25^th International Congress on Mental Health October 20-21, 2022 Stockholm, Sweden

Child psychology is the study of subconscious and conscious childhood development. Child psychologists observe how a child interacts with their parents, themselves, and the world, to understand their mental development

No Suicide Attempt Should Be Dismissed Or Treated Lightly!

Why Do People Attempt Suicide?

A suicide attempt is a clear indication that something is gravely wrong in a person’s life. No matter the race or age of the person; how rich or poor they are, it is true that most people who die by suicide have a mental or emotional disorder. The most common underlying disorder is depression, 30% to 70% of suicide victims suffer from major depression or bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder.

Social Anxiety Disorder, sometimes called social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by extreme fear or anxiety in one or more social settings. Going to a party or even having a one-on-one conversation with a new person can result in increased heart rate, sweating, and racing thoughts for someone with social anxiety. When social anxiety gets significant, it’s common for individuals to isolate and feel very alone, making recovery harder.

Ultimately, it can make it difficult for a person to live the life they want: the excessive fear of humiliation and rejection can limit them in work, school, and relationships. While most people have concerns about acceptance and embarrassment, the extreme anxiety and dread that accompany social anxiety disorder are so overwhelming that a person may find it hard to function in daily life and may avoid the anxiety-inducing situations altogether.

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary; may be unresponsive or withdrawn; and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations.

Contrary to public perception, schizophrenia is not split personality or multiple personality. The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are not violent and do not pose a danger to others. Schizophrenia is not caused by childhood experiences, poor parenting or lack of willpower, nor are the symptoms identical for each person.

Psychosis is a general term to describe a set of symptoms of mental illnesses that result in strange or bizarre thinking, perceptions (sight, sound), behaviors, and emotions. Psychosis is a brain-based condition that is made better or worse by environmental factors - like drug use and stress. 

One frequently cited statistic is that 1% of the population is diagnosed with Schizophrenia in their lifetime, but actually 3.5% of the population experiences psychosis.  Hearing voices and seeing things that aren’t there are more common than we think. While these experiences can be scary and confusing, it is possible to recover and getting better, especially when we tackle issues early.

A quick, easy and confidential way to determine if you may be experiencing PTSD is to take a screening. A screening is not a diagnosis, but a way of understanding if your symptoms are having enough of an impact that you should seek help from a doctor or other professional.

If you have gone through a traumatic experience, it is normal to feel lots of emotions, such as distress, fear, helplessness, guilt, shame or anger.  You may start to feel better after days or weeks, but sometimes, these feelings don’t go away.  If the symptoms last for more than a month, you may have post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a traumatic event. A traumatic event is a life-threatening event such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood."

PTSD is a real problem and can happen at any age.  If you have PTSD, you are not alone.  It affects over 12 million American adults (3.7% of the adult population) in any given year.

Everyone feels anxious or uneasy from time to time. Your first day on a new job, planning for a long trip, going to the dentist....your palms sweat, you feel shaky, your heart pounds. Some anxiety helps to keep you focused on the job at hand. However, when your anxiety is so serious that it interferes with your work, leads you to avoid certain situations or keeps you from enjoying life, you may be suffering from a form of the most common type of mental disorder, an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders are not just a case of "nerves." You can’t overcome an anxiety disorder just through willpower, nor can the symptoms be ignored or wished away. These disorders cause you to feel anxious most of the time, making some everyday situations so uncomfortable that you may avoid them entirely. Or, you may experience occasional instances of anxiety that are so terrifying and intense that you may be immobilized with fear.

Although these conditions can be very frightening and disabling, they are also very treatable. It is important to recognize the symptoms and seek help.

Paranoia involves intense anxious or fearful feelings and thoughts often related to persecution, threat, or conspiracy. Paranoia occurs in many mental disorders, but is most often present in psychotic disorders. Paranoia can become delusions, when irrational thoughts and beliefs become so fixed that nothing (including contrary evidence) can convince a person that what they think or feel is not true. When a person has paranoia or delusions, but no other symptoms (like hearing or seeing things that aren't there), they might have what is called a delusional disorder.  Because only thoughts are impacted, a person with delusional disorder can usually work and function in everyday life, however, their lives may be limited and isolated.

Delusional disorder is characterized by irrational or intense belief(s) or suspicion(s) which a person believes to be true. These beliefs may seem outlandish and impossible (bizarre) or fit within the realm of what is possible (non-bizarre). Symptoms must last for 1 month or longer in order for someone to be diagnosed with delusional disorder.

Panic disorder is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. These sensations often mimic symptoms of a heart attack or other life-threatening medical conditions. As a result, the diagnosis of panic disorder is frequently not made until extensive and costly medical procedures fail to provide a correct diagnosis or relief.

Many people with panic disorder develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will strike. Fortunately, effective treatments have been developed to help people with panic disorder.

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suffer intensely from recurrent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or rituals (compulsions), which they feel they cannot control. Rituals, such as hand washing, counting, checking or cleaning, are often performed in hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these rituals, however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them increases anxiety. Left untreated, obsessions and the need to perform rituals can take over a person's life. OCD is often a chronic, relapsing illness.

There are many reasons why people decide to drink and use drugs. But the increasing use of drugs and drinking can come with serious risk and devastating consequences. Substance abuse affects an estimated 25 million Americans. In terms of people who are affected indirectly such as families of abusers and those injured or killed by intoxicated drivers, an additional 40 million people are affected. The monetary cost to society and the economy because of reduced productivity, property damage, accidents, and health care are astounding. Alcoholism (heavy drinking) afflicts 16 million adults and almost 300,000 children annually. An estimated 21.6 million Americans (age 12 and older) are addicted to other drugs such as sedative-hypnotics or barbiturates, opiates, sedatives, hallucinogens and psychostimulants.

Mood disorders are a category of illnesses that describe a serious change in mood. Illness under mood disorders include: major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder (mania - euphoric, hyperactive, over inflated ego, unrealistic optimism), persistent depressive disorder (long lasting low grade depression), cyclothymia (a mild form of bipolar disorder), and SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

The following links provide additional information about these categories:

1. Major Depression

2. Bipolar Disorder

If these symptoms sound familiar to you, an online mental health screen can help you understand if your symptoms are having enough of an impact that you should seek help from a doctor or other professional. Take an anxiety screen here.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by six months or more of chronic, exaggerated worry and tension that is unfounded or much more severe than the normal anxiety most people experience. People with this disorder usually expect the worst. They worry excessively about money, health, family or work, even when there are no signs of trouble. They are unable to relax and often suffer from insomnia. Many people with GAD also have physical symptoms, such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headaches, irritability or hot flashes.

Fortunately, through research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), effective treatments have been developed to help people with GAD.

Dissociation is a mental process that causes a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memory and sense of identity. Dissociation seems to fall on a continuum of severity. Mild dissociation would be like daydreaming, getting “lost” in a book, or when you are driving down a familiar stretch of road and realize that you do not remember the last several miles. A severe and more chronic form of dissociation is seen in the disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder, once called Multiple Personality Disorder, and other Dissociative Disorders.

Basic Facts about Depression

• Major depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, affecting 6.7% (more than 16 million) of American adults each year.
• Depression causes people to lose pleasure from daily life, can complicate other medical conditions, and can even be serious enough to lead to suicide. 
• Depression can occur to anyone, at any age, and to people of any race or ethnic group.  Depression is never a "normal" part of life, no matter what your age, gender or health situation.
• While the majority of individuals with depression have a full remission of the disorder with effective treatment, only about a third (35.3%) of those suffering from severe depression seeks treatment from a mental health professional. Too many people resist treatment because they believe depression isn't serious, that they can treat it themselves or that it is a personal weakness rather than a serious medical illness.

Stress:

Stress is a natural part of life. The expressions are familiar to us, “I’m stressed out,”  “I’m under too much stress,” or “Work is one big stress. Stress is hard to define because it means different things to different people; however, it’s clear that most stress is a negative feeling rather than a positive feeling.

Anxiety:

Most people experience feelings of anxiety before an important event such as a big exam, business presentation or first date. Anxiety disorders, however, are illnesses that cause people to feel frightened, distressed and uneasy for no apparent reason. Left untreated, these disorders can dramatically reduce productivity and significantly diminish an individual's quality of life. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses in America. over 21% of adults (42.5 million) are affected by these debilitating illnesses each year.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a disorder of emotion regulation affecting up to 5% of the population. Up until a few decades ago, those diagnosed with the disorder were thought to be untreatable. Despite this shift, individuals living with BPD continue to face surplus stigma. However, evidence-based treatments, have helped changed the narrative for people with the disorder to one of recovery and hope.

BPD can affect anyone, but it is often diagnosed in adolescents and young adults. Up to 40% of teens who are hospitalized in mental health treatment facilities have the disorder, making early intervention very important.  10% of patients with BPD complete suicide. Females appear to be at greater risk of developing BPD than males.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in older people.  A dementia is a medical condition that disrupts the way the brain works.  AD affects the parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language.  Although the risk of getting the disease increases with age, it is not a normal part of aging.  At present the cause of the disease is unknown and there is no cure.

In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer described changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness.  He found abnormal deposits (now called senile or neuritic plaques) and tangled bundles of nerve fibers (now called neurofibrillary tangles).  These plaques and tangles in the brain have come to be characteristic brain changes due to AD.

It is estimated that currently 4 million people in the United States may have Alzheimer’s disease.  The disease usually begins after age 65 and risk of AD goes up with age.  While younger people may have AD, it is much less common.  About 3% of men and women ages 65-74 have AD and nearly half of those over age 85 could have the disease.

Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder characterized by extreme highs and lows in mood and energy. While everyone experiences ups and downs, the severe shifts that happen in bipolar disorder can have a serious impact on a person’s life. More than 3.3 million American adults (1.7%) suffer from bipolar disorder in a given year. An estimated 4.4% of U.S. adults experience bipolar disorder at some time in their lives.

Contrary to how it is sometimes used in conversation, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder does not mean a person is highly emotional but rather refers to someone who experiences extended periods of mood and energy that are excessively high and or/irritable to sad and hopeless, with periods of normal mood in between.

It typically begins in adolescence or early adulthood and continues throughout life. It is often not recognized as an illness and people who have it may suffer needlessly for years.

Bipolar disorder can be extremely distressing and disruptive for those who have this disease, their spouses, family members, friends, and employers. Although there is no known cure, bipolar disorder is treatable, and recovery is possible. Individuals with bipolar disorder can and do have successful relationships and meaningful jobs. The combination of medication, therapy, healthy lifestyle, and support helps the vast majority of people return to productive, fulfilling lives.

Mental health is associated with a number of lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, stress, drug abuse, social connections and interactions Therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners, or family physicians can help manage mental illness with treatments such as therapy, counselling or medication, Most of the women can  faced the issues of depression, Stress and anxiety

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common reasons children are referred for mental health services. It affects as many as one in every 20 children. Although boys are three to four times more likely than girls to experience ADHD, the disorder affects both boys and girls.

While the condition is most often associated with children, there has been a more recent understanding the Attention Deficit Disorders (ADD, ADHD) continue into adulthood for many individuals. Symptoms such as inattention, impulsivity and over activity are now known to continue into adulthood for a significant percentage of children with ADD. Unfortunately, relatively few adults are diagnosed or treated for ADD.

The prevalence of ADD in adults is unknown; very few have been studied. In the few treatment studies of adults, there does not appear to be a significant sex difference. About two-thirds of the children who are diagnosed in or before elementary school with ADD continue to have behavioural symptoms in adolescence. During this time period, associated behavioral, learning, and emotional problems also manifest themselves. Approximately one-third to one-half of these adolescents continues to have symptoms of ADD during their adult years.