Mental illness has been recognized in people dating back to days of Ancient Greece and Rome. A number of disturbances that were described included feelings of melancholy, hysteria and phobias.
The concept that mental illness must be related to biology was first considered by Hippocrates. While at this time serious conditions such as schizophrenia were not yet recognized, the thought that these conditions were related to the brain was there.
As time passed, several psychiatric theories developed and even crude treatments were developed to treat individuals. Many of these treatments and theories for mental illness were developed by Islamic medicine in the Middle East. One of the most notable doctors of the 8th Century who was noted for his theories and treatments was the physician Rhazes of the Baghdad Hospital.
At the start of the 20th Century, there were only about a dozen officially recognized conditions, but by 1952 nearly 192 conditions were known and today the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) lists 374.
This eBook is designed to provide you with a guide to various mental illnesses and to assist you in understanding the various diagnosis and mental health problems that are common today. You will also find many remedies to assist you in supporting individuals who suffer from these conditions.
Disclaimer: This information provided here is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking medical assistance because of something you have read.
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Chapter 1
Understanding Mental Illness and Diagnosis
Many people are confused by mental illness and many will claim that they simply do not exist, that the condition is caused by the person experiencing it. However, everyday there are counselors who are diagnosing people as having mental illness conditions and because of this it makes it difficult to determine whether or not a diagnosis is correct.
Also, because of this, there are many controversies surrounding these conditions.
Mental health is essential for everyday life. Most people are able to go through life without any glitches in their mental process, but others seem to have constant interruptions. It is these interruptions that show us that there is something going wrong in the brain of these individuals and that there is an existing problem.
We need to look at different diagnoses and symptoms to understand the interruptions that occur in the brain. For example, we should take bipolar depression as an example.
This is one of the most common disorders diagnosed in today’s society. In fact, you probably know somebody with bipolar depression you just don’t know that they have it. Bipolar is very common, but many people don’t fully understand the condition. Bipolar is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
This means that the brain is denied of vital nutrients that it needs to maintain a stable mindset. The problem is that many people who are diagnosed with the condition do not have their full life experiences taken into consideration.
We all experience stress, trauma and drama in our lives. However, not everybody deals with these stressors in the same manner as somebody else would and nobody should be expected to deal with these stressors in the same manner as someone else would. There is a process that takes place that brings on the condition of bipolar depression.
The first thing that you must consider is that we all have “triggers.” These triggers are the stressful events that happen in life. Now, everybody deals with these differently.
Some people will respond negatively and others ignore. Those individuals who ignore these issues are often not hearing the messages in between.
This is what separates the mentally ill mind from the “normal” mind. The mentally ill mind tends to absorb everything in life that is said. The hear it all and they let all of that process in their brains until it begins to cause confusion.
The “normal” mind tends to only listen to what it wants to listen to and therefore they do not have these conflicting thoughts to cause the mental confusion. To better understand this process, it helps to also understand cognitive mental health disorders and how these are related to the confusion that occurs in the mind.
Cognitive Mental Health Disorders Cognitive health disorders include:
• Dementia
• Delirium
• Alcohol-induced disorders
There are also several others that are related and all of these are constantly being studied so that we may gain a better understanding of them. Most of these disorders have several common denominators such as loss of memory.
Others are linked brain and biological disease, such as alcoholism and drug addiction. Often people who suffer from cognitive disorders have issues with reasoning and often their speech. They tend to lack good judgment and their comprehension is different from the “normal” mind.
These individuals also tend to suffer from another conditions such as:
• Depression
• Irritation
• Paranoia
There are several other related symptoms that are easily misdiagnosed with other conditions, such as bipolar, as bipolar condition encompasses several of these symptoms as well.
Delirium is one that is often confused because it includes:
• Signals confusion
• Speech problems
• Loss of memory
• Fear
• Depression
Many of these same symptoms are apparent in other mental illnesses, but delirium also has several physical effects on the body as well such as:
• Increased heart rate
• Nausea
• Disturbance in sleep
All of these physical symptoms as well as the mental confusion cause the person to not be able to find comfort in their life. Many studies have shown that medications can increase their symptoms as well to the point that the physical symptoms express themselves in strokes and heart attacks.
Dementia is a type of Alzheimer’s disease.
This causes the person to have issues with memory retention as well as learning and language. There are several physical conditions that can cause the onset of dementia such as AIDS, strokes, heart failures and other chronic conditions. People that suffer from dementia also tend to suffer in personal hygiene and poor judgment as well.
They tend to avoid others, alter their personality and have social anxiety in general. Many are manic depressive and should completely avoid alcohol.
Mentally ill patients tend to resort to drugs and alcohol and this only increases the symptoms of their condition and makes it worse, although it provides them temporary relief from their pain and suffering.
However, alcohol and drugs are not a solution to anything in life and should be completely avoided by these individuals, as they are not likely to be able to keep their drinking at a social level.
There are alcohol induced disorders that have been classified as cognitive disorders because of the similar symptoms. In most of these cases the condition is a direct result of the condition, although this is not true of all individuals.
Many individuals who are mentally ill have never touched drugs and alcohol, although many therapists will try to use alcohol and drugs as a reason for their condition.
Those disorders that are alcohol induced are referred to as “Korsakoff’s Syndrome” and it main affects the memory directly. Symptoms of this condition include:
• Memory loss
• Denial
• Indifferences
• Violent behaviors
Most of these conditions can be directly linked to nutritional deficiencies because the alcoholic and drug user tend to not live very healthy and eat poorly.
Alcoholism is difficult to treat, but it is possible. However, it does require a lot of diligence by the patient and they must accept that they have a problem in order for recovery to occur.
There are medications and treatments that can be used to assist the person and many will need therapy with high dosages of B-complex vitamins.
If the patient is still in the early stages of alcoholism it will be easier to treat them as long as they are willing.
Alcoholism is a very serious condition and it even affects children.
Therapists are constantly looking for new ways to treat mental illness. There are millions of individuals around the world who suffer from mental illnesses and many rarely receive the care that they should.
