The 18 most common mental disorders

A healthy lifestyle is the ideal to pursue at all times of our life. Be in good physical condition, emotional stability and peace of mind, goals that we should pursue to maintain a proper balance in our body and mind. However, not all people can maintain perfect harmony in terms of their mental health.

Mental disorders are still a taboo subject in society, as they are viewed in a negative light and the least people want is to have to deal with it. Hollywood movies such as 'The Silence of the Innocents', 'Psycho' and even the new 'The Joker' movie show us that dark side of mental disorders.

However, this is not the case for some people who suffer from it in real life, since, with the correct treatment, they can enjoy an excellent life. This is why it is necessary to carry out greater awareness and sensitization campaigns towards this topic, but above all, in encouraging people to have a greater interest and an open mind about this reality.

Considering it, We present below the most common mental disorders that people can suffer at any time in their life.

What are mental illnesses?

Mental disorders are characterized by being an alteration in the brain activity of people, which can be caused by injuries, accidents, genetic inheritance, malformations or substance abuse. Bringing as consequences affections in the emotional areas, reasoning, impulse control, behaviors, conducts and moods that can negatively impact the spheres of a person's daily life (work, personal, social, etc.).

Mental illnesses manifest themselves in different ways from each other, depending on their level of severity in the areas of people's lives. They can also appear at any age (although most tend to arise from early adulthood, middle adulthood or late adolescence).

Most common mental disorders

Currently, there is often a misrecognition of mental disorders, reaching the point of normalizing them (as is the case of anxiety or depression) but it is important to keep in mind to recognize that mental illness is a serious matter that affects both the person suffering from it and their relatives.

So if you want to contribute a grain of sand, start with know the most common mental illnesses in the world, as well as its characteristics, symptoms and causes.

1. Major depressive disorder

This disorder is part of the general category of mood disorders and it is one of the most common to suffer in people. It is usually activated after suffering a traumatic event or an emotional shock so strong that it triggers negative feelings, hopelessness, mistrust and loss of interest in general. Affecting the normal performance of the person, their relationships and the well-being of it in general physical, mental and psychological.

These symptoms have different prevalences, which can last only weeks (case of the major depressive episode) or months (case of clinical depression) or even appear and disappear throughout the year (case of depressive disorder recurrent).

2. Bipolar disorder

Formerly known as manic-depressive disorder, it also belongs to the classification of mood disorders. In this disease, people often go through uncontrolled episodes of immense sadness and hopelessness (symptoms of depression) as well as episodes of euphoria and risky behaviors (episodes of mania) in a cycle constant. Although there are those that have a higher prevalence for one episode over the other.

For people who suffer from it, it is difficult to maintain an emotional balance in any sphere of their life, since their Sudden and disproportionate mood swings affect the quality of your daily life, as well as your relationships and even your confidence own.

3. Generalized anxiety disorder

This is both a classification for anxiety itself, and a global classification for other disorders that we will see below. Generalized anxiety is about suffering from the common symptoms of this (worries, tremors, nervousness and panic) but in an exacerbated, chronic and continuous way, so that this prevents the person from developing regularly in their everyday life.

Remember that anxiety is a natural state of the human being whose function is to activate the system to solve a problem, surely at some point you have experienced it and it is not a very pleasant. However, people who suffer from this disease live with these symptoms daily and in an exaggerated way, such such as: insomnia, tachycardia, excessive sweating, tremors or nervous tics, muscle tension, inattention, etc.

4. Panic disorder

This disease belongs to the classification of anxiety disorders and is characterized by surprising, intense and paralyzing episodes of absolute fear. These have a very short duration of time (between 10 or 30 minutes) but there are those who report feeling them for up to an hour and continuously throughout the day.

Also known as panic attacks or anxiety attacks, they can occur at any time of the day for no apparent reason. What leads the person to isolate themselves from everything that can cause this type of exaggerated anguish.

5. Phobic disorders

Commonly known as phobias, it also belongs to the classification of anxiety disorders and in turn, it is broken down into different types of phobias (zoophobia, specific phobia, social phobia and agoraphobia)

In this disorder, individuals are not only unable to face their fears, but the very idea of ​​having to witness them paralyzes and terrifies them completely. Thus developing an irrational fear of having to face the stressor stimulus or even to be exposed to a situation where this can minimally occur, so they prefer to shelter in isolation and even confinement total.

6. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Also called OCD for its acronym, it is part of anxiety disorders and one of the most common that people suffer. This manifests itself on different levels but they have in common a repetitive behavior and a recurring thought about something in particular. For example: cleanliness, order, organization, parity, equality, acceptable social behaviors, presentation, communication, etc.

Thus complicating the concentration and focus on other things of their daily life, since these behaviors become part of the daily routine and not being followed to the letter (according to how they believe in their minds) can generate stress and anguish.

7. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The last of those belonging to the classification of anxiety disorders and one of the most difficult for those who suffer from it. It is characterized by triggering a series of thoughts, actions, behaviors and altered emotions as a result of having been exposed to a very strong trauma, which they continue to relive often when perceiving any element that reminds them of the incident.

It affects other parts of people's lives, such as sleep, rest, work, relationships, and natural social development. They also tend to generate feelings of guilt, anger and responsibility for what happened, which always aggravates their condition and leads them to seclude themselves.

8. Eating disorder

These are one of the most common disorders in the ages of adolescence and early adulthood, there are even cases where it can manifest itself in childhood, due to growth, exposure or trauma related to the weight of the person. Which becomes an obsession to lose weight by any means, including vomiting induction practices, taking laxatives and diuretics and uncontrolled exercise routines.

Bringing as a consequence health problems, muscle recovery, development of early degenerative diseases, problems conceiving and neuronal problems.

It consists of three types:

• Anorexia nervosa (avoidance of food intake, the purpose of which is continuous and uncontrolled weight loss through excessive means of weight loss)

• Bulimia nervosa (irregular eating patterns, where there are massive binges and then behaviors to eliminate said food)

• Binge eating disorder (excessive food intake, where feelings of regret and concern about the weight gained)

9. Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Another of the most common disorders in youth ages (adolescence and early adulthood) that can affect both women and men, who are obsessed with their physical appearance. In disorders, people continually find some anomaly, alteration or imperfection in their features bodily problems that only they are capable of perceiving, as well as the magnification of some bodily problem that they may to have.

Although it is their own distortion, they ensure that other people can see their flaws and use them as a mockery. That is the reason why they do practices to hide it or ‘repair it’ such as the use of elaborate makeup, makeup touch-ups. continuous, checking your image in each reflective structure and in more serious cases abusing surgeries and treatments aesthetic.

10. Borderline personality disorder

This disease falls within the general category of personality disorders. It is about the incessant and drastic change in a person's behavior, it is also known as 'borderline', where the person experiences a need to live risky behaviors and intense emotions full of energy and danger.

They may also experience prolonged moments of anger, violence and exacerbated intimate relationships, where they please and idolize their partner to an unreal point or seek sexual satisfaction intense. In general, people with this disorder have a delicate and insecure personality and it is almost as if they are trying to get away from that image completely.

11. Antisocial Disorder

This disorder, which also falls under the classification of personality disorders, tends to be very confused with asocial behaviors, due to their inclination to avoid social relationships and prefer the isolation. However, in this disorder, people can acquire criminal, violent and manipulative behaviors.

This is because these people are too afraid of being exposed to, used by, or made fun of by others. So they can also develop other disorders such as depression, agoraphobia or generalized anxiety.

12. Autism Spectrum Disorder

This disorder is within the classification of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, it develops during the childhood and has different levels of severity in each child, although they tend to affect the social and emotional sphere globally in the sense that children with autism prefer to be alone and tend to avoid interpersonal relationships, as well as showing of affection. Although it is recognized that they have greater mental acuity, a great intellect, better management of organization and improvement.

This is a completely genetic disease, that is, it is produced by an alteration in the genomes and the earlier the diagnosis, the more options the child will have to lead a regular and adequate adaptive life with the help of psychological therapies and pedagogical. .

13. Attention Disorder and Hyperactivity

Also known as ADHD and as part of neurodevelopmental disorders, it is one of the most common disorders in children and tends to be confused with agitated behavior common in children due to lack of discharge of Energy. Therefore, the best way to detect it is to observe the pattern of behavior, the intensity and the regularity with which it occurs. manifest the symptoms in every sphere of their life (inattention, oppositionalism, challenging behaviors, impulsiveness, dynamism extreme).

Some children may show both symptoms (attention and hyperactivity) or have a greater inclination to one of them. It can be controlled with psychological therapy and if necessary with psychotropic drugs that reduce neuronal arousal.

14. Childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

This disorder encompasses several conditions corresponding to the different areas of child development (motor, emotional and cognitive) which can be associated with a genetic alteration, a hereditary disease or a skill not developed during the childhood. Which if not treated in time and stimulated with psychological and pedagogical help, can affect the child in his future.

Among the most common we highlight: learning and communication disorders, global developmental delay and intellectual disability.

15. Intermittent explosive disorder

Another disorder that occurs regularly during childhood, especially after preschool, is characterized by the child's shows aggressive, oppositional behaviors, tantrums, hyperactivity, causing damage to property or other people, without having a detonator apparent. An extra characteristic of this disorder is that they tend to blame others for their actions, do not assume the consequences and show emotional manipulative behaviors (generally in parents).

They seem that they do not realize or do not care about their behavior or the chaos they generate and although this does not usually last longer After a few minutes, to then calm down, there may be several exposures during the day and they get worse and worse.

16. Delusional disorder

belongs to the classification of psychotic disorders, where the person tends to detach from the reality (either as a kind of defense, a cognitive impairment or to escape a trauma previous)

In delusional disorder, the person experiences delusions, which are ideas and thoughts obsessive recurring thoughts about something that you are convinced is happening to you and is not happening actually. This is also known as delusional paranoia.

17. Schizophrenia

It is one of the strongest disorders of all since the person not only manifests a social, emotional and cognitive alteration, but also experiences hallucinations of the type visual, auditory and in some cases kinesthetic, which are so disruptive that they can lead the person to completely isolate themselves from society or engage in criminal and aggressive.

Although it has been shown in some studies that, some superior capacities such as the intellect, memory, understanding and creativity (for which it is very famous to find among patients schizophrenics)

It is known that it does not have a cure, but with early detection, psychological assistance and pharmacological treatment it is possible to lead a calm life and have an adequate social adaptation.

18. Dementia

This is a disorder that manifests itself during middle and late adulthood (old age) which consists of different symptoms degenerative, affecting mainly the skills learned, the capacity for social relations, independence, attention, memory and also causes emotional disturbances, so that people often show intense states of sadness, distrust and loss of interest. In more severe cases, hallucinations, paranoia and irregular behaviors may also occur

It is also known as progressive dementia, one of the best known types of dementia is Alzheimer's disease.

Bibliographic references

• Felice VD, Moloney RD, Cryan JF, Dinan TG, O'Mahony SM (2015). "Visceral Pain and Psychiatric Disorders". Mod Trends Pharmacopsychiatri (Review).
• Mediavilla, Daniel (October 23, 2019). "Why do men and women have different mental illnesses". The country.
• World Health Organization. "Mental disorders".
• Triglia, Adrián; Regader, Bertrand; García-Allen, Jonathan (2016). Psychologically speaking. Paidos.