Mental Health Illnesses

There are many different types of mental health illnesses. In this section I am going to be explaining three mental health illnesses in detail. The three mental health illnesses that I have chosen to write about are; obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias and eating disorders.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Definition

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a mental health condition and a serious anxiety-related condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour. An obsession is an unwanted, unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters a person’s mind causing them anxiety. A compulsion is a repetitive behaviour or mental act that someone feels they need to carry out to try and prevent an obsession coming true. For example someone who is obsessively scared they will catch a disease may feel the need to have a shower every time they use a toilet. Most people with OCD experience both obsessions and compulsions. Only few people experience just obsessive thoughts and some people have compulsions without even knowing the reason why.

Prevalence

Obsessive compulsive disorder affects as many as 12 in every 1000 people (1.2% of the population) ranging from young children to adults. Obsessive compulsive disorder affects males and females equally. A person’s gender, social or cultural background does not increase the chance of anybody to suffer from this illness. In the UK population there are potentially around 741,503 people living with obsessive compulsive disorder at any one time based on the current estimates. On average OCD begins to affect people during late adolescence for men and their early twenties for women.

Symptoms

Symptoms from OCD can range from mild to severe. Some people with OCD may spend around an hour a day engaging in obsessive-compulsive thinking and behaviour whilst on the other hand some people may be affected so bad that it can completely take over their life. The condition can affect individuals differently; most people with the condition will fall into a set pattern of thought and behaviour. This pattern has four main steps. The four steps are; obsession, anxiety, compulsion and temporary relief. Obsession is when their mind is overwhelmed by a constant obsessive fear or concern, for example the fear of having your house broken into. Anxiety is caused by the obsession. Compulsion is when they adopt a certain pattern of compulsive behaviour to reduce the anxiety or distress. This can be done by checking that all of the windows and doors are locked at least three times before leaving the house. This then gives the person with the OCD temporary relief from the anxiety but the obsession and anxiety soon returns and the cycle then begins again.

Most people experience unwanted or unpleasant thoughts at some point in their life. Some people are able to put these thoughts and concerns into context and carry on with their day-to-day life and they do not repeatedly think about worries that mean little to the,. On the other hand others may have persistent unwanted and unpleasant thoughts that dominates their thinking to the extent it interrupts all of their other thoughts, this may mean that they have developed an obsession. Some common obsessions that affect people with OCD include; the fear of deliberately harming yourself or others, fear of harming yourself or others by mistake or accident, fear of contamination by disease, infection or an unpleasant substance, a need for symmetry or orderliness and dear of committing an act that would seriously offend your religious beliefs. Compulsions are ways to try and prevent the harm of obsessive thought at all. Compulsive behaviour that may affect people with OCD could be; cleaning, hand washing, checking doors, windows, locks appliances etc. counting, ordering and arranging, hoarding, asking for reassurance, needing to confess, repeating words silently, prolonged thoughts about the same subject and ‘neutralising’ thoughts to help counter the obsessive thoughts.

Causes

It is thought that there are many factors that are thought to play a part in OCD, for example genetics, brain abnormalities, life events, and lastly infections. Genetics is thought to play some part in a few cases of OCD. Research shows that OCD may be the result of certain inherited genes that can affect the brains development. There are no specific genes linked to OCD but there is some evidence that suggests that this condition can run in families. A person with OCD is four times likely to have another family member who has the same condition compared with someone who does not have OCD. The study that supports the idea that OCD can run in families is by Nestadt et al (2000), they identified 80 patients with OCD and 343 of their first-degree relatives and compared them with 73 control patients without mental illness and 300 of their relatives. The results show a strong familial link for the most common form of this disorder. They found that people with a first-degree relative with OCD (parent or siblings) had a five times greater risk of having the illness themselves at some time in their lives, compared to the general population. The genetic cause for OCD is also supported by twin studies. A meta-analysis of 14 twin studies of OCD found that on average identical twins were more than twice as likely to develop OCD if their co-twin and the disorder than was the case for non-identical twins (Bilett et al 1998). Looking at genetic and family studies such as Pauls and Leckman (1986), they studied patients with Tourette’s syndrome and their families and concluded that OCD is one form of expression of the same gene that determines Tourette’s. This shows that OCD can be related to other conditions.
However, life events can also trigger obsessive compulsive disorder. Life events can include events such as a person’s house being broken into and catching a disease or knowing someone who caught a disease. Someone having their house broken into can cause them to have OCD because they start to worry or panic and they have constant bad thoughts thinking that it may happen again. They then may start to check their windows and doors are locked a few times before leaving the house or going to bed. The fear of catching a disease or knowing someone that caught a disease can cause someone to have OCD because they will constantly clean their house and washing themselves more frequently. They may also change their plans around these thoughts or stop going to certain places they fear may infect them.
However, life events such as someone breaking may not affect everybody and cause anyone who has been broken into to get OCD. Being broken into, may not affect everyone the same, it may cause some to get OCD and others not to. This shows that it is not just life events that cause OCD as genetics could be the reason why a life event triggered OCD.

Resultant Health Needs

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A person’s physical health can be affected by an OCD, how a person is affected all depends on the type of OCD that they have. For example those who clean a lot will constantly wash their hands, they may wash their hands so much it causes them pain and sores on their hands. A person’s OCD can cause them to be stressed and not get very much sleep, hair loss, headaches etc.
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Cause them to have unpleasant thoughts most of the day causing them not to be able to think straight or to be able to concentrate on certain things to be able to learn new things.
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Having OCD can cause a person to become stressed, anxious and depressed as they are constantly having unpleasant thoughts repeatedly throughout the day.

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Having an OCD can affect somebody’s social life as they will be too busy carrying out repetitive behaviour or a mental act to try and prevent an obsession coming true that they may not have time to spend with friends or family or may not enjoy going out with the unpleasant thoughts. Those with OCD may stop going to school as they will be concentrating too much on their OCD and trying to prevent the obsession coming true or may be too stressed, depressed or anxious to go to school.

Phobias

Definition

The next mental health illness is phobias. A phobia is much more than just a simple fear. It develops when a person begins to organise their life around avoiding the thing that they are afraid of, whether it is an animal, object or situation. A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. A person with a phobia will experience an overwhelming need to avoid all contact with the source of their anxiety. Someone with a phobia can feel anxious or panic when they come into contact with the phobia or even just thinking about it. If the cause of a person’s phobia is an object or an animal that you do not come into contact with regularly such as a snake, it is unlikely to affect their day-to-day life.
Whereas someone with a much more complex phobia such as agoraphobia they will find it a lot more difficult to lead a normal life.

There are a wide range of different phobias which are then divided into two main categories which are; simple phobias and complex phobias. Simple phobias are fears that are about specific objects, animals, situations or activities. Some examples are dogs, spiders, snakes, enclosed spaces, doctors or dentists and flying. Not everybody is affected by phobias in the same way; different people are affected in different ways. There are some people that only react with mild anxiety when confronted with the object of their fear, whilst on the other hand others experience severe anxiety or may even have a severe panic attack. Complex phobias are much more disabling than simple phobias because they are very often associated with a deep-rooted fear or anxiety about a particular circumstance or situation. The two most common examples of complex phobias are agoraphobia and social phobia. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in a situation where escape may be difficult or help would not be available if anything was to go wrong. Someone with agoraphobia may have a fear of the following; travelling on public transport, visiting a shopping centre or in the most severe cases – leaving home. Social phobia is a fear of any social situations for example weddings or public speaking. Those with a social phobia have a fear of embarrassing themselves or being humiliated in public.

Prevalence

Phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder. In the UK alone is it estimated that there are around 10 million people that have a phobia. Phobias can affect anyone regardless of their age, sex, and social background. Simple phobias are usually started during early childhood between the ages of four and eight years old. An example would be going to the dentist. Simple phobias often disappear on their own as the child grows up, simple phobias rarely cause problems in adulthood. Complex phobias usually start later in life. The social phobias often begin during puberty and agoraphobia in the late teens to early twenties. Complex phobias are known to continue for many years.

Symptoms

All different phobias especially complex phobias can limit a person’s daily activities and may cause severe anxiety and depression. Those with this condition usually need to avoid contact with the thing that causes the fear and anxiety, how far someone with a phobia will go to avoid contact varies depending on the person. An example would be the fear of spiders; someone with this fear may not want to touch a spider, whilst on the other hand another person with the same fear may not even want to look at a picture of a spider.

There are physical symptoms of a phobia, panic attacks are very common, difficulty breathing, racing or pounding heart, chest pains or tightness, trembling or shaking, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, a churning stomach, hot or cold flashes, tingling sensation and sweating. Symptoms can often occur suddenly without any warning and can be very frightening and distressing. There are also emotional and psychological symptoms of a phobia. The emotional and psychological symptoms can include things such as feeling of overwhelming anxiety or panic, feeling an intense need to escape, feeling ‘unreal’ or detached from yourself, fear of losing control or going crazy, feeling like you’re going to die or pass out and knowing that you’re overreacting, but feeling powerless to control your fear. Another symptom can include the desire to flee or an intense instinct to leave the situation causing the anxiety or fear.

Causes

Phobias are usually developed during childhood, adolescence or early adulthood following a frightening event or stressful situation. But it is not always clear as to why some phobias occur. Simple phobias are thought to develop in early childhood experience. Such as, if a child became trapped in a confined space they may develop a phobia of enclosed spaces, usually known as claustrophobia, when they become older. Some phobias are thought to be caused by genetics. Research shows that having a family member with a phobia increases the risk that an individual will develop a similar or the same disorder. An example would be Fyer et al (1995) he found that those with phobias had three times as many relatives who also experiences phobias. Another example of a study would be Solyom et al (1974), he found that 45% of phobic patients had at least one relative with the disorder, compared to the rate of 17% of non-phobic people.

However, it is also said that there are behavioural causes for phobias. An example would be through conditioning. A study to support the theory that a phobia can be learned is by classical conditioning, the study is the Little Albert experiment. The Little Albert experiment was showing that fears are acquired when an individual associates a neutral stimulus (in this study a fluffy bunny) with a fear response. In this experiment the original unconditioned stimulus is a loud noise which was paired with the fluffy object, the fluffy object acquired the same properties as the loud noise so when Little Albert saw the fluffy object he cried. This experiment can explain why someone develops a fear of dogs after being bitten or develops a fear of social situations after having a panic attack in such a situation.

However, the behavioural causes or ‘learning the phobia’ can be linked with life events as being bitten by a dog, having a panic attack and having a loud noise linked with a fluffy object all comes under events that have happened then caused the phobia, so the behavioural causes are caused by life events as well.

Resultant Health Needs

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A person’s physical health can be affected by a phobia because they will have panic attacks when they think about their phobia or come into contact with it. Other physical affects a phobia has on someone is sweating, trembling, hot flushes, chills, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat etc.

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Having a phobia can affect someone’s intellectual health by making them constantly worry, thinking of ways to avoid their phobia. A phobia can make someone feel like they are losing control or going crazy.
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A person’s emotional health can be affected by a phobia because they become frightened and distressed at the sight or the thought of their phobia.
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Phobias can affect someone’s social health because if they have a severe phobia they will want to avoid the phobia at all costs, they will work their life around the phobia so they can avoid it as best they can. Also is a person has a social phobia they will not like being out in public places.

Eating Disorders

Definition

The last mental health illness I am going to write about is eating disorders. Eating disorders are characterised by abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour. A person with an eating disorder may focus excessively on their weight and shape, leading them to make very unhealthy choices about food that can have damaging results to their health. Eating disorders have conditions that can affect somebody physically, psychologically and socially.

There are three most common eating disorders. The most common eating disorders are: anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating. Anorexia nervosa is when someone tries to keep their weight as low as they possibly can. They do this by either starving themselves or exercising excessively or even in severe cases they do both. Bulimia is when someone tries to control their weight by binge eating and then deliberately making themselves sick or using some laxatives to empty out their bowels. Binge eating is when someone feels the need to overeat excessively.

Prevalence

Around 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men will experience anorexia nervosa as some point in their life. This condition usually develops around the ages of 16 to 17 years old. Bulimia is roughly five times more common than anorexia nervosa and 90% of those with bulimia are women. Bulimia usually develops in those ages around 18 to 19 years old. Binge eating usually affect both males and females equally and often appears later in life between the ages of 30 to 40 years old. It is not clear how wide spread binge eating is due to the difficulty of defining precisely what binge eating is.

Symptoms

It is difficult to notice whether someone has an eating disorder as they may be trying very hard to cover it up from anyone who may realise what they are doing. There are three types of warning signs. These are behavioural warning signs, physical warning signs and psychological warning signs.

The behavioural warning signs are constant or repetitive dieting such as calorie counting, fasting, and avoiding certain foods. Any evidence of binge eating this includes large amounts of food disappearing and food wrappers in the bin. Any evidence of vomiting or laxative abuse, such as frequent trips to the bathroom during or shortly after meal times. Excessive or compulsive exercise patterns not matter what the weather. Making loads of lists that include ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food. Changing food preferences, for example refusing to eat certain foods, claiming to dislike food they previously would have eaten etc. They may develop patterns or obsessive rituals around food preparation and eating. Those with eating disorders will try to avoid eating in any social situations. They may also change the types of clothes that they wear to much baggier clothing. You may also notice that they eat a lot slower than they used to as well as deny that they are hungry.

Physical warning signs may include things such as someone having sudden or rapid weight loss or frequent changes in a person’s weight. In females who have eating disorders they may lose or have a disturbed menstrual period, signs of frequent vomiting (swollen cheeks/jawline, calluses on knuckles or damage to teeth. You may also notice that those with eating disorders may feel faint or dizzy quite regular or be sensitive with the cold such as feeling cold most of the time even in the warmest of environments. Those with eating disorders will always feel tired and be unable to perform normal activities.

Psychological warning signs include signs such as an increased preoccupation with body shape, weight and appearance, an intense fear or gaining weight, constant preoccupation with food or with activities relating to food, extreme body dissatisfaction or negative body image, distorted body image, a heightened sensitivity to comments or criticism about body shape or weight, eating or exercise habits. Those with eating disorders will have a heightened anxiety around meal times, they may feel rather depresses and anxious, they will also be very moody or irritable. They will have a low self-esteem, a rigid ‘black and white’ thinking which is viewing everything as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, they may feel as though their life is ‘out of control’, or feel as though they are unable to control their behaviour around food and lastly having a fear of growing up or taking on any adult responsibility.

Causes

Eating disorders are mainly blamed on social pressures to be thin as young people often feel that they should fit in with everybody else around them. The cause of eating disorders is usually much more complex. It is believed that there may be some biological or influencing factors combined with experiences that may have caused eating disorders. Some risk factors that can cause someone to be more likely to develop an eating disorder is having a family history of eating disorders, depression or substance misuse. If a person is constantly criticised about their eating habits and behaviour that could potentially cause harm to their health. Experiences such as sexual or emotional abuse or the death or a relative could affect somebody’s eating habits. Even stressful situations or problems in places such as work, school and university can possibly be the cause of an eating disorder. There are psychological causes for eating disorders such as cultural ideals; it is believed that western standards of attractiveness are an important contributory factor to the development of anorexia nervosa. Many studies have reported that many teenagers, mainly girls, are dissatisfied with their weight and have a distorted view of their body image. The national diet and nutrition survey of young people (Gregory et al 2000) found that 16% of 15-18 year old girls in the UK were ‘currently on a diet’.

However, neurodevelopment is also believed to be a cause for eating disorders. The studies I looked at to support the view that neurodevelopment could cause eating disorders were pregnancy and birth complications. Lindberg and Hjern (2003) found a significant association between premature birth and development of anorexia nervosa. This is because birth complications may lead to brain damage caused by lack of oxygen, impairing the neurodevelopment of the child. Also nutritional factors may be implicated if their mothers have an eating disorder. Bulik et al (2005) suggested that mothers with anorexia nervosa expose their offspring to a ‘double disadvantage’ as they pass on a genetic vulnerability to anorexia nervosa and an inadequate nutrition during pregnancy.

Resultant Health Needs

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Eating disorders can affect someone’s physical health because those with anorexia nervosa and bulimia will lose loads of weight quite frequently making them look an unhealthy weight. Binge eaters could put on quite a bit of weight from all the food that they eat making them unfit. Those with eating disorders will get out of breath easy, get ill regularly at they are not getting the vitamins and nutrients that their body needs
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Not eating regularly or not eating healthy food the body needs can prevent a person’s intellectual health from expanding as they will be too tired to concentrate and learn at school, work or college etc. Those with eating disorders will have constant thoughts in their head about their weight and how they want to look making them always have bad thoughts going through their head
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A person’s emotional health can be affected by eating disorders because they may feel upset with the way their body looks, they will have mood swings that they cannot control, they may also become depressed wanting to change their body and seeing a distorted view of their body
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An eating disorder can affect a person’s social health because they will be lying to their friends and family about eating and may try to avoid them so they do not realise the weight loss they have been through as they may worry and panic