Mental Health Disorders - Merck Manuals Consumer Version

Health Topics & Chapters

Overview of Mental Health Care
Mental health (psychiatric or psychologic) disorders involve disturbances in thinking, emotion, and/or behavior. Small disturbances in these aspects of life are common, but when such disturbances cause significant distress to the person and/or interfere with daily life, they are considered mental illness or a mental health disorder. The effects of mental illness may be long-lasting or temporary.
Anxiety and Stress-Related Disorders
Anxiety is a feeling of nervousness, worry, or unease that is a normal human experience. It is also present in a wide range of psychiatric disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias. Although each of these disorders is different, they all feature distress and dysfunction specifically related to anxiety and fear.
Dissociative Disorders
Occasionally everyone has minor problems integrating their memories, perceptions, identity, and consciousness. For example, people may drive somewhere and then realize that they do not remember the drive. They may not remember it because they are absorbed—with personal concerns, a program on the radio, or a conversation with a passenger—or are just daydreaming. Such problems, referred to as normal dissociation, typically do not disrupt everyday activities.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders involve a disturbance of eating or of behavior related to eating, typically including
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders are mental health disorders that involve emotional disturbances consisting of long periods of excessive sadness (depression), excessive joyousness or elation (mania), or both. Depression and mania represent the two extremes, or poles, of mood disorders.
Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
In body dysmorphic disorder, a preoccupation with one or more nonexistent or slight defects in appearance results in significant distress or impairs functioning.
Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are long-lasting, pervasive patterns of thinking, perceiving, reacting, and relating that cause the person significant distress and/or impair the person's ability to function.
Schizophrenia and Related Disorders
Schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders—brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder—are characterized by psychotic symptoms, and often by negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction.
Sexuality and Sexual Disorders
Sexuality is a normal part of human experience. However, the types of sexual behavior that are considered normal vary greatly within and among different cultures. In fact, defining “normal” sexuality may be impossible. There are wide variations in people’s sexual behavior, including the frequency of or need for sexual release. Some people desire sexual activity several times a day, but others are satisfied with infrequent activity (for example, a few times a year).
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
Somatic symptom and related disorders are mental health disorders characterized by an intense focus on physical (somatic) symptoms that causes significant distress and/or interferes with daily functioning.
Substance-Related Disorders
Drugs are an integral part of everyday life for many people, whether the drugs are used for legitimate medical purposes or recreationally (see table Drugs with Medical and Recreational Uses).
Suicidal Behavior and Self-Injury
Suicidal behavior includes completed suicide and attempted suicide. Thoughts and plans about suicide are called suicide ideation.
- Suicidal Behavior
- Nonsuicidal Self-Injury
  - Diagnosis
  - Treatment

INTERACTIVE

Mental Health Disorders