Mental health issues are prominent around the world, especially in the United States, where millions of its citizens are affected. Thankfully, the mental health discussion is shifting from taboo to a more healthy and public approach. But there are still some misconceptions about mental health disorders, but it’s incredibly essential to discuss them.
According to the National Alliance of Mental Health, one in five adults in the United States live with mental health disorders in their lifetime. This means that nearly 10 million United States citizens have a severe mental health disorder.
What Are Mental Health Disorders?
Mental health disorders or mental illness refers to a vast scope of mental health conditions. These disorders affect one’s behavior, mood, and thinking. The following are examples of mental disorders.
These disorders require prescription medication to alleviate the symptoms and help the patient function daily. These medications differ based on their function such as antidepressants, antianxiety, stimulants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers. If you’re one of these patients, take advantage of the Buzzrx prescription discounts on their website. The most common medications for mental illnesses are Proxac, Zoloft, Xanax, and more.
Mental health is all about one’s psychological and emotional well-being. Individuals can get these mental health disorders for numerous reasons. It can be for biological reasons, trauma, abuse, or environmental. Genetics and brain chemistry have a huge role in these disorders.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorder is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders in the United States and affects 40 million adults. Anxiety disorders have a vast scope of disorders, and as such, they also impact children.
Anxiety is merely a broad term that describes the numerous anxiety disorders such as:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
GAD is characterized by excessive worry and stress that a patient experiences on most days. This disorder is the most common among the others, and its symptoms include feelings of restlessness, irritability, difficulty sleeping, muscle tension, racing thoughts, and difficulty concentrating.
Panic Disorder
Women are more susceptible to being diagnosed with panic disorder. The symptoms of this disorder include a racing heart, heart palpitations, shaking, sweating, and feeling out of control.
Social Anxiety Disorder
This refers to feeling significant anxiety and discomfort about being humiliated, rejected, embarrassed, or looked down on in any social interaction. Patients with this disorder would try to avoid any situation where they would experience this intense anxiety, or they would just endure the situation with great anxiety.
The most common examples of these situations are public speaking, meeting new people, drinking in public, and many more.
Separation Anxiety Disorder
This disorder is often associated with children, infants, and toddlers. But it can also affect teenagers and adults. This disorder refers to the difficulty of separating from their loved ones and their own home. They would experience panic attacks related to the fear of separating from their loved ones.
Depressive Disorders
Depressive or mood disorders are another most common mental health disorder in the United States. Like anxiety disorders, depression is an umbrella term for the multiple disorders under it. The following are the most common depressive disorders in the United States.
Major Depressive Disorder
People with this disorder may experience single or multiple episodes of depression. The symptoms include feeling sad, hopeless, lonely, and losing interest in pleasurable activities. It also has physical symptoms like lack of appetite and energy.
Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)
It’s a chronic condition that has several symptoms similar to major depressive disorder but lasts longer. It’s milder than major depressive disorder, but it’s long-lasting. That’s how you differentiate the two.
Bipolar Disorders
The third most common mental health disorder in the United States is bipolar disorder. The disorder you would get diagnosed with would depend on your symptoms and moods and how severely it affects you. Individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder experience extreme mood changes that cycle back and forth.
Bipolar 1 Disorder
Patients will get a diagnosis of bipolar 1 if they’ve experienced at least one episode of mania that lasted longer than a week and some depressive episodes. However, a depressive episode isn’t a requirement for bipolar 1 disorder as compared to bipolar 2 disorder. A manic episode is when a person feels highly confident and energized. They tend to behave recklessly and impulsively.
Bipolar 2 Disorder
Patients get a diagnosis of bipolar 2 disorder if they’ve experienced at least one depressive episode and symptoms of hypomania that lasted for at least four days. A depressive episode is when an individual experiences sadness, hopelessness, and loss of energy.
Final Thoughts
Millions of United States citizens experience mental health issues and illnesses, even around the world. This page discusses the common disorders that affect millions of people in the United States, like anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and bipolar disorders.
In the DSM-5-TR, there’s a wide range of mental health illnesses with different symptoms. So, you must take the time to read up on the different disorders to help lessen the stigma on mental health and gain a better understanding of the people around you.
