Related Areas of Mental Health

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Borderline Personality Disorder - click for more information

This is a serious mental illness characterised by instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image and behaviour.  This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning and the individual's sense of self indentity.  People with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotional regulation.  People who have BPD often need extensive mental health services but they can lead productive lives as their situation improves eventually over time.

Anorexia Nervosa - Click for more information

This is a life-threatening eating disorder defined by a refusal to maintain a body weight that is below the individuals minimal body weight.  Other features that the person suffering from anorexia may present with are an intense fear of gaining weight, a distorted body image, absence of a period in women.  Sometimes the person may starve and binge - purge.  This can lead to physical bodily harm.  The person with anorexia is usually hungry, but they control their eating.  This is a condition that can be treated and it may be beneficial for the person suffering from this condition to look at their relationship skills and their thought processes.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder - Click for more information

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life threatening events eg. military combat, natural disasters, serious accidents or violent assaults like rape.  People who suffer from PTSD often relive their experiences through nightmares and flashbacks, they can have difficulty sleeping, have feelings of detachment and can be severe enough to impair the person's daily life.  There is no definitive treatment or "cure" but with certain courses of action there can be improvement to the person's life.

Manic Depression  - Click  for more information

Someone with manic depression may swing from moods of deep depression to periods of overactive, excited behaviour known as mania.  Between these severe highs and lows there may be relatively stable times, though that isnt always the case.  Some people may also hear or see things that others do not(audio/visual hallucinations). The person with manic depression may quickly build up debts, talk quickly, be easily irritated and become angry quite quickly.  Personally they may be unaware of their behaviour.  There are many supposed causes of manic depression but nothing is certain.  There is help available via support groups, medication etc.

Dissociative Disorder - Click for more information

Your sense of identity, reality and continuity depend on your feelings, thoughts, sensations, perceptions and memories.  If these become 'disconnected' from each other or dont register in your conscious mind, it changes your sense of who you actually are, what your memories are, the way things happen around you - this is what happens during dissociation.  It is a defence mechanism and has a primary function of helping people to survive traumatic experiences.  There are different forms of dissociation - depersonalisation is most frequent in those that self injure as there is an 'out of body' experience.  A common form of treatment is by trying to bring your thoughts, feelings, memories, perceptions and sensations together and reconnect them.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Click for more information

People who suffer from OCD have the feeling they have no control over certain thoughts or ideas, which seem to force themselves into consciousness.  These repeated thoughts - obsessions- are usually frightening and can be distressing.  They can also seem unacceptable to others and the person will not share their problem with others.  One important feature os these thoughts is the fear that harm may somehow come to them or other people and that they must try to prevent this.   This creates severe anxiety - the only way to rid of this anxiety is to perform a ritual or an act, like opening and closing a door a certain number of times etc.  The need to carry out these rituals is a compulsion.  Anxiety is only temporarily cured by these rituals.  There is no immediate cure but there are a number of treatments and coping strategies that can be used.

Anxiety - Click here for more information

This is something so many of us experience from time to time.  A certain amount of anxiety is normal when trying to deal with exams and jobs - its part of life.  But Anxiety can become unhealthy and appear to begin to take control over our lives.  Anxiety can stop you leaving your home, going out to do simple tasks like shopping, it can seem to stop you from leading your life.  Anxiety can be triggered by previous stressful events or it can seem to appear from nowhere.   There is no magic cure for Anxiety, like many conditions.  But there are ways in which we can try and reduce our anxiety or begin to cope with it in a more effective and positive way for ourselves.  Making life that bit easier for ourselves.