Anxiety disorders

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (constantly feeling anxious, worried, on edge, hard to relax, irritable)
• Panic Attacks (heart pounding, difficulty breathing, sweating, feeling as if you are going to die)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (following serious threat or harm to your personal self or witnessing serious harm or threat to another, symptoms include nightmares, flashbacks, fear of things that remind you of the event)
• Phobias (fears of specific things such as heights, snakes, bridges, elevators, closed spaces, public speaking)
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (obsessive thoughts, impulses or images that reoccur and are distressing such as fears that one has harmed someone, fears that germs are present, images that are unpleasant, impulses to perform an act, etc. and compulsive behaviors such as counting, checking or washing excessively)

Depressive disorders:

• Major Depressive Disorder/Episode: period of two weeks or more in which you feel persistently sad most of the time and may experience boughts of crying, thoughts of death, impulses to harm oneself, feelings of excessive guilt or shame, changes in appetite or sleep, difficulty thinking clearly and/or making decisions, changes in appetite, changes in energy level, loss of interest in sex
• Dysthymia: period of two years or more in which for most of the time there is a persistent sad mood. May or may not also include Major Depressive Episodes (see above)
• Complicated Bereavement: loss of a loved one that lead to grieving and bereavement that does not resolve in the typical fashion (does not get easier over time and/or has a sever impact on ones’ ability to function)

Bipolar disorder:

• Significant changes in mood, sometimes rapid, from expansive, grandiose, talkative, not needing sleep, engaging in risky behaviors (stealing, promiscuity, excessive spending, etc). alternating with periods of depressive symptoms (see above). Not caused by drug usage.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:

• Some symptoms must have been present in childhood and may include: difficulty sustaining attention and concentration, possible physical hyperactivity (not necessary for the diagnosis to be made), daydreaming excessively, poor organizational skills, losing items frequently, difficulty performing monotonous/boring tasks. Must seriously impair functioning both in the personal sphere/home life and work or school sphere. Not caused by a learning disability.

Important statistics about mental health diagnoses:

• Major Depressive Disorders have an 80% recovery rate within 2 years
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder has a 20% recovery rate within 2 years
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder cause the same level of work and personal life dysfunction as advanced coronary artery disease
• Lifestyle changes, including managing interpersonal relationships and stress well, are cornerstones to treating Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• The risk of recurrence for Major Depressive Disorder is
• 50% after the first episode
• 70% after the second episode
• 90% after the third episode
• If only partial recovery occurs with a Major Depressive Disorder then the likelihood of future episodes increases
• The earlier a Major Depressive Disorder is treated, the more likely that the treatment will be effective
• Psychotherapy has been shown to change levels of serotonin, the brain chemical involved in depression. This is the same mechanism that drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft,  Effexor and other SSRI’s work by.
• Studies show that antidepressant medications and psychotherapy both work equally well for psychological problems (this may not apply to some diagnoses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder which have a stronger genetic component)