What is Mental Illness?

What is Mental Illness?

Mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts an individual’s thoughts, emotions, behaviour and capacity for social interaction. People living with these illnesses often struggle to manage daily tasks and find it challenging to cope.

Mental illness presents with a range of symptoms, but they often include feeling sad or depressed, having anxiety, being anxious, irritable or angry, having difficulty sleeping and being overly aggressive or controlling. These effects can have an immense effect on someone’s ability to function at work, home or in relationships and may prove difficult for them to cope with.

Hereditary is one factor that may increase your chance for developing mental illness; trauma, stress or physical health conditions like diabetes or stroke also play a role.

Adverse childhood experiences such as abuse or neglect, bullying, and being exposed to violence in a violent environment can contribute to mental illness. Furthermore, biological factors like brain damage, defects in the brain or early fetal damage may also play a role.

Treatment for mental illness aims to enhance a person’s quality of life and assist them in managing symptoms. This may involve talk therapy, medication, and lifestyle modifications.

Diagnosing mental illness requires a detailed evaluation by a psychiatrist, psychologist or other health professional to pinpoint specific symptoms. Your doctor will consider how these effects your life and weigh the risks and advantages of treatments as well as any comorbid conditions that could be contributing factors. For instance, psychiatric symptoms could potentially complicate other medical issues.

Treatment for mental illness aims to alleviate symptoms, enhance quality of life and enable people to return to regular activities. It may include talk therapy, medication and lifestyle modifications such as changing one’s diet, exercising regularly or practicing good sleep hygiene.