Transcript Mental Illness notes - HRSBSTAFF Home Page

Mental Illness

Depression

Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia

Anxiety Disorders

Eating Disorders

Personality Disorders
Depression

People with depression are not just sad. Their
depressed mood is constant and lasts for a
period of time

They lose interest in work and relationships. They
can be irritable and may experience sudden weight
gain or weight loss.

They may sleep all the time or very little. They have
difficulty getting up to face the day.
Depression cont’d

They may drink excessively or use drugs to help
manage their overwhelming feelings.

They have thoughts such as “the world would be
better off without me.” Some act on these thoughts
and attempt suicide.

Others hide what they are really thinking and put on
a brave face when among others.
Bipolar Disorder

People with bipolar disorder (previously called
manic depression) experience emotional
extremes.
 In the manic phase of their illness, they can be
hyperactive and show poor judgement, or have
faulty beliefs and perceptions that lead to risky
behaviours or financial losses.
 In the depressive phase, they experience the
symptoms described above under depression.
Schizophrenia
 A serious
mental illness that affects more
than 300,000 Canadians. While the condition
is rare in childhood, it can begin onset in the
mid- to late teen years.
 It
interferes with a person’s ability to think
clearly, manage emotions, make decisions
and relate to others.
Schizophrenia cont’d
 Many
people living with schizophrenia have
hallucinations and delusions, meaning
they hear or see things that aren’t there and
believe things that are not real or true.
Anxiety Disorders

This is a collection of problems that involve, in one
way or another, excessive worry, fear, avoidance
and irritability.

Examples are:


Panic attacks where the heart races, people break out in
a sweat and they can, literally, feel they are about to die
Agoraphobia characterized by extreme fear of leaving
home or of deviating from a highly prescribed pattern of
travel
Anxiety Disorders cont’d

Social phobia where people are so anxious in the presence of
unfamiliar others that they avoid social situations.

Obsessive compulsive disorder where, for example, people
perform certain acts repetitively (hand washing, repeating a certain
string of numbers, touching a certain object – there are endless
examples) in the belief that doing so will prevent some feared
event or consequence

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which emerges after a
person has witnessed or experienced an event where they feared
for their life (or another’s) and felt they could do nothing to save
themselves (or the other person)
Eating Disorders

These disorders emerge when people (most typically girls
and women) either starve themselves (anorexia nervosa)
or eat huge amounts of food (binge) and then cause
themselves to vomit (purge) (bulimia).

Anorexia- persistent starvation affects organ function & can
ultimately result in death. People with anorexia have
distorted body images in that they perceive themselves as
fat even when they are skin and bone.

Bulimia can result in damage to the oesophagus, mouth
and teeth due to repeated exposure to the corrosive nature
of acidic vomit.
Personality Disorders

These involve patterns or ways of thinking,
feeling and behaving, in relation to oneself and
others, that are longstanding, not easily changed
and lead to distress for the individual and problems
across a wide range of life circumstances and
situations. Being longstanding, personality
disorders often have their roots in childhood
experiences and events.