getting a lot of physical exercises done. You might not need to hit the gym separately. But think how much easier it would have been if you could just take the lift.

Rebecca Scowcroft

Rebecca Scowcroft from Bolton was featured in the Telegraph in 2008. When she was only 12 years old she became known because of her extreme fear of trying new food that made her unable to eat anything but chocolate. Her condition is called extreme food phobia and that same article said that the condition was seen in Britain more often than one might think. There was at least one kid in every school in the country that was afraid to try out a new variety of food.

Scowcroft ate chocolate for all three meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Now, this might seem a delight to someone who loves chocolate, eating chocolate for every meal sound kind of great, but Rebecca does not think so. She stated that she was tired of eating only chocolate, and wanted to lead a more normal life where she could eat all the other amazing things that all of us eat without giving it a second thought. And she is quite right, too much of something, even if it’s something as good as chocolate gets tiring pretty easily.

There is a wide range of things people are afraid of, spoons, forks, large crowds, water, public speaking, etc to name a few. But the good news is this disorder is quite easy to diagnose. There are some behavioral therapy and medication that can help get rid of phobias for good.

If you suffer from one or more of these phobias, do check out our article on phobias. Even if you don’t have one, you could help someone who has them, wouldn’t that feel amazing!

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a struggle that some people fight with their entire life. It is a demon that is caused due to many factors mixed in like our hereditary, or the environment.
Schizophrenia affects a person’s thoughts, a person who suffers from this disorder have a hard time to organize their thoughts. They often suffer from hallucinations and delusions which affects their ability to perform everyday tasks like working or taking care of themselves. So they end up having to rely on others to take care of themselves.

These are the general symptoms of Schizophrenia but, the symptoms may vary from person to person. Some patients are helpful and cooperate with the treatment. But there are also some that fail to recognize that there might even be anything wrong with them. In this case, it is very hard to treat the patient. That is because they refuse treatment believing there is nothing wrong with them. This affects not only the patient but their family and loved ones.
There are also a lot of methods available to treat schizophrenia. We will give you detailed information about them in our article about Schizophrenia.

Stuttering

There was a kid in our class when I used to be in middle school. He talked slow and would stutter whenever he got nervous which was a lot. Some of the other kids used to imitate him and even I might have been guilty of laughing along. I was young back then and it seemed funny at the time. What we didn’t realize, it wasn’t funny for the kid who was being imitated. It made him self conscious and he started speaking less and less. Fortunately, our teacher made us realize the faults in our way by addressing the matter in front of the whole class. She told us all how it is okay to be different. We need to treat them not different but as one of us, so they do not feel self-conscious.

This was one of the very first moments that made me realize the importance of being accepting and kind towards those who are different than us. Many such moments like this made me more comfortable and accepting of my own differences. They helped me keep an open mind to matters. Now there might be a million other kids like the one in my school in millions of other schools all across the globe. The very real possibility is they might be facing the same difficulties.

Stuttering is basically a speech disorder that can happen to people of any age. Children might have them, and even adults might have them. The cause of this disorder is mainly being stressed but there are people who stutter due to reasons like hereditary. It is also a symptom of having a stroke so you might wanna look out for that.

Nightmares

We all must at least know what nightmares are if you don’t know what they are you must be lucky.

Scary dreams also known as nightmares are common in children, but adults are not unlikely to have them either. Nightmares might just be dreams but they are incredibly realistic. When you are in a nightmare it is very likely that you won’t realize that you are just dreaming. If you come to the realization that you are dreaming then that’s another amazing phenomenon, lucid dreaming. But let’s talk about that some other time, let’s continue on nightmares.

Nightmares mostly occur in a stage of sleep called REM sleep or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. In this phage there happens very random and rapid movement of our eyes. Most of the dreams we dream happen during this stage of sleep.

Nightmares might not seem like a serious problem, after all, dreams can’t hurt us, right? In actuality, not really. Nightmares cause sleep deprivation. You know how you wake up after a bad dream and have a hard time falling back asleep? That disrupts your sleep. In the long term, nightmares can also lead to heart disease, depression, and obesity. So as it turned out, dreams can be deadly too.

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse has become a serious problem among young adults nowadays. Where we still have movies like Kabir Singh that glorifies a patient of substance abuse, it is important to know that it is not okay to put your body through all the turmoil of drugs and alcohol.

A glass of wine every now and then, or prescribed medication that might make you feel a little wobbly is not substance abuse. It becomes a problem when you take illegal drugs like cocaine or marijuana. Or if you can’t stop drinking that beer until you pass out and can’t remember anything the next day, you might be under the influence of substance abuse.

You might think the only way to get over the girlfriend that left you is by immersing yourself in alcohol and the colorful hallucinations of drugs. But it’s unhealthy, very unhealthy, it’s your body and your life, why waste it on someone else. If you want to stop and cant then ask for help. If you look for it, there are a lot of sources out there to help patients like these. There is no shame in asking for help.

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a very rare and interesting disorder. This disease causes extreme sleepiness or drowsiness, but not at night but in the daytime. Patients are very much unable to control and prevent themselves from falling asleep on even during the daytime.

This disease is pretty much incurable and lasts for life. However medical help might be able to help control this disorder.

Aside from these diseases, there are still a lot of other disorders like autism, anxiety disorder, dissociative disorders etc that you need to know about. Some of them are quite severe, some are quite fascinating. The human mind is truly incredible in terms of what it is capable of doing. There are disorders like congenital analgesia or LRP5 that give you superhuman like abilities like unbreakable bones or inability to feel pain. The study of the human mind and all the disorders abilities it has is incredibly fascinating. The good thing is there are a lot of other articles on the site. So stay tuned and learn with us.

Effects that Mental Health Issues Might Have on Your Life

As we have discussed before mental diseases and illnesses basically make our life more difficult than it actually should be. Mental disorders modify our behavior, the mental disease might increase or decrease our anger, it changes our mood pattern. The intensity and exact effect they have varies depending upon the disease and the person.

What Statistics Say

If we were to believe statistics, mental disorders are very much widespread phenomena across the whole world. According to the World Health Organization website among the whole population of the earth, among every four people there is at least one who suffered from at least one of the many mental disorders at some point in their lives. Those statistics are alarming, to say the least, medical since has made many milestone discoveries. Many widespread and terrifying physical diseases are now not that big of a deal as it used to be. We take shots and injections beforehand to ensure ourselves so that we are protected from various diseases. Hopefully in the future preventive measures as such will be a common deal for mental diseases too.

Mental health issues can make you sad for a long long time. These diseases can make you lose interest in anything that you held dear beforehand, including your own life. These diseases can prevent you from falling asleep. It also might wake you up in the middle of the night with sweat all over your body and a racing heart. These kinds of disorders can make you afraid of pretty normal stuff. Even stuff like water that you need to drink every day, or food, or even the number 13. Mental health issues can make you delusional and paranoid, make you see monsters in every corner. They can make you distrust your own family and loved ones, some can even make you hurt them. Mental disorders push you away from society and others. It eventually from yourself making you lose the essence of who you are or could have been.

So yeah, basically mental health issues can make your life a living hell.
Sounds almost like sorcery, does it not? For centuries, people treated various mental health issues like magic or witchcraft. Many mental patients were thought to be possessed by some demon or evil entity. They were even tortured in the name of exorcism. Thank God we are way past that time now.

What to Do When You or Your loved One has These Disorders?

Most of us have very little idea on what to do when someone we know and love is suffering from mental health issues. We often get confused because of our lack of knowledge on the matter. We don’t know whether to motivate them to overcome their situation or just let them be and give them time to heal. A person with mental health challenges might be fragile and defensive. It is helpful to make kids aware of the importance of communication and channelling their emotions in a healthy way. This will help them avoid a lot of mental health issues.

Did reading about all the effects mental health issues might have on our life freak you out? If it did, then you don’t really need to worry much, there is good news for you. If you are asking yourself the question, can mental disorders be cured, then answer very surely is yes? There are a lot of ways and resources with which you can help yourself and your loved ones if they are a victim of any of these mental disorders. The most simple and efficient thing to do in a situation like to is to talk to the person. Try and communicate with them. Be sympathetic to them but don’t pity them. Make them feel like it is okay that they are a bit different. Tell them that everything is eventually going to be all right. Love can really be a very powerful cure in this case.

There is a lot of trained mental disease specialist out there too. If someone has a disorder too severe, then the help of professionals is absolutely a must. We should not take any disorder lightly as all of us deserve to live with a healthy mind.