Neurodevelopmental and Mood Disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders typically appear during childhood or adolescence and affect brain development. Intellectual disability involves limitations in intellectual functioning (IQ below 70) and everyday adaptive behaviors like self-care and social skills.

Children under five might be diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay if they show delays in areas like cognition and motor skills. This is usually a temporary diagnosis until they're old enough for standardized testing.

Communication disorders affect language and speech abilities, including language disorder, speech sound disorder, stuttering, and social communication disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder involves persistent deficits in social interaction and communication along with restricted, repetitive behaviors.

ADHD features patterns of hyperactivity-impulsivity and/or inattention that interfere with functioning across multiple settings. Symptoms must appear before age 12 and impact social, occupational, or academic functioning.

Did you know? Bipolar disorder involves shifts between elevated moods $mania/hypomania$ and depression, along with changes in energy levels and activity. People experiencing mania might engage in risky behaviors like excessive shopping or gambling.

Anxiety and Trauma-Related Disorders

Anxiety disorders involve excessive fear, worry, and related behavioral disturbances. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) features excessive worry about everyday events that interferes with normal functioning.

People with Social Anxiety Disorder have an irrational fear of being watched or judged, making it difficult to function in social settings. Specific Phobias involve extreme fear of particular objects or situations like spiders, heights, or small spaces.

Panic Disorder involves unexpected panic attacks that can lead people to avoid situations where attacks might occur. Separation Anxiety Disorder involves excessive fear about being separated from attachment figures—not just in children, but adults too.

Trauma and stressor-related disorders develop after exposure to stressful or traumatic events. Acute Stress Disorder involves severe anxiety for up to one month after a traumatic event, with symptoms like dissociation and flashbacks.

Remember this: Around 18% of American adults suffer from at least one anxiety disorder, making them among the most common mental health conditions.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop after experiencing or witnessing traumatic events and includes symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, avoiding reminders of the trauma, and feeling constantly on edge.

Dissociative and Somatic Symptom Disorders

Dissociative disorders involve interruptions in consciousness, identity, or memory. Dissociative Amnesia causes temporary memory loss beyond normal forgetfulness, often following psychological trauma. People may remember some details about events but have no recall of others.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder) involves the presence of two or more distinct identities or personalities. Each personality has its own way of perceiving and interacting with the world, causing changes in behavior, memory, and consciousness.

People with Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder feel disconnected from their body (depersonalization) or from reality (derealization). They experience a sense of unreality and disconnect from their memories, feelings, and consciousness.

Somatic symptom disorders involve physical symptoms that cause significant distress, regardless of whether a medical cause can be found. Somatic Symptom Disorder involves preoccupation with physical symptoms that makes normal functioning difficult.

Important: People with somatic symptom disorders are not faking their symptoms. Their physical pain and fatigue are real—it's their extreme reaction to these symptoms that creates problems in their lives.

Illness Anxiety Disorder involves excessive worry about having an undiagnosed serious illness, even when medical tests are negative. This preoccupation causes significant anxiety and behavioral changes.

Eating Disorders and Sleep Disorders

Eating disorders involve obsessive concerns with weight and disruptive eating patterns. Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by restricted food consumption leading to severe weight loss, fear of gaining weight, and a distorted self-image.

Bulimia Nervosa involves cycles of binging followed by extreme compensatory behaviors like self-induced vomiting or excessive exercise. Binge-Eating Disorder features episodes of consuming unusually large amounts of food within a short time, accompanied by feelings of loss of control.

Less common eating disorders include Rumination Disorder $regurgitating and re-chewing food$ and Pica $craving and eating non-food substances like dirt or soap$, which often affect children or people with developmental disabilities.

Sleep disorders interrupt normal sleep patterns, causing distress and daytime functioning problems. Insomnia involves difficulty falling or staying asleep, while Hypersomnolence causes excessive daytime sleepiness despite adequate nighttime sleep.

Sleep fact: Breathing-related sleep disorders like sleep apnea can cause brief interruptions in sleep that lead to insomnia and daytime sleepiness. These interruptions might happen hundreds of times a night without you being aware of them!

Parasomnias involve abnormal behaviors during sleep, including sleepwalking, sleep terrors, sleep talking, and sleep eating. Restless Legs Syndrome causes uncomfortable sensations and an irresistible urge to move the legs, interfering with sleep.

Disruptive and Depressive Disorders

Disruptive disorders involve problems controlling emotions and behaviors. People with Intermittent Explosive Disorder have brief outbursts of anger and violence that are way out of proportion to the situation. They might erupt over everyday annoyances that others would handle calmly.

Children with Conduct Disorder regularly violate social norms and others' rights by showing aggression, destroying property, stealing, and breaking rules. This significantly impacts their academic and social functioning. Oppositional Defiant Disorder involves persistent defiance, irritability, and vindictiveness in children, going far beyond normal childhood rebellion.

Other impulse-control disorders include Kleptomania (inability to resist stealing items, often without real value) and Pyromania $fascination with fire and deliberate fire-setting$.

Depressive disorders all involve persistent sad moods and physical/cognitive symptoms that affect functioning. Major Depressive Disorder causes loss of interest in activities and depressed mood that significantly impairs daily life.

Key difference: While Major Depressive Disorder typically lasts for weeks or months, Persistent Depressive Disorder (dysthymia) involves experiencing depressed mood on most days for at least two years.

Diagnosis of major depression requires experiencing five or more symptoms for at least two weeks, including either depressed mood or loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities, plus symptoms like sleep disturbances, fatigue, concentration problems, or thoughts of suicide.

Substance-Related and Neurocognitive Disorders

Substance-related disorders involve the use and abuse of substances like alcohol, cannabis, stimulants, or tobacco. These disorders can lead to conditions including intoxication, withdrawal, psychosis, anxiety, and delirium.

People with substance use disorders typically experience cravings, difficulty controlling use, and continued use despite negative consequences in their lives. Alcohol-related disorders are particularly common, as alcohol is the most widely used and frequently overused drug in the United States.

Interestingly, the DSM-5 includes Gambling Disorder in this category because gambling activates the brain's reward system similarly to drugs of abuse, and gambling disorder symptoms resemble substance use disorders.

Neurocognitive disorders involve acquired deficits in cognitive function that weren't present at birth or early in life. Delirium develops over a short period (hours or days) and involves disturbances in attention and awareness.

Major and mild neurocognitive disorders feature acquired cognitive decline in areas like memory, attention, language, and learning. These can be caused by conditions like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, HIV infection, or vascular disease.

Understanding schizophrenia: Schizophrenia affects about 1% of Americans and typically begins in the late teens or early twenties, with men usually showing symptoms earlier than women. While there's no cure, treatments combining medications, therapy, and support can help manage symptoms.

For a schizophrenia diagnosis, a person must show at least two symptoms for one month, with one being delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech.

Obsessive-Compulsive and Personality Disorders

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders include several conditions characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), people experience recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and feel driven to perform repetitive behaviors (compulsions) to reduce anxiety.

For an OCD diagnosis, these obsessions and compulsions must be time-consuming (taking at least an hour daily), cause significant distress, or impair functioning. Treatment typically combines cognitive-behavioral therapy, particularly exposure and response prevention (ERP), with medications like antidepressants.

Related conditions include Body Dysmorphic Disorder (preoccupation with perceived physical flaws), Hoarding Disorder (difficulty discarding possessions), and Trichotillomania $compulsive hair-pulling$.

Personality disorders involve enduring patterns of maladaptive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that significantly impact relationships and daily functioning. Borderline Personality Disorder features emotional instability, unstable relationships, poor self-image, and impulsive behaviors.

Not all perfectionists have a disorder: While many people have perfectionist tendencies, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder involves an extreme preoccupation with orderliness and control that significantly impairs functioning. This is different from OCD, which centers on specific obsessions and compulsions.

People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder show patterns of exaggerated self-image, self-centeredness, and low empathy. Those with Antisocial Personality Disorder display a long-standing disregard for rules, social norms, and others' rights, typically beginning in childhood.

Schizophrenia and Other Personality Disorders

Schizophrenia is a chronic condition affecting thinking, feeling, and behavior that impacts about 1% of Americans. For diagnosis, two or more symptoms must be present for at least a month, with one being delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech.

These symptoms cause significant impairment in functioning for at least six months. Early signs before diagnosis might include poor motivation, difficult relationships, and declining school performance. While there's no cure, treatments combining antipsychotic medications, therapy, and support help manage symptoms.

Personality disorders continue to affect millions of Americans. People with Avoidant Personality Disorder experience severe social inhibition and sensitivity to rejection, causing significant life problems. Those with Dependent Personality Disorder have an excessive need to be taken care of and fear of separation.

Histrionic Personality Disorder involves extreme emotionality and attention-seeking behaviors. People with this condition feel uncomfortable when not the center of attention and may behave inappropriately to attract notice.

Complex conditions: Personality disorders develop from a combination of genetic and environmental factors and typically emerge during adolescence or early adulthood. They're among the most challenging conditions to treat because the behaviors are deeply ingrained in the person's identity.

Schizoid Personality Disorder involves detachment from social relationships and limited emotional expression. People with Schizotypal Personality Disorder show eccentricities in speech, behavior, and appearance, sometimes with odd beliefs or "magical thinking."

Treatment Approaches and Personality Disorders

Most psychological disorders respond best to treatment combining therapy and medication when needed. For Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or exposure and response prevention (ERP) works well alongside antidepressants like clomipramine or fluoxetine.

Personality disorders are complex conditions affecting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in ways that damage relationships and disrupt daily life. Paranoid Personality Disorder involves persistent distrust of others, even family and friends, with a belief that others have malicious intentions without evidence.

People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder show an exaggerated sense of self-importance and lack empathy for others. This self-centered focus creates significant problems in relationships, work, and other areas of life.

Antisocial Personality Disorder involves a pattern of disregarding rules, norms, and others' rights. Symptoms typically begin in childhood, with those affected showing difficulty feeling empathy and lack of remorse for harmful behaviors.

Getting help matters: If you recognize symptoms of any psychological disorder in yourself or someone else, professional help can make a tremendous difference. Many conditions that once seemed untreatable now have effective interventions that can significantly improve quality of life.

While personality disorders are challenging to treat, various approaches help people manage symptoms and improve relationships. These include dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), schema therapy, and psychodynamic approaches, depending on the specific disorder and individual needs.

Remember that mental health conditions are medical conditions—not character flaws—and deserve the same compassion and treatment as physical ailments.