Mental health

One in four people in the UK will have a mental health problem at some point. While mental health problems are common, most are mild, tend to be short-term and are normally successfully treated, with medication, by a GP.

Mental health determines how we think, feel and act.

Mental ill Health can be defined as: a term used when a person experiences significant changes in their thinking, feeling or behaviour. This is sometimes referred to as Mental Disorder. The changes must be extreme enough to affect how the person functions or to cause distress to other people.

Examples of mental health problems includes anxiety, depression, phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and PTSD.

There are ways in which mental health problems can affect day-to-day living. These include poor performance at work, home life, relationships may suffer, energy levels may decline, ability to think clearly, poor performance at School / University, and lastly, the loss of interest in activities, which were previously enjoyed.

There are ways in which we can support mental health problems.

Being able to talk about how the person may be doing is important and giving time for the person to express how they are feeling can help when supporting during a mental health issue.

Each situation can have its own outcome and using positive relaxation and de-escalation techniques helps in getting the individual to manage how they are feeling.

If the person is anxious, can you help to remove triggers? If they are feeling depressed, can you help in improving their mood? And on occasions, can you give the person space?

Knowing what support is available if needed and directing someone to the services that are available to them can also be helpful.

Video 18

Some examples of hidden mental health needs/conditions

Bipolar Disorder - Bipolar disorder (previously also called manic depression) mainly affects mood. With this diagnosis individuals are likely to have times when they experience: manic or hypomanic episodes (feeling high); depressive episodes (feeling low); and potentially some psychotic symptoms.

Everyone has variations in their mood, but in bipolar disorder these swings can feel very extreme and have a big impact on their life. In between, they might have stable times where fewer symptoms are experienced.

Schizophrenia – Individuals will have a lack of interest in things, feel disconnected from their feelings, have difficulty concentrating, wanting to avoid people, may have hallucinations, such as hearing voices or seeing things others don’t. Individuals can have delusions (which could include paranoid delusions) – strong beliefs that others don't share, have disorganised thinking and speech and do not want to look after themselves

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) - Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a type of anxiety disorder. for example, individuals might hear people talk about being 'a bit OCD', if they like things to be neat and tidy. But the reality of this disorder is a lot more complex and serious.

OCD has two main parts: obsessions (unwelcome thoughts, images, urges, worries or doubts that repeatedly appear in your mind; and compulsions (repetitive activities that you feel you have to do to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsession).

PTSD - Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt. They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult. These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person's day-to-day life.

Personality disorders - Personality disorder is a type of mental health problem where attitudes, beliefs and behaviours cause longstanding problems in life. If diagnosed it doesn't mean that they're fundamentally different from other people – but may regularly experience difficulties with how they think about themselves and others, and find it very difficult to change these unwanted patterns.

There are several different categories and types of personality disorder, but most people who are diagnosed with a particular personality disorder don't fit any single category very clearly or consistently. Also, the term 'personality disorder' can sound very judgemental. Because of this it is a particularly controversial diagnosis. Some psychiatrists disagree with using it. And many people who are given this label find it more helpful to explain their experiences in other ways.