Mental Health

1. Mental health relates to your brain’s ability to think clearly, overcome problems and maintain a positive perspective about yourself, family, and friends.

2. Mental illness causes mild to severe disturbances in thinking, resulting in the inability to cope with life’s ordinary demands.

3. Schizophrenia is the most disabling and serious of the mental illnesses, ranging from poor reasoning, hallucinations and delusions to complete withdrawal.

4. Phobia is an anxiety that is related to a specific situation such as the fear of flying, open or public spaces, small closed in spaces, and/or spiders or snakes.

5. OCD is characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions such as checking the stove to make sure the gas is off and washing hands over and over.

6. Obsession consists of unwanted thoughts or images that take control the mind such as fear of contamination, dirt, and/or having things orderly and symmetrical.

7. Compulsion is a repetitive behavior such as washing and cleaning, counting, or following a strict routine.

8. Anxiety is a fear that does not pose as much threat as you think such as public speaking, bridges, tunnels, and flying in airplanes.

9. Bi-Polar is a mood disorder that consists of shifts between depression and manic which makes them overly excited and restless; between these shifts the person may behave normally.

10. Panic attacks happen suddenly and unexpectedly and consists of rapid heartbeat, chest pounding, dizziness, and/or severe anxiety.

11. PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) occurs when the person experiences flashbacks or nightmares from a terribly frightening, life- threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience.

12. Depression is an emotional state in which a person feels extremely sad and hopeless.

13. Clinical depression symptoms are feeling sad and hopeless for months, being able to enjoy activities that were once enjoyable and sometimes unable to accomplish daily tasks.

Eating Disorders

1. Anorexia occurs when a person doesn’t eat enough to maintain a health body weight.

2. Bulimia occurs when a person has uncontrolled eating binges followed by purging.

3. Purging is an inappropriate methods of weight control such as self induced vomiting, using laxatives or diuretics.

4. Binging is eating an unusually large amount of food at one time.

5. Binge eating disorder is eating unusually large amounts of food at one time and the person does not purge.