Mental Disorders Information

Mental Health Treatment Questions
A report of the U.S. Surgeon General estimated that at least one in five Americans experiences mental illness in a given year, and urged those with concerns about their mental health to seek help. The report concluded that a variety of treatments of well-documented efficacy exist for the many different types of mental and behavioral disorders that occur across the life span.

If you have questions about mental health or where to get mental health services, your doctor or a licensed mental health professional in your community may be able to answer those questions or refer you to someone who can. A nearby health facility or your state mental health agency also may be able to help.

Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps one deal with a tense situation in the office, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it helps one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling disorder.

Five major types of anxiety disorders are:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Panic Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder)

Depression
Depression is a serious medical illness; it's not something that you have made up in your head. It's more than just feeling "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. It's feeling "down" and "low" and "hopeless" for weeks at a time.

Signs of depression may include:
Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.  

People with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. They may experience sleep problems, feel detached or numb, or be easily startled.

SchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that affects about 1 percent of people all over the world. People with schizophrenia sometimes hear voices others don't hear, believe that others are broadcasting their thoughts to the world, or become convinced that others are plotting to harm them. These experiences can make them fearful and withdrawn and cause difficulties when they try to have relationships with others. 

Symptoms usually develop in men in their late teens or early twenties and women in the twenties and thirties, but in rare cases, can appear in childhood. They can include hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, movement disorders, flat affect, social withdrawal, and cognitive deficits.

Emergency Mental Health and Traumatic Stress
Most people who are coping with the aftermath of a disaster have normal reactions as they struggle with the disruption and loss caused by the disaster. They do not see themselves as needing mental health services and are unlikely to request them. Community outreach may be necessary to seek out and provide mental health services to individuals who may be affected by a disaster.

Through an interagency agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), CMHS staff helps to ensure that victims of Presidentially declared disasters received immediate, short-term crisis counseling, as well as ongoing support for emotional recovery. CMHS collaborates with FEMA to train State mental health staff to develop crisis counseling training and preparedness efforts in their States.