Symptoms of mental disorders, their manifestations, treatment

Accompanying signs of the disease are: fear of self-worth, an oppressive feeling of emptiness (arising from difficulty in self-identification: what are my values, what do I believe in, what gives me pleasure), self-inflicted bodily wounds and dangerous behavioral patterns.

Mental disorder is a disease

Mental illness exists and it is not a myth.
And this has been proven not only scientifically - in every developed country there are several scientific institutions for the study of mental illnesses, in all medical universities all future doctors are taught psychiatry (the science of mental disorders). In Russia, the officially identified number of people with a confirmed psychiatric diagnosis is several million. In practice, we are faced with painful behavioral disorders, due to which the patients themselves and those around them suffer, crimes, suicides, etc. are committed. Like any disease (for example, diabetes, hypertension, oncology), mental illness has characteristic symptoms, mechanisms of occurrence and methods of treatment. Thus, mental illness is an illness with a set of symptoms that manifest themselves in mental instability.

Specifics and forms of the disease

Schizophrenia, as a type of human mental disorder, is considered an incurable disease. The fact is that for complete relief it is necessary to identify and eliminate the root cause, which at the present stage of development of medicine is not possible. However, with correct and timely diagnosis of the disease, especially at its first stage, doctors are able to keep the situation under control. A specialist can make the manifestations of schizophrenia less pronounced and vivid, and stop its progression.

At the stage of diagnosing schizophrenia, it is important to correctly determine its type. The effectiveness and result of further treatment depends on this. The psychiatrist also determines the nature of the disorder: its continuity, waveform or progression from attack to attack.

The degree of change in the patient’s personality is individual in each individual case, and largely depends on the form of the disease and the characteristics of its course.

The following forms of schizophrenia are known in psychiatry:

• catatonic. It is characterized by alternating periods of excitement and stupor, which can last for several hours. At this time, the patient experiences various visions;
• paranoid. The most common type. The main symptom is hallucinogenic visions and delusions. Other manifestations of the disease are absent or extremely weak;
• hebephrenic. This variety is characterized by ridiculous or even obscene, inappropriate human behavior. The actions of such a patient are unreasonable, there is no composure and seriousness;
• primitive (simple). It manifests itself through a set of standard symptoms, so it is determined without much difficulty.

By identifying the early stage of schizophrenia, the doctor can achieve the most positive result in its treatment. In the field of modern psychiatry, new scientific developments have appeared that significantly improve the outcome of therapy.

It is not possible to cope with this mental disorder on your own. Therefore, when you detect the first signs of it, you must immediately contact a specialist.

What symptoms should you pay attention to?

Any chronic disease involves three stages: early signs, acute condition and remission. There are signs/symptoms that precede an acute condition: for example, sleep disturbances (can’t sleep, sleep too long, often wake up at night and can’t sleep, etc.), lack of appetite, increased sensitivity, increased irritability, depressed mood, sudden attacks of anxiety, Difficulty concentrating, avoiding communication with people - these are early warning signs of an exacerbation of the condition. If at the stage of early signs a person does not receive adequate help, then the manifestations of the disease develop, the condition worsens, and the disease enters the acute stage.

In general, symptoms of an acute condition can be divided into 5 groups:

• Emotional and mood changes: melancholy, anxiety, sudden attacks of fear, agitation, increased irritability, lack of emotions;

• Changes in physical well-being: sleep disorders (lack of sleep or excessive sleepiness), lack of appetite, constant fatigue, stiffness/weakness/tension in muscles, weight loss;
• Changes in behavior: avoidance of communication with people, distrust of people, withdrawal into oneself, departure from the usual daily routine, leaving home, unexpected expression of interest in unusual things (deepening into religion, interest in magic), impaired performance (impaired attention, decreased stability to stress), a sharp decline in activity, a careless attitude towards oneself, lack of energy, lack of initiative;
• Changes in thinking: chaos of thoughts, emptiness in the head, obsessive thoughts, other people’s thoughts in the head, thoughts are read/controlled by others, thoughts “jump”;
• Perception disturbances: noise and color are perceived distorted or amplified, the feeling that you or everything around you has changed, I see things that others do not see, I hear voices inside my head, I smell unusual smells, I have unpleasant sensations in the body, all events or the actions of other people relate to me, a feeling of surveillance, influence (other people have access to my thoughts, can control me), I can control the thoughts of other people.”

These are the main symptoms that may appear at the onset of a mental disorder. Based on the combination of these symptoms, doctors assess the condition and decide on hospitalization or the possibility of outpatient treatment.

How does mental illness develop? At this time, it is believed that many diseases of the psychotic spectrum (that is, severe ones) are chronic. That is, while we cannot completely cure the patient, we can achieve long-term or lifelong remission.

Causes of BPD

Among the possible reasons for the development of borderline disorder are violence of a different nature (verbal, sexual, physical) in childhood, the lack of necessary protection and support from one or both parents, the loss of a person who served as a teacher, the fact that the child cannot separate himself and others (in the psychological aspect). The causal links to the development of BPD are the subject of ongoing debate among psychologists. But stable relationships in the family where the child grows up have been proven to inhibit the development of the disorder.

Neurological characteristics based on differences in brain activity (responsible for increasing and suppressing emotional pain) have a stronger connection with borderline disorder.

To make a diagnosis, a psychological assessment or questioning of the patient about the nature of the symptoms, the degree of severity, and how they affect the patient’s life is used. In general, borderline personality disorder is manifested by emotional instability, disturbance or uncertainty of self-identification, impulses and preferences (also of the sexual type), a constant feeling of emptiness, a tendency to become involved in unstable and stressful relationships (leading to repeated affective crises), repeated attacks bodily harm and suicide threats.

The official diagnostic criteria according to ICD-10, adopted in the Russian Federation, classify borderline personality disorder as an emotionally unstable disorder and define it as follows:

1. behavioral and personal imbalance affecting the emotional sphere (external manifestations of emotions and feelings, control of motivation, perception and thought process, manner of relating to other people);
2. abnormal behavior of a chronic nature that arose a long time ago;
3. abnormal behavior is complete and disrupts socialization;
4. occurs in childhood or adolescence and continues into adulthood;
5. the disorder leads to distress, which becomes apparent only in the later stages;
6. usually (but not always) leads to significant deterioration in social and professional areas.

To be diagnosed with a disorder according to the criteria of one of the subtypes defined by ICD-10, it must meet at least three of the listed criteria.

According to the criteria of DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 (diagnosis adopted in the USA and some English-speaking countries), borderline personality disorder is expressed in instability of interpersonal relationships, identification of the “I”, affective instability, and obvious impulsivity. Symptoms first appear at a young age and are observed in many situations. In addition to the general personality disorder criteria, a diagnosis of borderline disorder requires five or more of the following:

1. Extreme persistence to avoid the fate (real or imagined) of abandonment.
2. The tendency to be involved in relationships characterized by tension, instability and extreme intensity, ranging from enthusiastic idealization to severe disappointment and loss of value.
3. Splitting of identity, obvious instability of the image and sense of “I”.
4. Impulsive actions observed in at least two areas where self-harm is expected (embezzlement, promiscuity, substance abuse, dangerous driving, eating disorders).
5. Recurrent suicide, threats or insinuations of suicide, causing bodily harm.
6. Emotional instability, sudden changes in mood.
7. Constant feeling of being lost.
8. Uncontrollable attacks of anger, constant irritability, inappropriate aggressiveness (fights).
9. Constant attacks of paranoia, clear signs of dissociation.

How does mental illness occur? What are the causes of the disease?

The basis of any chronic disease is a genetic predisposition (disorders in a certain set of genes). Every person at birth has a predisposition to one or another disease. For some, this is a predisposition to the development of physical diseases (for example, diabetes, heart disease, oncology), and for others, to mental disorders. We cannot yet predict the development of a particular disease in advance, but every person has a predisposition to any disease.

In turn, predisposition does not always lead to the development of the disease. In order for the disease to become more active, a set of external factors is required that trigger the onset of the disease or provoke its exacerbation. It is worth noting that usually it is not one factor that leads to the development of the disease, but a combination of them.

All factors that trigger the disease can be divided into three groups:

1. Biological: something that can have a physical effect on the body, on the nervous system: the use of surfactants, hormonal changes, childbirth, physical illness, poisoning/intoxication with harmful substances, brain injuries.
2. Social: factors associated with our life in society (in society): in the family, in the work collective, in the city, in the country, etc. What surrounds us in the outside world and has an impact on us: an unfavorable situation in the family or at work, the loss of a loved one, a sharp change in social status, moving to another city, emotional abuse from peers or the social environment, emergencies, disasters.
3. Psychological: what affects our inner comfort: our mood, sense of security, satisfaction.

Interestingly, any chronic disease develops according to this principle. This model of chronic disease development is often called the biopsychosocial model.

How to understand that it’s time for you or someone you know to see a psychiatrist

— I’ll start with the most important thing: how to recognize that a classmate or work colleague is a mentally ill person? Are there any signs that indicate this?

— A specialist will say this: a mentally ill person can only be identified by a combination of signs. While studying as an internship, I had an internship in the military examination department. We were faced with the following task: the conscript entered the office, said hello, then they told him: “Come out and wait,” and we had to give the conscript a diagnosis. We assessed everything: facial expressions, motor skills, appearance, eyes, intonation.

Workaholic is a diagnosis

Workaholism is a real disorder. Norwegian scientists came to this conclusion after finding out that...

26 May 09:22

Sometimes you can suspect something based on one single sign - let's say if a person suffers from hallucinations or illusions. For example, it seems to him that someone is constantly crawling on his skin. You can also pay attention to whether the person has any ideas.

- What ideas?

— There are three types of ideas: obsessive, overvalued and delusional. At the same time, a person can behave normally, but if suddenly during a conversation the topic of his nonsense is brought up, for example about secret government preparations or aliens, then he goes off the rails.

— It turns out that all people who believe in conspiracy theories can be classified as mentally ill?

- Not certainly in that way. It’s one thing to entertain the idea of ​​a government conspiracy or aliens, but another to make this idea the core of your worldview.

Another mentally unhealthy person can be suspected by deviations in intelligence - excuse me, morons (if we consider this word not a curse, but a term) are easy to recognize. It is also possible to recognize people with depression, although it is not always easy to understand whether it is just a bad mood or a condition affecting the area of ​​thinking.

Thoughts flow more slowly, speech sounds slower and quieter, and there is a mask of grief on the face.

Also, people who talk to themselves can sometimes be classified as mentally ill. True, you need to figure out whether the person is suffering from hallucinations or just has Bluetooth installed in his ear.

- But even healthy people often talk to themselves!

- Right. But you still need to clarify what caused this dialogue - the need to voice your thoughts or the desire to respond to an invisible interlocutor.

— You mentioned conscripts, but it often happens that they are the ones who pretend to be crazy, trying to get out of the army. How do psychiatrists recognize malingerers?

Jealousy is a reason for a medical examination

A 43-year-old resident of Turkey unreasonably began to be jealous of her faithful husband, with whom she had been married for 20...

April 25 11:10

— Compared to the 1990s, this practically does not happen now. Conscripts have many other options - for example, pretending that they have flat feet or some kind of skin disease. They pretend to be homosexuals less often - one day a man came to us who, on the contrary, changed his gender, became a guy and wanted to join the army.

- Was he allowed there?

- No, they didn’t let me in. And returning to the question of how psychiatrists recognize malingerers, here again there is no specific sign. Here the person also needs to be looked at and twisted. If a conscript feigns psychopathy, then you can find out from relatives whether the patient has always had a deviation or whether it just suddenly manifested itself. If doubts still remain, the issue can be resolved on an outpatient basis, without resorting to hospitalization in the examination department.

— Could it be that spouses live together for many years, and then it turns out that one of them is mentally unstable? If this is possible, then how does an unhealthy person manage to encrypt for so long?

— The point here is that the other half often mistakes the husband or wife’s deviations for normal behavior. After all, only hallucinations clearly manifest themselves - in the case of them it is difficult not to react.

We talked about delusional ideas, and sometimes the patient can present them in such a way that the spouse may believe. For example, an unhealthy person may claim that his neighbors are harming him - they are burning chemicals that smell through an outlet or ventilation. And the other half begins to believe and think that the neighbors are really up to something.

This is called induction - it can go so far as to cause the spouse to have similar delusional thoughts.

It is also easy not to notice that the other half is in a manic or depressive state when it is not very pronounced. It happens that a person just lies on the couch and doesn’t want to do anything, and then gets up and is ready to move mountains. The patient’s phase just changed...

Weekends are not for childbirth

Tuesday is the most favorable day for the birth of a child, but on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday babies...

26 November 14:28

— Are there signs that indicate that a person is not just depressed, but that it’s time to take him to a specialist?

— When a depressed state lasts for weeks and begins to interfere with work and doing something around the house, it’s time to see a doctor. Another alarming sign is if a person refuses food for several days in a row and begins to experience insomnia. And if, most importantly, he expresses thoughts that it is not worth living anymore. And not demonstratively, but as if into space: they say, there are no prospects. In this case, you need to call a specialist.

— By the way, about treatment for depression. There is an opinion that antidepressants are harmful and addictive...

— Antidepressants are supposed to be taken for six to eight months so that the mood clearly and for a long time gets into a rut. The mood of people with depression worsens due to disturbances in the biochemistry of the brain, and two weeks, like a runny nose, cannot “cure” your mood. And people think: they’ve been treating for a long time, they’ve hooked me up. But premature withdrawal of antidepressants can lead to everything returning to the very beginning.

There is no dependence on antidepressants. This is a horror story that lives among people who cannot be convinced. These people are looking everywhere for proof that they are right.

- Probably every person caught himself wondering if he was crazy. When should you start panicking and go to the doctor when unfamiliar voices enter your head?

- When a person is in prolonged depression. Three weeks of bad mood is a sign that it’s time for a consultation. Another signal that you need to go to a specialist is hallucinations.

Except for those that occur when falling asleep and waking up.

All the rest are the subject of work for a psychiatrist.

Another thing is that to a person who hears the same voices, these voices will say something else: stay at home and not approach doctors. Although some patients are so bothered by them that people turn to a psychiatrist.

— Who most often faces mental illness - men or women, workaholics or non-workers, single or family people?..

— Diseases that belong to major psychiatry and are caused by genetic factors, such as schizophrenia, are caused not by external, but by internal disorders. External factors, such as the presence or absence of work, can only influence the course of the disease. A person who is unsettled in life will, of course, suffer from exacerbations more often.

Pseudodiagnosis: how to avoid becoming a victim of a medical scam

How to understand that you are being deliberately misdiagnosed, are detox programs effective and why are we so fond of...

24 July 18:09

But as for minor psychiatry - neuroses and reactions to stress - here external factors play a leading role.

— I quite often came across publications stating that it is workaholics who most often encounter this minor psychiatry...

— Workaholics, rather, fall just a little beyond the boundaries of the norm. But not so much as to consider workaholism a disease and treat it.

— Are there any statistics on what professions people most often deal with minor psychiatry? Miners, journalists?

— A parallel could be drawn here.

There is a syndrome of emotional burnout, which most often affects doctors, teachers, and in some cases, journalists.

In general, take a boxer. Frequent brain damage leads to changes in character and emotions - a boxer can become hot-tempered or, conversely, apathetic. And his intellect and memory may also suffer over time.

— How can journalists avoid emotional burnout?

The end of a wonderful era

"Gazeta.Ru" provides an accessible and detailed account of the evolutionary mechanisms of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and...

21 July 15:23

— If you don’t feel at work that you are doing something important, necessary and promising, there is a risk of emotional burnout. My advice: you need to rest on time, and rest actively - not at home or in the country, but in a place where you will gain new emotions and impressions. Also, if you feel like you are being pulled into a routine, feel free to quit. Or look for opportunities for growth here, locally.

— Here’s a question: they often say that in the era of developing technologies, “there are more crazy people.” But before, when there was no cellular communication or Internet, everyone was much more balanced...

- Complex issue. Statistics on major diseases, schizophrenia for example, have not changed much. The numbers remained approximately the same.

As for minor psychiatry, the number has increased.

But it is not clear whether due to the fact that people began to value the quality of their lives more and see a doctor more often, or due to the fact that psychiatry stopped frightening patients and they began to be more willing to seek help. Another possibility is that patients and doctors have become more informed. The same Internet allows you to monitor more than communications did 30 years ago. Previously, statistics were collected very slowly, but now every little thing will be highlighted thanks to the Internet. Maybe because of this it seems that people suffer from neuroses more. After all, the media often like to catch something negative; this negative always increases ratings.

— And yet, parents always say: the Internet and computer games lead to neuroses...

- I wouldn't say that. This is, rather, a reaction from parents to the fact that children are distracted from reality by the virtual world. And this does not correspond to the habits of the parents, and with their criticism they try to somehow correct the situation with such reproaches.

— Even normal people often have problems with nerves - some endlessly tap their feet, others live in constant fear, others throw tantrums for no reason or without reason. Question: how to stop being nervous and start living?

— First of all, you need to understand for yourself what you are doing, why you are doing it, what your goal is in the future. It's important to take a break from your daily routine and decide what you want out of life. It’s also useful to just go and wash your face. If possible, take a shower. Go and even sign up for the pool. If this is not possible, walk around the city more often, walk in the park. This way you will emerge from work affairs and gain a little new impressions that will break up the routine a little. And calm your nerves at the same time.

— And specifically about tapping your foot, what could it mean?

Waiting for a hypoallergenic cat

More than 30% of the world's inhabitants suffer from allergies: some, like the cartoon cat Garfield, cannot eat raisins, others...

07 June 12:25

- In principle, kicking is nothing to worry about. It may mean that a person is trying to give vent to his emotions - most often negative. Knocking your foot also indicates a person’s desire to speak out. But the person realizes that he needs to restrain himself and simply shakes his leg. It can also indicate strong impatience.

It is worth advising everyone who knocks their feet to do some kind of physical activity - go for a swim, for example. Or just take a shower.

— How to raise a child in such a way that he does not develop any nervous disorders in the future?

“You just need to love the child.”

There is nothing you can give a child more than love.

A child must be loved and not prevented from taking from education and from the world around him what he is capable of taking.

But depressed parents should get treatment and not bring their negativity into the family.

Treatment of mental disorders at the ROSA clinic

If there is a genetic predisposition, vulnerability of the nervous system, as well as the influence of biological, psychological and/or social factors, a person may develop a mental illness. That is why, to stabilize the condition and achieve remission in the development of mental illness, the Rosa clinic uses a multidisciplinary approach to influence all three of these factors: psychiatrists influence the biological factor with modern medications, selecting individual treatment regimens; At the level of the psychological and social factors, a rehabilitation program is carried out by a professionally selected group of clinical psychologists and psychotherapists (trainings aimed at teaching methods of emotional regulation, development of psychological flexibility, formation of a critical, responsible attitude towards the disease, and also conduct activities on labor adaptation and motivation for social inclusion). Thus, by influencing these three aspects, we achieve stabilization of the condition and entry into remission.

Signs of low-grade schizophrenia in women

Unusual behavior is one of the clearest symptoms of the disorder:

• in severe cases, delusions develop (obsession with persecutors, poisoners, sometimes a person discovers “superpowers” ​​or an incurable disease, lack of internal organs) and hallucinations (perception of non-existent “voices”, smells, “visions”);
• a frequent symptom is a tendency to philosophize, strange cause-and-effect relationships, unusual, inverted logic; in random events a woman can see “symbols”, “signs”, “messages”;
• a characteristic symptom of schizophrenia is loss of self-control: the woman says that she no longer controls her thoughts, speech, emotions, body movements; her thoughts and body are “under the influence” of another person (relative, ill-wisher, alien, otherworldly force);
• irritability, asociality and unfriendliness (direct aggression in acute form);
• The opposite symptomatology also occurs - the woman becomes withdrawn, unemotional and loses interest in everything; work and hobbies are no longer pleasing, a woman no longer cares where to go, how to dress, what to eat - a person may not leave the house for days and literally not get up from the couch.

Types and forms of schizophrenia in women - episodic, paroxysmal, continuous. Schizophrenia can be mixed with symptoms of a mood disorder - depression or mania (schizoaffective disorder) - or occur in an erased, hidden form (schizotypal disorder). The type of schizophrenia and the severity of the disease will be accurately determined by a diagnosis from an experienced specialist.