Mental Health
Disorders
What is a mental health disorder?
 An
illness that affects the mind and
prevents a person from being
productive, adjusting to life
situations, or getting along with
others
Characterized by consuming
thoughts or behaviors that get
in the way of “normal” life.
Mental Disorders in America

Mental disorders are common in the United States
 about one in four adults suffer from a
diagnosable mental disorder (57.7 million
people).
 about 6 percent, suffer from a serious mental
 mental disorders are the leading cause of
disability in the U.S. and Canada.
 Many people suffer from more than one mental
disorder at a given time.
 Nearly
half (45 percent) of those with any mental
disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders
Causes

Mental health disorders have several
different causes
Chemical Imbalances – chemicals in the brain
are underactive/ overactive
 Life events – Stressful life events, if not dealt
with effectively, can lead to many of these
disorders (specifically anxiety disorders and
depression)

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Each of these disorders can vary from mild to
severe.
Treatments
It is VERY important for individuals with any
of these following mental health disorders
(mild or severe) to get help
 The best way to treat/ cure these disorders
are to combine

Psychotherapy – helps to find the cause of the
disorder, what causes episodes of severity, and
tools to cope with or treat episodes.
 Medications – adjusts chemicals in the brain to
decrease the severity of episodes and enables
psychotherapy to be successful

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Depression/ Bipolar Video
Mood Disorders: Depression

What is
Depression?
 Persistent and
overwhelming
sadness that
lasts for a month
or longer
Retrieved from www.intellihealth.com

Types of Depression
 major depressive
disorder ( 5
symptoms)
 dysthymic
disorder (chronic
with 2
symptoms)
 bipolar disorder
Mood Disorders: Depression

Symptoms
 sad mood
 loss of interest or
pleasure in
activities that were
once enjoyed
 difficulty sleeping
or oversleeping
 feelings
of
worthlessness or
inappropriate guilt
 difficulty thinking
or concentrating
 recurrent thoughts
of death or suicide
Mood Disorders: Depression
Causes of Depression
 a combination of
Genetic (passed down through family)
Environmental (experiences in life,
family situations, self-esteem)
 Treatments
 Psychotherapy
 Anti-depressants

Retrieved from www.intellihealth.com
Mood Disorders: Bipolar
Characteristics
 causes a person’s mood to swing from
excessively “high” and/or irritable to sad
and hopeless, with periods of a “normal”
mood in between
 These periods may last from 1 day to 1
year
 Treatments
 Psychotherapy
- Medications (Lithium)

Retrieved from www.mhacolorado.com and www.cincinnattichildrens.org
Mood Disorders: Bipolar -Mania
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Feeling "high,"
Overly happy or outgoing
Extremely irritable
•
Agitation,
•
Feeling "jumpy" or
"wired."
•
Talking very fast,
Jumping from one idea to•
another,
Having racing thoughts
Being easily distracted
Being restless
Increasing goal-directed
activities, such as taking on
new projects
Not being able to sleep
Having an unrealistic belief
in one's abilities
Behaving impulsively
taking part in a lot of
pleasurable,
high-risk behaviors, such as
spending sprees, impulsive
sex, and impulsive business
investments.
Suicide Video
What are characteristics of someone
considering suicide?
 What leads to someone contemplating
suicide?
 Suicide is a ______________ Solution to a
________________ Problem!
 What are some resources for individuals
considering suicide or those identifying the
symptoms in someone else?


What are characteristics of someone
considering suicide?
Change in eating and sleeping patterns
 Withdrawal from regular activities, as well as
family and friends
 Rebellious behavior, violence, running away
 Drug and alcohol abuse
 Neglect of one’s personal appearance
 Noticeable change in personality
 Drop in grades and quality of school work
 Frequent physical complaints about stonach
aches, headaches, and/ or fatigue (being really
tired)

Intolerance of personal praise or rewards
 Give away favorite possessions or throw away
important belongings
 Suddenly cheerful after an extended period of
depression.
 Say they feel “rotten inside”
 Giving verbal hints

 “You
won’t have to put up with me much longer.”
 “It’s no use”
 “I won’t see you again”

What leads to someone contemplating
suicide?
Depression
- Long term emotional pain
 Low Self Esteem - Traumatic events
 Emotional pain that they feel they can’t handle/
deal with.


What are some resources for individuals
considering suicide or those identifying the
symptoms in someone else?
Hotlines
- School Psychologist
 Counselors
- Pastor/Priest/etc
 Teachers or other trusted adults

IF SOMEONE MENTIONS SUICIDE,
ALWAYS TAKE THEM
SERIOUSLY!
Those individuals don’t need you to
necessarily “fix” them… they just need
someone to listen and care!
 Most of the time, suicide is about dealing
with the PAIN rather than killing
themselves… that’s just their solution to the
pain.

Eating Disorders

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1. Have you ever learned about or discussed eating disorders?
What did you learn or discuss?
2. Who can be affected by an eating disorder?
3. Do you have any personal experience (your own or someone
you know) with eating disorders that you would be comfortable
sharing?
4. What messages does the media (advertisements, magazines,
television, movies) send about body image? If you believed only
what the media says, what should you look like? Is this realistic?
Why or why not?
5. Are eating disorders an issue or problem in our school or
community? Why or why not?
6. If you suspected or knew that your friend was struggling with
an eating disorder, what might you do? Why?
7. Do you think it is important to learn about and discuss eating
disorders? Why or why not?
Post-Program Discussion

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1. What is anorexia? What is bulimia? What is binge eating?
2. Why do people develop eating disorders? What factors might affect
them?
3. What are some of the physical effects and health consequences
connected to eating disorders? Why should we take these seriously?
4. Did this program change your mind or surprise you about who can
suffer from an eating disorder? Why or why not?
5. Are eating disorders a lifestyle choice? Why or why not? What are
some examples of lifestyle choices?
6. If you confronted a friend about his or her eating disorder, how do you
think he or she 6 would react? How might you be affected by his or her
reaction?
7. Why can treatment for eating disorders be challenging? Why is
treatment for eating disorders important?
8. What is one thing you learned about eating disorders from this
program that you didn’t know before watching?
Eating Disorders: Anorexia
Anorexia nervosa:
 Extreme thinness A relentless pursuit of
thinness and unwillingness to maintain a
normal or healthy weight
 Intense fear of gaining weight
 Distorted body image, a self-esteem that is
heavily influenced by perceptions of body
weight and shape, or a denial of the
seriousness of low body weight
 Extremely restricted eating.
Eating Disorders: Anorexia
Characteristics
see themselves as overweight, even when they
are clearly underweight.
 Obsession about eating, food, and weight
control.
 weigh themselves repeatedly,
 portion food carefully
 eat very small quantities of only certain foods.
***Some people with anorexia nervosa may also
engage in bulimia behaviors as well.

Eating Disorders: Anorexia
Other symptoms may develop over time, including:
 Thinning of the bones (osteopenia or osteoporosis)
 Brittle hair and nails
 Dry and yellowish skin
 Growth of fine hair all over the body (lanugo)
 Mild anemia and muscle wasting and weakness
 Severe constipation
 Low blood pressure, slowed breathing and pulse
 Damage to the structure and function of the heart
 Brain damage
 Multiorgan failure
 Drop in internal body temperature, causing a person to feel
cold all the time
 Lethargy, sluggishness, or feeling tired all the time
 Infertility.
Anorexia happens to men too!
When she looks in the mirror
she sees this person staring
back at her.
Eating Disorders: Bulimia

Characteristics
Tend to maintain an acceptable weight
 Binging and Purging

Binging – eating unusually large amounts of food
and feeling a lack of control over these episodes
Purging – behavior that compensates for the
overeating such as forced vomiting, excessive use of
laxatives or diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a
combination of these behaviors
 Behaviors are done secretly because it is often
accompanied by feelings of disgust or shame.
The binge-eating and purging cycle happens anywhere from
several times a week to many times a day.
Eating Disorders: Binging

Recurrent episodes of binge eating,
characterized by eating an excessive
amount of food within a discrete period
of time and by a sense of lack of control
over eating during the episode
Eating Disorders: Orthorexia

Rigid rules and obsession about “healthy”
eating
May call foods “clean” or “pure”.
 Restricts food to only those within their
guidelines


Leads to heavily restricted eating resulting in
malnutrition
Eating Disorders

Treatment
 Anorexia

involves three main phases:
(1)
(2)
(3)

restoring weight lost to severe dieting and
purging;
treating psychological disturbances such as
distortion of body image, low self-esteem, and
interpersonal conflicts
achieving long-term remission and rehabilitation,
or full recovery
Bulimia

reduce or eliminate binge eating and purging
behavior
Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

Causes


Not known
Symptoms
distractibility
 impulsivity
 hyperactivity
 interferes with the person's ability to function
normally

Retrieved from mentalhelp.net
ADHD/ ADD

What does it feel like?
I get caught up in different thoughts
 My mind wanders really easy
 It’s like you have 3 TV channels going on at the
same time.
 I constantly have to have something to do or be
playing with.


Help/ Support
Be patient
 Be empathetic
 Try to understand what I’m going through.

ADHD

Treatments

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Psychotherapy
Medications

Stimulants (low level)


Statistics

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Addictions
4 percent of the US population has it.
1/2-2/3 of children with ADHD continue to have difficulties
into adulthood.
Normal vs. ADHD
Retrieved from mentalhelp.net
Anxiety Disorders: Generalized
Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Individuals go through the day filled with
exaggerated worry and tension, (even though
there is little or nothing to provoke it.)
**Sometimes just the thought of getting through
the day produces anxiety.
Causes
GAD sometimes runs in families, but no one
knows for sure why some people have it.
Treatment
Psychotherapy, medication, or both.
Anxiety Disorders

Social Anxiety/ Phobia Disorder
fear and anxiety in social situations, extreme
shyness, timidity and concerns about being
embarrassed in front of others.
 Symptoms include: Avoiding eye contact,
Speaking softly, Trembling, Fidgetiness, and
Nervousness
 Many children complain of headaches and
stomachaches, and it is not unusual for them to
miss school because of their fears

 May
lead to depression
Social Anxiety Disorder


Causes
 Traumatic social experience
 Low self-esteem
 Other anxiety disorder
Treatment
 Psychotherapy
 Find reasons for anxiety
 Help person cope with anxious feelings/ thoughts
 Come up with ways to prevent some anxious feelings/
thoughts
 Medications
 Helps lessen severity to make successful therapy
possible
Anxiety Disorders: Panic
Disorders
 Panic
Disorders
 sudden
and repeated attacks of fear that
last for several minutes or longer.
 Causes
 Genetics
- Stressful Life Events
 Treatment
– learn techniques that work for
you to deal with the thoughts/ anxiety
 Medications
 Therapy
Anxiety Disorders: Panic
Disorders
 People
with panic disorder may have:
 pounding
or racing heart,
 breathing problems
 feeling hot or a cold chill
 tingly or numb hands
 stomach pain.
- sweating
- weakness
- dizziness
- chest pain
Anxiety Disorders: Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that some people get
after seeing or living through a dangerous event.
Anyone can get PTSD at any age.
- war veterans
- accidents
- abuse,
- disasters
- survivors of physical and sexual assault,
*Some people get PTSD after a friend or family member
experiences danger or is harmed. The sudden, unexpected
death of a loved one can also cause PTSD.
Treatments
- Psychological Therapy
- Medication
Anxiety Disorders: Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD)
1. Re-experiencing symptoms:


Flashbacks—reliving the trauma over and over,
including physical symptoms like a racing heart or
sweating
Bad dreams
2. Avoidance symptoms:

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Staying away from places, events, or objects that
are reminders of the experience
Feeling strong guilt, depression, or worry
Losing interest in activities that were enjoyable in
the past
Having trouble remembering the dangerous event.
Anxiety Disorders: Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD)
3. Hyperarousal symptoms:


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Being easily startled
Feeling tense or “on edge”
Having difficulty sleeping, and/or having angry outbursts.
Children:
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Bedwetting, when they’d learned how to use the toilet before
Forgetting how or being unable to talk
Acting out the scary event during playtime
Being unusually clingy with a parent or other adult.
Most symptoms are triggered by
something.
Anxiety Disorders

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
 suffer
intensely from recurrent unwanted thoughts
(obsessions) or actions (compulsions), which they
feel they cannot control. The rituals are thought to
prevent the thoughts.

Causes
 Irregular
brain activity patterns
 Deficiency of serotonin

Treatments
 Psychological
Therapy
 Medication
Retrieved from www.mhacolorado.org and www.cincinnatichildrens.org
Anxiety Disorders - OCD

Thoughts
(Obsessions)
 dirt, germs, or
contamination
 repeated doubts
 violence,
 Need for order,
symmetry, or
exactness and
attention to detail
 thoughts
that are
against personal
religious beliefs
 excessive
worrying
 Aggressive
thoughts,
impulses, and / or
behaviors
Retrieved from www.mhacolorado.org and www.cincinnatichildrens.org
Anxiety Disorders- OCD

Rituals(Compulsions)
 repeated hand
washing
 checking and
rechecking repeatedly
 rigid rules of order
 hoarding
objects
 counting and
recounting
 grouping
or
sequencing
objects
 repeating words
spoken by self
(palilalia) or others
(echolalia);
repeatedly asking
the same
questions
Retrieved from www.mhacolorado.org and www.cincinnatichildrens.org
Personality Disorders:
 Extreme
and inflexible personality traits
 Patterns of thinking and behavior
significantly differ from the
expectations of society and are
extremely rigid.
antisocial
personality disorder,
obsessive-compulsive personality
disorder
paranoid personality disorder.
Personality Disorders:
Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial behavior in which there is
little concern for the rights of others
 indifference to the moral or legal standards of the
region or community.
 manipulative
 Exploitive (cruel, uses others as a door-mat)
 Does not recognize that others exist or matter


Behavior patterns usually include
excessive drinking
 fighting
 irresponsibility

Obsessive Compulsive Personality
Disorder (OCPD)

People with OCD have unwanted thoughts,
while people with OCPD believe that their
thoughts are correct.

OCD often begins in childhood while OCPD
usually starts in the teen years or early 20s.
Schizophrenia
 Causes

Chemical imbalance in the brain
 Symptoms
 difficulty
distinguishing between what is
real and what is imaginary;
 may be unresponsive or withdrawn;
 may have difficulty expressing appropriate
emotions in social situations.
Schizophrenia

Treatment

There is no cure. All they can do is try to reduce
the symptoms in severity and frequency
– anti-psychotics
 Psychotherapy
 Medications

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Help regain functional skills
Relearn social skills
 Specialized
programs
educational and/or structured activity
High functioning Autism
Severe social interaction and
communication problems
 tend to have a much higher Performance IQ
(P-IQ) than Verbal IQ (V-IQ).
 Avoid social contact
 Not likely to feel embarrassed in social
situations,
 Relatively unconcerned by other people's
opinions.
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Asperger's Syndrome

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Have a really hard time with social interaction,
Few areas of interest and activities.
Average to above average IQ,
Doesn’t use the right words (in the right context or
thoughtfully) when talking with others
Often speak in a monotone with little variety in their
voice.
Have difficulty in interpreting and learning the skills
of social and emotional interaction with others
Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory”
Treatment

Where do you even start?

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First step is admittance/acceptance of the disorder’s
control in your life.
Want help

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Get support

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It is very rare that a person not open to help or dedicated to
healing will be treated successfully
It is never an easy process to break down barriers, so get people
around you that can be positive, motivational, and will hold you
accountable for your actions.
Set aside the time


Treatment is never a quick and easy process.
Know that it may take a while to defeat this disorder, but the
victory will be worth it.
 Who

can I talk to?
There are many different types of professions
that you can see for help depending on the
disorder.
 Family physician
 Diablo Behavioral Health Care
 Clergyperson (Pastor, Priest, Rabi, etc)
 Independent Therapists
 John Muir Mental Health Center/ Kaiser
Mental Health Center
 School Psychologist
 Hotlines, crisis centers, and emergency
rooms (call 411 for Directory Assistance)
Types of Treatment

Psychotherapy - talking face-to-face with a therapist. The
following are a few of the types of available therapy:
 Behavior Therapy – to change thinking patterns and
behavior.
 Psychoanalysis - Long-term therapy meant to "uncover"
unconscious motivations and early patterns to resolve
issues and to become aware of how those motivations
influence present actions and feelings.
 Cognitive Therapy - Seeks to identify and correct thinking
patterns that can lead to troublesome feelings and behavior.
 Family Therapy - Includes discussion and problem-solving
sessions with every member of the family.
 Group Therapy - Includes a small group of people who, with
the guidance of a trained therapist, discuss individual issues
and help each other with problems.