FAQ’S

Generally speaking, our mental health refers to our state of mind and our ability to cope with the everyday things that are going on around us. Someone with ‘good’ mental health usually feels capable of dealing with the different everyday situations that they find themselves in. When we have a mental illness, this process is often a lot more difficult. Mental illnesses are really common in Australia and about 1 in 4 people between the ages of 14-25 will experience mental illness at some point.

Keep in mind that this is a simplified definition of mental health and that it’s totally normal for everyone to have mental health issues – that is, to go through ups and downs. It is only when the difficulties start to hang around for a while and it feels like nothing can make them go away that they may be considered a mental illness.

Diagnosing a mental illness is no easy task as there are a huge range of factors that need to be considered. It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of a mental illness, and it’s often likely to be a combination of a few different things. Some of the things that may contribute to mental health issues are:

• Biological factors – mental illnesses can be passed on genetically from parents to their children. Hormones are another biological factor that can be responsible for changes in our mental health.
• Brain injuries – such as falling and hitting one’s head, can also cause damage when the soft tissue of the brain forcefully hits the hard bone of the skull. A person’s brain function in that area of the blow can be afftected. Research has shown that sometimes traumatic brain injuries, sometimes even minor ones, can be a major cause of psychiatric illness and can go untreated because the problem can’t be identified by traditional behavioral health treatment. – See more at: http://insightbulletin.com/spect-imaging-and-dr-amen-the-controversy/#sthash.EfcBHrs8.dpuf.
• Early life events – traumatic events that happened when we were younger, such as neglect or abuse, can have a strong influence on our mental health later in life.
• Recent life events – there are lots of events that can affect our mental health, such as persistent stress from study or work, or a traumatic event such as the loss of a loved one.
• Internal factors – mental illnesses can also be influenced by thoughts and feelings that come from inside of us, as opposed to from our surroundings. This can include things like our body image and self-esteem.
• Misuse of drugs – drugs, including alcohol, have all sorts of different effects on our brain and the results are very unpredictable. One of the common effects of consuming too many drugs is a negative impact on our mental health.

There are some things to look out for when it comes to detecting a mental illness. However, it’s also really important to remember that a lot of the tell-tale signs of mental illnesses are just a part of life at some point or other for the vast majority of us. Some of the signs are:

• loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy doing
• feeling worried
• constantly being in a bad mood
• having trouble sleeping, or sleeping way more than usual
• crying for no apparent reason
• feeling ‘down’
• lack of motivation
• having trouble concentrating
• changes in eating habits
• having trouble performing at school or at work
• substance abuse
• having trouble coping with or participating in everyday activities.

If you’re experiencing any of these, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something serious going on, but it’s worth having a chat to someone you trust about it. If you have been experiencing many of these symptoms over a long period of time, it’s a good idea to chat to someone you trust and set up an appointment with your GP to talk it over. (Source)

Anger – If you’re getting angry often, or for no reason, people avoid upsetting you and complain they need to “walk on eggshells around you”, you may have an anger problem. It may be a symptom of a more serious issue, such as depression. If your anger comes out in violent ways, or you’re physically lashing out, you should talk to someone you can trust who can help you.

Anxiety – Anxiety can mean constant and unrealistic worry about any aspect of daily life. If you are feeling anxious, you may feel restless, experience sleeping problems and possibly physical symptoms; for example, an increased heart beat, an upset stomach, muscle tension or feeling shaky. If you are highly anxious, you may also develop related problems, such as panic attacks, a phobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Depression – Depression lowers your mood, and can make you feel hopeless, worthless, unmotivated and exhausted. It can affect self-esteem, sleep, appetite and libido. It can also interfere with daily activities and, sometimes, your physical health. In its mildest form, depression can mean just being in low spirits. It doesn’t stop you leading a normal life, but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, major depression (clinical depression) can be life-threatening, and make you feel suicidal. Depression can be related to certain experiences. One form is postnatal depression, which can occur after childbirth.

Eating problems – If you have an eating problem, you may find yourself eating too much or too little. You may deny yourself anything to eat, even when you are very hungry, or you may eat constantly, or binge. The subject of food or how much you weigh is likely to be on your mind all the time. Anorexia, bulimia, bingeing and compulsive eating are some of the most common eating problems.

Panic attacks – These are bouts of intense, often very frightening symptoms, usually lasting between 5 and 20 minutes. If you experience a panic attack, you may find it hard to breathe, and feel your heart beating hard. You may have a choking sensation, chest pain, begin to tremble or feel faint. It’s easy to mistake these for the signs of a heart attack or another serious medical problem. Panic attacks can occur at any time, and this is what makes them different from a natural response to real danger.

Phobias – A fear becomes a phobia when you have an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation (such as going outside) or object (such as buttons). You will often begin to organise your life around avoiding the thing that you fear. The symptoms of phobias are similar to anxiety, and in and in severe forms you might experience panic attacks.

Schizophrenia – You may receive this diagnosis if you have symptoms such as confused thoughts, hearing voices or seeing and believing things that others don’t. This diagnosis can be controversial as not all people who experience such things believe they have a mental health problem or that the term ‘schizophrenia’ is the best way to describe their experiences.

Self esteem – It’s totally normal for people to feel down about themselves from time to time, but when these feelings start to hang around all the time it’s usually an indication of low self-esteem. If you have low self-esteem it means that you have negative ideas about your worth and value as a person. There are various signs of low self-esteem, including:  being really critical of yourself, focusing on the negatives and ignoring your accomplishments, comparing yourself to others, not accepting any compliments that you receive, negative self-talk.

Self harm – Self-harm is a way of expressing very deep distress where you take actions to cause yourself physical pain. You may not know why you self- harm, but it can be a means of communicating what you can’t put into words or think clearly about. After self-harming, you may feel better able to cope with life again, for a while, but the cause of your distress is unlikely to have gone away.

Stress – Stress is the body’s way of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with focus, strength, stamina, and heightened alertness. The human body responds to events that provoke stress (stressors) by activating the nervous system and specific hormones, releasing more of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream. These hormones speed up heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. The physical changes prepare you to react quickly and effectively to handle the pressure of the moment. This natural reaction is known as the stress response. Working properly, the body’s stress response improves your ability to perform well under pressure.

Some signs you need to manage your stress:

Mentally / emotionally you may feel:

hostile, angry, or irritable,

anxious,

like avoiding people,

moody or frustrated with things that normally don’t bother you,

worthless or doubting your abilities

Physically you may feel:

upset stomach, diarrhoea, or indigestion

headache

backache

having a hard time sleeping

eating more or less than normal

raised heart-rate

You might get only a few of these things, but any of them could be a sign your stress is getting out of control.

Reference: http://au.reachout.com

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is an intensive, short-term (six to 20 sessions), problem-oriented approach. It was designed to be quick, practical and goal-oriented and to provide people with long-term skills to keep them healthy.

The focus of CBT is on the here-and-now—on the problems that come up in a person’s day-to-day life. CBT helps people to look at how they interpret and evaluate what is happening around them and the effects these perceptions have on their emotional experience.

Childhood experiences and events, while not the focus of CBT, may also be reviewed. This review can help people to understand and address emotional upset that emerged early in life, and to learn how these experiences may influence current responses to events.

According to CBT, the way people feel is linked to the way they think about a situation and not simply to the nature of the situation itself. 

Aaron T. Beck, the father of CBT, described the negative thinking patterns associated with depression (i.e., critical thoughts about oneself, the world and the future) in his early writings. He also outlined ways to target and reduce negative thoughts as a way to improve mood. In later work, Beck and his colleagues focused on the content and processes of thought related to anxiety and ways to treat anxiety problems. Since its creation, CBT has expanded into one of the most widely used therapeutic approaches.

What happens in CBT?

In CBT, you learn to identify, question and change the thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions related to your problematic emotional and behavioural reactions to certain kinds of situations.

By monitoring and recording your thoughts during situations that lead to emotional upset, you learn that the way you think can contribute to emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. In CBT, you learn to reduce these emotional problems by:

• identifying distortions in your thinking
• seeing thoughts as ideas about what is going on rather than as facts
• “standing back” from your thinking to consider situations from different viewpoints.

For CBT to be effective, you must be open and willing to discuss your thoughts, beliefs and behaviours and to participate in exercises during sessions. For best results, you must also be willing to do homework between sessions.

Source: https://knowledgex.camh.net/amhspecialists/resources_families/Documents/cbt_guide_en.pdf