Mental Illness

Mental illness is a term that is used to refer to a wide range of mental disorders that can be diagnosed by a health care professional.

Experts say we all have the potential for suffering from mental health problems, no matter how old we are, whether we are male or female, rich or poor, or ethnic group we belong to.

The most common forms of mental illnesses are

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders commonly occur along with other mental or physical illnesses, including alcohol or substance abuse, which may mask anxiety symptoms or make them worse. In some cases, these other illnesses need to be treated before a person will respond to treatment for the anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders include:

-          panic disorder,

-          obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),

-          post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),

-          social phobia (or social anxiety disorder),

-          specific phobias, and

-          generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Mood disorders

these are also known as affective disorders or depressive disorders. Patients with these illnesses share disturbances or mood changes, generally involving either mania (elation) or depression. Mood disorders include :

•  Major depression - the sufferer is not longer interested in and does not enjoy activities and events that he/she previously got pleasure from
• Bipolar disorder - also known as manic-depressive illness, or manic depression   
• Dysthymia - mild chronic depression
•  SAD (seasonal affective disorder) - a type of major depression.

 Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that generally appears in late adolescence or early adulthood - however, it can emerge at any time in life.