Mental health was once considered taboo, but that’s not the case anymore. People have seen the repercussions of ignoring mental health disorders. Now they want to understand their symptoms and signs and even visit the shrink if needed. However, when discussing and understanding mental health, you must know how deep the subject goes. 

Plenty of factors play a role in mental health conditions, and it varies from person to person.

• Mental health disorders affect approximately 1 in 5 people globally each year.
• Mental health is just as important as physical health in overall well-being.
• Meditation and mindfulness practices have been proven to improve mental health.
• Early intervention and treatment for mental health issues can significantly improve recovery rates.
• Mental health disorders can influence physical health, increasing the risk of conditions like heart disease.
• Social connections and strong relationships can act as protective factors against mental health disorders.

So please read below to learn what mental health is, how to spot mental health conditions, and how to help someone struggling with it. 

Mental health affects your psychological, emotional, and social well-being and how you feel and act daily. It also affects your decision-making ability, stress handling, and how you communicate daily. Mental illness is becoming common daily, mainly due to people locked in their homes with Covid restrictions, so this is the time to understand this topic with more depth and meaning. 

Regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, and salary, everyone is at risk of developing and understanding the signs, symptoms, causes, and types, which makes it easy to get it treated properly. 

Many people with mental health disorders suffer from more than one condition at a time that multiple factors can cause; read on below to learn all about it. 

Mental illness does not have one definitive cause. Instead, it spreads from different factors. These factors can also affect you in combination, so continue reading to understand what these factors are and how they work. 

Traumatic and stressful life experiences and events can play a significant role in affecting your mental health. Abusive relationships, non-consensual intercourse, surviving a dangerous accident, or being kidnapped are some events that can cause mental conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Moving from one foster home to another or changing primary guardians in adolescence can also lead to attachment issues. 

It is common knowledge that mental illness can also be genetic and runs in the family. People who have family members with diseases such as bipolar disorder, depression, autism, or schizophrenia can develop it because of shared genes. 

They also have a high risk of being affected by some characteristics of such mental illnesses. 

Another factor that affects mental health is brain chemistry. The changes in your body hormones and imbalance of neurotransmitters and chemical transmitters present in the brain have a massive effect on your mental health. 

Moreover, physical health issues such as diabetes, chronic body pain, or severe diseases such as cancer can lead to mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and stress.

 Economic stress also plays a huge role in affecting your mental health. Someone with limited finances and unable to provide for his family can easily undergo mental health issues. There is also pressure from society on what to wear, how to act, and what to do, especially in Eastern ethnic groups. 

Places such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have high depression and stress rates because of poverty and societal pressure.

Mental illness is a generalized term for different disorders that affect an individual differently. Eleven mental health disorders are prevalent, and you must know about them. These include:

You may have come across a bipolar person without knowing what bipolar disorder is. Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder, and people who undergo this mental illness shift their moods from high to low immediately. 

The two different moods are known as mania and depression. One minute they’ll be happy, and the next, they will give off a depressive vibe. 

This is another widespread mental illness that most people are affected by. People with anxiety disorder undergo excessive anxiety, fear, and disturbance in everyday behavior. 

Over time, they become more anxious and disturbed, and this increase affects their daily life. Individuals having anxiety disorder avoid situations that can trigger or worsen their symptoms. 

Depression or depressive disorder is when an individual experiences a sad and irritable mood with suicidal thoughts and emptiness inside. Depressive disorder is also associated with cognitive and physical changes that can affect the functioning of your day-to-day activities and habits. 

Usually, this illness occurs when something traumatic, such as the passing of a loved one, takes place, but it can be a recurring disorder if not treated early on. 

People with depression lose interest in activities, go through insomnia, indecision, weak concentration, eating disorders, and extreme fatigue. 

An eating disorder is a very common disorder amongst teenage girls and upcoming models, and it is usually due to being told that skinny girls are pretty. Back in the days when plus size was not very attractive, eating disorders were on the rise. 

But today, due to models such as Ashley Graham and Jennie Runk, plus size has become a symbol of attractiveness, and eating disorders are slowly decreasing. People going through this mental illness become so obsessed with weight loss that they cannot eat properly. 

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder in which the person gets obsessed with even the smallest and tiniest changes. An OCD patient gets unwanted ideas of obsession, and this causes them to repeatedly carry out their obsession to get rid of the nagging in their brain. 

If individuals struggling with OCD cannot perform the obsession correctly, this can cause distress throughout the day until they fix it. 

Dissociation disorder is a mental illness in which individuals disconnect and dissociate themselves from their memories, thoughts, feelings, and complete identity. The symptoms of this mental illness can completely disrupt the person’s mental health and provide them memory loss. 

Some branches of dissociation disorder include dissociative identity disorder, dissociative amnesia, and depersonalization disorder, mainly associated with traumatic experiences. 

Paranoia comes from the word paranoid and is a disorder where an individual gets this persistent feeling that there is somebody that is trying to kill them. 

However, paranoia can also be a symptom of other conditions, such as schizophrenia, paranoid personality disorder, and delusional disorder. The perfect treatment for this illness is psychological support and prescribed medications. 

People undergoing psychosis hallucinate, experience delusions, and have a confused personality and mixed thoughts. Even though it is a separate illness, psychosis can also be a symptom of other mental disorders, such as mood disorders and schizophrenia. 

Medication and complete psychological support are the best ways to relieve and treat this illness. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a common disorder that most people struggle with today. As the name suggests, this disorder usually occurs after a person has survived a traumatic experience. 

Many veterans, rape survivors, and people who have escaped abusive homes have PTSD. A severe car accident, physical assault, natural disaster, or traumatizing event at a young age can lead to this disorder. Some common symptoms of PTSD include changes in mood, aggression, flashbacks, anger, and dissociation. 

 People with schizophrenia lose touch with reality and fall into a pattern of delusion and hallucination. This leads to disorganized speech and thought of abnormal behavior and social withdrawal. Schizophrenia patients have impaired memory and a very high risk of suicide.

Sleep disorder, also known as a sleep-wake disorder, is when you struggle with the amount, time, and quality of sleep every night. This leads to daytime distress, depression, fatigue, body ache, and inability to function correctly. Since you won’t be able to function properly, you won’t be able to meet deadlines; hence, stress will follow. 

Sleep disorders are primarily associated with anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses as bipolar disorder. 

It is entirely understandable if you are overwhelmed with all the information above. This is just a guide to give you a brief about mental health so that you know how mental disorders work. You can healthily live by discussing your mental health with a therapist. 

Early treatment and diagnosis help improve the state of your mind and keep your mental health in good condition.