Mental Illness - Mental Disorders

Living with a mental health condition means not only taking efforts to manage it, but coping with the ways in which it can affect your life and those in it. If you're faced with a mental health concern, or if you are the loved one of someone who is, there are things you can do to help make way for a better life.

Diagnosing a mental health condition can only be done by a qualified health professional. But there are some symptoms that may raise awareness that there's a concern brewing. Knowing more about the symptoms of various mental health conditions, and how they are diagnosed, can help you better understand if you or a loved one is in need of help.

Most of us wonder this at sometime in our life. We all have moods that swing at times, and we all worry. Here are some ways to know if it's time to seek help

An overview of what you need to know about eating disorders, including their general characteristics, the main types, who is at risk, and other health effects.

Schizophrenia - Facts and research information.

There are several disorders that go by this label.  Learn how they differ.

In-depth information about anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, PTSD, and more.

Information about a controversial diagnosis and a discussion of how to diagnose more accurately.

The World Health Organization has found mental disorders to be common throughout the world. Reallocating treatment resources could provide needed treatment in developed and developing countries.

Released psychiatric patients are not likely to commit criminal acts after discharge, according to a UK study.

Comprehensive information on depression.

Schizophrenia has nothing to do with split personality. It is a serious treatable mental disorder.

Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and similar developmental disorders are still poorly understood. Research is finding treatments that help parents and children manage these disorders, and we know more about what happens when these children grow up.

By Michael G. Rayel, MD - I’m surprised when some patients and caregivers confuse dementia and Alzheimer’s as one and the same. Each time a family member is suffering from memory loss, the conclusion is always Alzheimer’s. Is it reasonable to label all dementias as Alzheimer’s?

Information about PTSD and the effects of trauma.

Road Rage is a popular topic. Why do we get so angry on the highway and how can we stay safe?

What do you get when you cross schizophrenia with bipolar disorder? Schizoaffective disorder. It's actually not quite that simple, but that's a good way to think of this disorder.

A dissociative disorder occurs when traumatic material is split-off or dissociated from the remainder of consciousness.

Self-Injury (self-mutilation) is not always part of suicidal thinking. Read about this problem that is fairly common amoung adolescents.

Women who deliberately self harm are 75 times more likely to report physical and/or verbal abuse by a partner than women who do not harm themselves, indicates research.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered that Americans with mental illness are nearly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as people with no mental illness.

What is it about Mental Illness that we're supposed to be aware of?