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Mental Health Treatment
How much are we concerned about our mental health? We are sure the level of consciousness is not as much as it should be. And that is why we are far away from mental health treatment.
As a result, the number of mentally sick people is increasing day by day.
How many of us know there are particular scientific reasons for mental illness. If you have a mental health issue, don’t worry. There is a big hope always for you.
Nowadays the medical science is well developed and the treatment for mental illness is also very developed. Just keep in mind there is a big hope. Let’s move on to the essential things that are related to mental health.
What Is Mental Health?
A combination of three important things psychological, emotional, and social well-being is called mental health. Mental health is important in our everyday life as it affects our feelings, thinking, and activities directly or indirectly.
It is not limited here only, mental health also affects how we control our stress, and choices also. Mental health is not only important for a specific period of time but also it is equally significant in every step of life.
Can My Mental Health Change Over Time?
Definitely, mental health changes over time. Any condition that is not in favor of you can weaken your mental health for a period of time. For example, you have been passing time with the crisis of money since a year ago. Your mental health won’t be the same as when you were prosperous.
But you should not let your mental health worsen day by day. You should consult a mental health professional when you feel you are not mentally happy. Psychological and psychiatric therapy works fine to improve mental health.
What Is Mental Illness?
Mental illness is the health status of your mind that is related to changes in your thinking, emotion, behavior, and normal activities. It might be associated with stress, abnormal feeling, problems in working, social, and other activities.
According to the statistics of the year 2017, a total of 10.7% of people in the world are suffering from mental illness. The percentage is 19% in the USA. And the percentage is also high in developing countries like Bangladesh. Bangladesh has 18.7% of mental health patients. That means it is really a concern for us if we don’t get treatment in high time.
Things to Consider That Says You Might Have Mental Health Problem
We are not conscious as needed it is true. On the other hand, people are getting serious day by day it is also true which is very positive. But the problem is many times we cannot determine whether we have a mental disorder or not! Agree?
Sometimes determining mental health problems comes too difficult as it is related to emotions. But there are some warning signs that indicate you may have a mental issue and you need to go under treatment. The symptoms and signs are:
- Any changes in eating habits.
- Alteration of sleep pattern.
- Lack of enjoyment.
- Lack of concentration.
- Depressed feeling.
- Feeling sad.
- Withdrawal from people, friends, or family members.
- Hopeless or helpless feeling.
- Alcohol, drinking, smoking, drug misuse.
- Frequent changes of mood.
- Hostility or violence for no reason.
- Self-harm or thinking to harm others.
- Always elevated mood.
- Illusion, delusion, and hallucination.
Determining Which Mental Illness Do You Have?
In the immediate past topic, we’ve said it becomes sometimes difficult to say we have/haven’t a mental health problem. So how do you understand what type of mental illness do you have?
Well, it is really a bit difficult to say at the very beginning. But the job to find out the illness type is not yours. Your professional will find out it.
If you can give proper information to your health professional, the job becomes easy for him to diagnose you. That is why the more you can remember the more you will deliver to the professional. Getting in touch with the professional is very important for a mental health patient.
Classification of Mental Illness
Mental illness is very vast that’s classifications are as follows.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common type of all types. Usually, these kinds of people experience severe anxiety or fear which is related to a certain situation, condition, or object. And in this case, people want to avoid those things not to have fear or anxiety. The following are also included in anxiety disorder.
- Generalized anxiety disorder.
- Panic disorder.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
It is also one kind of anxiety disorder but here we are going to elaborate on this topic because it is more common in people. People always stay in stressful thinking and repetitive acts are the confirmatory signs of OCD.
For example, people with OCD may go for locking the door repetitively even though they closed the door.
Depression
It is a type of mood disorder that includes lack of enjoyment, lack of interest, low mood, and reduced energy. Depressive illness can be dangerous because it doesn’t mean low mood only. It can lead a person to suicidal thinking and acts.
Bipolar Disorder
People with bipolar disorder frequently have several episodes of mania with the alteration. Thinking thyself more powerful, excessive activity, depression, excitement, energetic are more common in people with bipolar disorder.
Schizophrenia Disorder
Schizophrenia is a bit complicated disorder than the rest of the others. In fact, medical scientists are not sure if schizophrenia is a single disorder or group of disorders yet?
The schizophrenic patient often has delusional perception, hallucination, and disoriented thinking. Yes, this patient’s thinking, behavior, and activities might not have a relation to reality.
A schizophrenic person might have both positive and negative symptoms. Delusion and hallucination are positive whereas flat mood, withdrawal, motivation lacking are the negative symptom.
Neurodevelopmental Disorder
It is the combination of multiple problems that appear from infancy to childhood (Up to school going). Some of the problems disappear if treatment can be taken to the right time. That is why taking treatment I more important here.
Autism, intellectual disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cerebral palsy are examples of this disorder.
Eating Disorder
If you eat excessively for a long period of time, you have to understand something wrong happens to you. On the other hand, if you maintain a hard diet even if your BMI is normal then you also have to realize the same thing. There are three eating disorders:
- Anorexia nervosa: Control diet even after losing enough weight and cachectic.
- Bulimia nervosa: Here the person cannot control himself from eating but wants to compensate after eating.
- Binge eating disorder: it is a life-threatening disorder where the patient eats a large quantity of food repetitively and cannot feel to stop eating.
Sleep Disorders
Don’t take sleep disorder as a normal issue. Rather it requires clinical attention. Insomnia is a common sleep disorder and you may have many known people who live with insomnia.
Sleep apnea is also a sleep disorder but not common as insomnia but it is more severe than restless leg syndrome and other sleep disorders.
Sexual Disorders
Both men and women live with the sexual disorder but they are not always likely to take treatment. They have been passing years of years with these problems but the disorder is curable.
The important sexual disorders are premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, and orgasm disorder.
Personality Disorder
Because of this disorder, people cannot live with others comfortably. Here the person has abnormal behavior, emotional instability which affects his daily life. As a result, it affects the relationship with the people and creates new problems in life.
For example dependent personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and so on.
Neurocognitive disorders
It affects your thinking capability. If you have this disorder you can’t think as you could in the past. Besides, this disorder might delete some information from your memory for a particular period of time. Some other conditions can lead to this disease such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you live with mental illness, you should have known the answer to the following question. So, don’t forget to ask the following questions.
- What kind of mental health problem do I have?
- What is the best treatment option for me?
- What is the next treatment plan if this fails?
- Do I need medicine on regular basis?
- Do I need psychotherapy?
- How long will the treatment plan take?
- What to do and what should not?
- Can I help myself with that?
- When will I come again for a follow-up visit?
- Is my disease completely curable?
Treatment Options for Mental Illness
A lot of treatment options are there for people with mental illness. But which mental health treatment will be best for you depends on the type of your mental illness, its duration, and its severity. The effective treatment options for mental health people are as follows.
Counseling or Psychotherapy
Counseling or psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy. Talk therapy just works excellent. It is one of the commonest treatment options for the mental illness person. It also has many types and which type will you need depending on your illness type? Among them, cognitive behavioral therapy is commonly applied to the patient and it works. Sometimes the counseling or therapy session is arranged group-wise if needed.
Medications
Medications are not a compulsory option for every patient. Treating a patient (who is indicated to take drugs) without prescribed medicine is very difficult. The only medications never cure mental illness patients completely but they can minimize the symptoms in a significant amount.
Not done yet, the medications prepare the patient suitable for psychotherapy. Usually, the following groups of drugs are used to treat mental health problems.
- Antidepressants: This group of drugs reduces anxiety and depression. The drugs don’t develop dependency which is the big advantage.
- Anti-anxiety drugs: These drugs are used to reduce anxiety, insomnia, etc. But these are used for the short-term as these cause dependency.
- Antipsychotic Drugs: The drugs are usually given to psychoactive patients. These are also used to treat bipolar disorder.
Support Groups
You can also help yourself if you can control the symptoms more or less. Besides group support is very important. The help of the people you are living with obviously has a great role in gaining your insight. If the person always stays alone, his mental condition worsens day by day.
Brain Stimulation Therapy
This treatment is a reserved option. It is not seen to be used frequently. When the talk therapy and prescribed medications fail then the professional starts this option. There are many options but electroconvulsive therapy is the safest among all.
With this method, the electric impulse is sent to the brain which improves the symptoms and even can reverse the symptoms.
Hospital or Residential Treatment Program
A mental health patient is safe in resident up to the time he doesn’t do any harmful act to himself or others. Otherwise, he should get treatment in the hospital. On the other side, when the condition of the patient becomes worse then he may need to admit to the hospital, of course.
Summary
Mental illness is not always easy to describe anyone as we are not much positive in this regard. But we have to think, we have to be mentally healthy. It is a complete guide that helps you taking a decision when to consult with a mental health professional.
If you have other experience than the mentioned in this content then you can share us. We will add those in it which might help the people taking mental health treatment.
Mental illness is not a personal failure, so don’t shy to tell your problems.
