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Mental well-being is a vital component of a person’s overall health condition. Therefore, it naturally follows that there should be adequate awareness about this topic in society.

Here are some alarming mental health facts which should make us sit up and take notice:

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study conducted for the National Care of Medical Health (NCMH), at least 6.5 per cent of our country’s population suffers from some form of serious mental disorder. That means about 65 million Indians.
50 per cent of all mental health conditions begin by the age of 14 years and most of these go undetected or untreated.
India has only about 5000 psychiatrists and less than 2000 clinical psychologists to cater to its entire population.
A 2015-15 NCMH survey revealed that one in every six persons in our country requires some kind of mental help.
India has the highest suicide rate in the world in the age group of 15-29. Every 3 seconds, a person commits suicide.

The above facts are undoubtedly shocking, but what adds to the gravity of the situation is that even today, mental illness is considered a taboo by a considerable portion of the population and there is a widespread stigma associated with the topic, although the awareness is increasing amongst the people. However, raising awareness is only the start of the battle against mental illnesses. Let’s take the first step towards it.

What exactly is Mental Illness?

A mental illness is a physical condition of the brain which results in disturbances in thinking, emotional stability and behaviour which adversely affects the daily life. There are many causes for mental disorders, including abnormalities in the brain structure, genetics, brain structure, trauma or any other underlying medical condition, such as heart condition.

Some of the common mental conditions are:

Anxiety Disorders
Alzheimer’s Disease
Attention Deficit Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
Epilepsy
Munchausen’s Syndrome
Parkinson’s Disease
Schizophrenia

Anxiety Disorders

While feeling anxious every now and then is a part and parcel of life, anxiety disorders are different. Anxiety is dangerous as it is the mix of all mental illnesses which affects you constantly and is staggering. It limits a person from living a normal life. There are different types of anxiety disorders:

Panic Disorder

You will be feeling terror strikes out of the blue with no warning. Some of the symptoms are chest pain, sweating and palpitations.

Social Anxiety Disorder

self-consciousness and fear of how people will judge you come under social anxiety disorder. A person could feel embarrassed or ridiculed by others. Consult with our neuro specialist in India to come out of it.

Phobias

Phobias are basically tour fear of something such as fear of heights, water, etc.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

You may feel excessive, irrational worry about something without any purpose.

Alzheimer’s Disease

It is a common form of dementia in which a person experiences varying degrees of memory loss and other cognitive disabilities. Its effects include behavioural changes, hallucinations, disorientation, confusion, delusions, difficulties in interacting and sensing speeds and distances, and much more. Its severity increases with age.

Attention Deficit Disorder

This brain disorder is characterized by a continuous pattern of inattention that interferes with normal functioning and development. A person suffering from ADD has difficulty in sustaining focus, lacks persistence and is disorganized, and not due to lack of comprehension or defiant behaviour. Such people tend to miss details, make careless mistakes, lose focus quickly, tend to be easily distracted, are forgetful and tend to avoid sustained mental effort.

Bipolar Disorder

Also known as manic depression, this involves extreme mood swings. The elevated mood is called mania. During the opposite phase, i.e. depression, a person can go through immense hopelessness, sadness, self-doubt, lack of energy and enthusiasm, lack of interest in everything, erratic sleep patterns, and even develop suicidal tendencies. Even though bipolar disorder involves periods where a person can feel depressed, it is not the same as depression. This is because, in depression, the person always feels sad and low, on the other hand, bipolar disorder is characterized by periodic shifts in mood.

Epilepsy

It is a chronic mental disorder which causes recurrent, unprovoked seizures. These seizures are sudden bursts of electrical activity in the brain which occur when the brain sends out wrong signals to the body. The seizure can occur due to reasons that are still unknown, it can be triggered due to injury to the brain, blood clots, stroke, brain tumour, drug abuse, and alcohol. An inadequate supply of oxygen to the brain, lack of sleep, high fever and some vascular diseases can also cause epilepsy.

Munchausen’s Syndrome

This is a psychological disorder where a person pretends to be ill even when they’re perfectly fine and there’s nothing wrong with them. This stems from their need to assume the “sick role” and their desire to be the center of attention and have people care for them. The person may claim to see things or hear voices that aren’t there, pretend to have symptoms like chest pain or stomach ache and may even deliberately try to get ill by infecting their wounds.

Parkinson’s Disease

It is a condition in which certain regions of the brain become progressively damaged over a period of many years. It is a movement disorder in which a person can experience tremor in the hands, reduced sense of coordination, change in gait and posture while walking, loss of sense of smell, sleep issues and have a tendency to fall.

Schizophrenia

It is a long-term mental disorder involving delusions, hallucinations and other cognitive difficulties, which interfere with a person’s ability to think rationally, control emotions, decision-making etc. Clashing with the public perception, split personality is not related to schizophrenia. It can occur due to environmental factors, genetic causes, and abnormalities in the brain.

Check out the top neurology hospital in India to know more about these mental disorders and plan for better treatment.