Crown The Brown: Beginners Guide to Mental Health Awareness

World Mental Health Day 2019

Crown The Brown: Beginners Guide to Mental Health awareness on World Mental Health Day! In a world filled with chaos, technologically advanced forms of communication and continuous stress, mental health is certainly worth talking about! We need more awareness on mental well-being!

Within Mental health, there are various mental illnesses/disorders that people are not aware of, these are some of the main types of disorders:

• Mood disorders
• Anxiety disorders
• Psychotic disorders
• Trauma-related disorders
• Personality disorders

Mood Disorders

Characterized by the individual’s mood. Similarly, mood disorders are often caused by various factors, such as an imbalance of brain chemicals and life events. Contributed by stress or certainly traumatic experiences.

Mood disorders include:

• Depression

– Less interest in activities and no productivity levels rather than activity. Feelings of fatigue and hopelessness

• Dysthymia

– Chronic, depressed and irritable mood

• Bipolar Disorder

– Person having alternating moods and periods of depression or the elevation of moods and also periods of mania alternating

• Substance-induced mood Disorder

– Symptoms of depression probably triggered as a result of medication, drug abuse, alcoholism or other forms of treatment.

Anxiety Disorders

Involves extreme fear or worry. There are various strenuous factors adding to anxiety such as brain imbalances and environmental stress. It can be linked in families and genes due to faulty circuits in the brain that control fear and emotions.

Anxiety Disorders include:

• Panic Disorder

– Feeling of terror striking at random times causing a panic attack (sweat, chest pains and palpitations)

• Social Anxiety Disorder

– Social phobia. Feeling overwhelmed, worried and self-conscious in everyday situations, especially social situations and settings. Fixated on being judged, rejected, embarrassed or ridiculed.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

– Feeling an excessive amount of worry and unrealistic tension for no reason.

• Specific Phobias

– Feeling fearful about particular situations or options thus avoiding it at all costs such as traveling by plane, fear of clowns etc.

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

– Having ongoing unwanted thoughts and fears causing anxiety. Often carrying out certain behaviours to relieve anxiety such as cleaning

• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

– Often occurs after a traumatic event. Avoiding anything relating to the event rather than thinking about it.

Psychotic Disorders

Severe mental disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions. People with psychoses tend to lose touch with reality. Symptoms include hallucinating and also delusions.

Psychotic Disorders Include:

• Schizophrenia

– Experiencing changes in behaviour, delusions and hallucinations. A decrease in social functioning and productivity

– Changes lasting less than 6 months is known as Schizophreniform Disorder

– In older people, known as Paraphrenia

• Schizoaffective Disorder

– Symptoms of both depression and schizophrenia

• Brief Psychotic Disorder

– Short, sudden episodes of psychotic behaviour due to events or random occurrence

• Delusional Disorder

– Above all, false, fixed beliefs involving real situations that could be true (disease or being attacked) and also having delusions on real-life events.

Trauma-related Disorders

Involves exposure to trauma in terms of traumatic and stressful events. Some vary from childhood to adulthood.

Trauma-related Disorders include:

• Reactive Attachment Disorder

– Found in early childhood due to not having a healthy emotional attachment to caregivers. Negligent care

• Dis-inhibited Social Engagement Disorder

– Early childhood. Unable to interact with unfamiliar adults or peers due to neglect from primary caregivers. Unusual interaction with strangers.

• Post traumatic Stress Disorder

– Triggered by a terrifying event.

– Flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety and thoughts regarding event

• Adjustment Disorders

– Having a hard time coping leading to stress, feeling hopeless and anxious.

Personality Disorders

Having a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking, functioning and behaving. Having trouble perceiving or relating to people and situations

Personality Disorders Include:

• Paranoid Personality Disorder

– Above all, difficulty confiding in people, believing that others will betray them and also reading others as a threat or danger.

• Schizoid Personality Disorder

– Uninterested in forming so many relationships, feeling as if relationships interfere with freedom, being alone, little pleasure from life and intimacy and also being cold to others.

• Schizotypal Personality Disorder

– Difficulty forming relationships, expressing themselves unusually and also finding themselves ‘odd’

– Believing they can read minds and also having a ‘sixth sense’

– Similarly being anxious about others beliefs rather than those who do not share the same beliefs

• Antisocial Personality Disorder

– First of all 18 years or older.

– Putting self in danger without considering the consequences of others or yourself.

– Behaving dangerously, illegally and unpleasantly, while no sense of guilt

– Furthermore, getting bored easily, very aggressive, also doing things to hurt others

• Borderline Personality Disorder

– Worried about people abandoning you, intense emotions, finding it hard to keep stable relationships, suicidal thoughts and also self-harming behaviour

• Histrionic Personality Disorder

– Uncomfortable feeling, feeling dependent on the approval of others, being easily influenced by others. Reputation as dramatic and overemotional

• Narcissistic Personality Disorder

– Believing there are special reasons that make you different, feeling upset if others ignore you, fragile self-esteem, also resenting other people’s successes and take advantage of others.

• Avoidant (or anxious) Personality Disorder

– Avoid work, social activities,  also expecting disapproval from others and very sensitive

– Worried about being shamed, ridiculed, rejected and isolated.

• Dependent Personality Disorder

– Feel needy, weak, unable to make decisions

– Allow others to assume responsibility for areas in your life

– Being afraid or being left alone and having low self-confidence

• Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

– A need to keep everything in order and also thinking your way is the best

– Have a tendency to hand onto items with no obvious value

Furthermore, mental health is certainly not taboo. Similarly it is a very important part of our well-being. Therefore we need to be mentally healthy to live the most precious life! Mental health issues can also be caused by so many factors and as a result are also harmful to many.

Your mental state needs to be healthy for the reason that other parts of your well-being correlates. We need more awareness around factors that contribute to our mental health. We also need to stop allowing others to see it as a “taboo” subject, especially in brown families.

It seems like so many people preach about the topic but do not really practice what is preached! Celebrate your journey and certainly most of your struggle. It makes you human , hence also much stronger than you probably think you are.

CROWN THE BROWN