“Mental illness” is the general term given to various kinds of mental disorders that affect the thinking and behavior of a person. It can be anything ranging from mild anxiety to most severe forms of schizophrenia. Some types of mental illness can seriously affect the quality of your life disturbing your relationships in office and in your family. Any medical condition that affects the normal functioning of thinking and feeling interrupting the daily activities can be called as mental illness. A mental illness can make life miserable by causing problems and affecting relationships at office or family.
Some of the common mental illness is bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorder, major depression, panic disorder and anxiety disorder. It is possible to cure all illnesses with continued medications or psychotherapy.
Causes :
What exactly causes mental illness is still a mystery. Certain conditions or combination of factors can produce such illness according to the opinion of medical experts. Genetics play a role in causing mental illness because certain types of disorders run in families and passed on from parents to their offspring. Genes are the fundamental units that decide how you think and act in a given situation.
Biological factors like abnormal functioning of neurotransmitters can affect the normal thinking of a person causing mental illness. Neurotransmitters act as communication receptors of the brain sending and receiving signals. Any change or chemical reactions in the neurotransmitters can affect normal thinking pattern. Psychological factors like child abuse, emotional trauma or sudden loss/death can affect the brain causing mental illness.
Symptoms :
Symptoms of mental illness are not the same for all disorders. It varies considerably according to the nature and intensity of the disorder. For example depression can produce sadness, anxiety disorder can produce restlessness and excessive fears, borderline personality disorder can impair the normal thinking causing poor concentration and confused thinking, avoidant personality disorder can produce social phobia and anxiety, eating disorder can produce major changes in one’s eating habits etc.