Mental Health Disorders

Its normal to experience days where you feel sad and low and just ‘meh’. When your off days start to outnumber the days you feel happy, it could suggest that you have depression. 

Depression is a mental health disorder that affects your mood which can make you feel sad, empty, hopeless and irritable. 

Everyone’s experience of depression is different and not everyone experiences all of these symptoms:
For the past two weeks:

• Feeling sad

• Low mood

• Loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy

The feelings above must also be accompanied by at least five of the below:

• A change in appetite, either gaining or losing weight

• Sleeping more or less than usual

• Fatigue and low energy 

• Feeling worthless, hopeless, guilty 

• Avoiding friends or social situations

• An inability to focus and concentrate which impacts tasks at school and at home

• Physical movements which are unusually slow or agitation 

• Thinking about death and dying, having suicidal ideation

Anxiety is when you feel worried, scared and sometimes experience panic. It's a normal human response to stress or danger. 

We all feel anxious and the feeling generally passes when we feel safe or solve the problem that was causing the anxiety. 

Anxiety becomes a problem when it stops us from doing what we want in life e.g making friends or flying on a plane. 

Everyone’s experience of anxiety is different and not everyone experiences all of these symptoms:

We experience anxiety in:

Our body:

• Increased heart rate 

• Stomach ache

• Quick, shallow breathing

• Feeling light headed 

• Shaking limbs

• Sweating more than usual

• Biting or picking our nails/ skin

Our feelings:

• Nervous

• Overwhelmed 

• Expecting something bad to happen

• Self-consious 

• Tired and unsettled

• Needing reassurance from other people 

• Feeling like you've upset someone 

Our behaviour:

• Finding it difficult to concentrate 

• Overeating or eating less than usual

• Needing the toilet more often

• Difficulties sleeping

• Panic attacks 

We can experience different types of anxiety. The different types below are the most common types of anxiety:

General Anxiety Disorder:

Feeling anxious most of the time for different reasons 

Health Anxiety:

Health anxiety is when you spend lots of time worrying about feeling or getting ill. You keeping body checking for signs of illness or googling symptoms. You might find yourself scheduling lots of doctor appointments for reassurance that your not ill. 

Social anxiety:

Feeling shy and having social anxiety is very different. Social anxiety is where you experience overwhelming fear of social situations. You feel too anxious to interact with others. 

Academic anxiety:

Feeling anxious when you have an upcoming assignment or an exam, which results in  poor concentration or a panic attack 

Specific phobias:

A phobia is an overwhelming fear of a specific thing or situation for example a fear of snakes or flying on a plane 

Panic disorder:

Regularly experiencing panic attacks. They often feel like they come out of nowhere, without a clear cause and can be difficult to manage.

Anorexia Nervosa:

Anorexia is an eating disorder that results in a person not eating enough food. It usually starts due to low self esteem and worries about body image. 

People with anorexia try to keep their weight down by limiting the amount of calories they eat, over exercising or both at the same time. 

Anorexia affects both males and females and begins at any time. 

Anorexia looks like:

• Restricting nutrition intake which leads to low body weight

• Intense fear of gaining weight

• Changes in body image 

The above leads to physical changes which look like:

• Losing lots of weight in a short period of time

• Irregular or loss of period in females 

• Feeling cold

• Poor sleep

• Growing downy hair on body

Bulimia Nervosa:

Bulima is an eating disorder that results in a person binging (eating too much in a 2 hour time frame) and then purging (getting rid of the food). Its not the same as overeating. Its not always about weight. 

Bulimia affects both males and females and begins at any time. 

Bulimia looks like:

• Eating within a 2-hour period, an amount of food that is definitively larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances

• A feeling that you cannot stop eating or control what or how much you're eating

• Recurrent compensatory behaviors such as, self-induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or other medications; fasting or excessive exercise

  The above can lead to physical effects such as:

  • Feeling faint

  • Mood swings

  • Tooth decay

  • Irregular heart rate

  
  
  Binge eating:

  Binge eating is an eating disorder that entails eating large amounts of food in a 2 hour period, until you're uncomfortably full. You may feel that you don't have control over how much you're  eating.  

  
  Binge eating looks like:

  • Eating within a 2-hour period, an amount of food that is definitively larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances

  • A feeling that you cannot stop eating or control what or how much you're eating

  • Eating when youre not hungry

  • Feeling depressed, guilty, ashamed or disgusted after binge eating

  
  

  The above can lead to physical effects such as:

  • Cardiovascular disease

  • Type 2 diabetes

  • Social isolation and loneliness 

  • Depression or anxiety

• Avoidant/ restrictive Food intake Disorder (ARFID):

  ARFID is a type of eating disorder where a person avoids certain foods or certain types of foods and has a restricted intake of the volume of food they eat. 

  Food may be avoided due to sensory interests or the consequences of eating such as choking. 

  ARFID affects both males and females and begins at any time.

  
  

  ARFID looks like:

  • Significant weight loss or inability to gain weight

  • No interest in eating

  • Poor nutritional intake 

  • Dependance on supplements or other forms of calorie intake 

  • Inability to perform to your best potential at school, university or even socially

  
  

  The above can lead to physical effects such as:

  • Weight loss

  • Constipation 

  • Stomach ache 

  • fainting/ feeling dizzy

  • Muscle weakness 

  • Poor attention and concentration

Learning difficulties affect how your brain processes information. This could include how you:

• Take in information

• Organise information

• Retain information

• Understand information

• Use information

Learning difficulties typically affect how you read, write and/or do maths. They can range from mild to severe. 

Learning difficulties don’t affect intelligence and are different from intellectual disabilities. People with learning difficulties have specific issues with learning. But they have an average or above-average IQ.

Learning difficulties are apparent when you start school. 

Specific learning disorders include difficulties in one of these three main areas:

• Reading

• Writing 

• Maths 

Specific learning disorders include:

• Dyslexia (Reading): Dyslexia happens because of disruptions in how your brain processes written words so you can understand them. This may look like issues with spelling simple words, learning the names of letters, rhyming or sounding out new words

• Dysgraphia (Writing): Affects your ability to turn your thoughts into written language. This may look like issues with handwriting legibility, spelling, holding a pencil correctly, the rate or speed of writing or grammar.

• Dyscalculia (Maths): Affects your ability to understand number-based information and math. This may look like issues with counting upwards, doing simple calculations from memory, memorizing multiplication tables, organizing math problems

If you are worried you may have one of the above, please speak to your parents and teacher. They will be the best people to help you get assessed and then give you the right type of support.

You will need to be assessed by a pediatrician and a psychologist. You will undergo a series of assessments (known as a battery of assessments). It can take up to a few weeks/ months to have the diagnosis confirmed. 

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition. This means there are some differences in the way the brain works. 

There are three types of ADHD: Inattention, Hyperactivity, Combined 

Symptoms may look like this:

Inattention:

• Short attention span

• Poor focus on details and/or makes thoughtless mistakes in schoolwork 

• Avoidance or procrastination to begin homework or activities requiring concentration

• Difficulty to complete schoolwork and other assignments or to follow instructions

• Forgets daily activities

• Sidetracked by external or unimportant stimuli

• Loses and/or misplaces items needed to complete activities or tasks

• Difficulty listening to others

Hyperactivity/Impulsivity:

• Squirms when seated or fidgets with feet/hands

• Restlessness that is difficult to control

• Appears to be driven by “a motor” or is often “on the go”

• Lacks ability to play and engage in leisure activities in a quiet manner

• Incapable of staying seated 

• Overly talkative

• Difficulty waiting turn

• Interrupts or intrudes into conversations and activities of others

• Impulsively blurts out answers before questions completed

Combined:

•  Meets both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms as stated above

Autism is a neurodiverse condition that affects how you think and react to things happening around you. It shows up differently in every person – that’s why it’s called a spectrum condition (Autism Spectrum). 

The three main domains of autism are: Social communication, Restricted and repetitive behaviour and sensory sensitivities. 

It is important to emphasise that no two people with autism are alike. 

Symptoms may look like this:

Social communication:

• Difficulty with social cues: Understanding and responding to nonverbal cues (body language, facial expressions) can be difficult

• Challenges with conversations: Taking turns, initiating conversations, or engaging in back-and-forth exchanges can be tough

• Literal interpretation: May take language literally, struggling with sarcasm, idioms, or metaphors

• Inappropriate eye contact: May avoid or have inconsistent eye contact

• Social withdrawal: May prefer solitary activities or struggle with social situations 

Restricted and repetitive behaviour:

• Repetitive actions: May engage in repetitive movements or behaviors

• Fixation on interests: May have intense, focused interests in specific topics 

• Routine adherence: May be inflexible with routines or changes in plans

Sensory sensitivities:

• Overwhelmed by senses: May be sensitive to loud noises, bright lights, or certain textures

• Sensory overload: May experience sensory overload in crowded environments or during loud activities

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. 

Symptoms of PTSD include:

• Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic event

• Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the traumatic event

• Dissociative reactions which include flashbacks which give you the feeling that the traumatic event is happening again

• Intense psychological distress when triggered by something that reminds you of the traumatic event 

• Physiological reactions when triggered by something that reminds you of the traumatic event

Self-harm is when you hurt yourself as a way of dealing with very difficult feelings, painful memories or overwhelming situations and experiences.

People of all ages and backgrounds can self-harm. 

Young people describe self harm as:

• Changing emotional pain into physical pain

• Being able to express themselves without using words

• Feeling in control 

• Reducing emotional pain temporarily

• A way of punishing themselves 

• A way to stop feeling so numb  

Some reasons young people may self-harm include:

• Pressures at school/university

• Abuse or bullying

• Family conflict 

• Low self esteem

• Having a mental health disorder

• Having a medical illness

• Having a neurodivergent condition

• Feelings of loneliness

Suicide is the act of intentionally taking your own life

Suicidal ideation is the term given for thoughts about suicide without any actions taken.

Lots of people at times in their life have suicidal feelings and thoughts. You might feel unable to cope with the difficult feelings you are experiencing at certain times. You may also feel less like you want to die but more like you cannot go on living the life you have.

These feelings often build up over time and also change from moment to moment as does the intensity of the feelings and thoughts. 

Common thoughts and feelings include:

• Feeling hopeless

• Tearful and overwhelmed by negative thoughts

• Unbearable pain that you can't imagine ever ending

• Feeling useless

• Feeling like a burden on others or not feeling wanted by others 

Common symptoms include:

• Poor sleep. Either difficulty falling asleep or waking up earlier that usual

• A change in appetite that causes weight gain or loss

• Poor self hygiene 

• Wanting to be alone

• Difficulty communicating with others

• Urges to self harm

• Giving away your possessions 

Its important to remember that all thoughts and feelings are temporary. The way you are feeling now, wont last forever. Please reach out to someone you trust and start having a conversation about the way you're feeling to get the right help.