It’s not all in the mind !!
This is not a blog where I am going to talk about Mental Health and how it is necessary to talk about it! We all know that. In this blog, I want to tell you guys about Psychiatry and how decisions should be taken pertaining to your mental health!
Psychiatry Illnesses and their Classifications:
Psychiatry is a branch of medicine which deals with disorders of mental health. Like all other medical specialities, common psychiatric disorders can be broadly divided into:
A) Neurotic Disorders
B) Psychotic disorders
The main difference between the two categories is the awareness of reality. Let us explain this a bit better:
A) Neurotic Disorders:
Neurotics patients who are acutely aware of their symptoms. For e.g. when someone is depressed, they are able to report sadness, disinterest in work, lethargy, sleep disturbances, impact on social and professional life etc., etc.. This awareness (of symptoms), makes it more likely for them to seek help.
B) Psychotic Disorders:
In both these categories, awareness is just one of the many aspects that determines illness behaviour. Patients might realise that they are depressed or anxious, but would still not agree to seek help.
Social stigma, feeling weak, false pretext of being strong are some of the reasons for this avoidance behaviour.
Presentation of Psychiatric Illnesses:
The presentation can vary significantly.
Most people are aware of how depression and anxiety manifests. Albeit they are the most common and widely recognised, they are not the only psychiatric illness.
Psychotic patients, make up the other end of the spectrum. They could be violent, aggressive, suspicious of everyone around them. Severe cases could present with complete isolation, not being able to have a continuous conversation, poor hygiene and malnourishment.
Auditory hallucinations: Hearing voices that others don’t, is a very common symptom in psychotic states. Hallucinations might make them do actions that are very unpredictable, resulting in self harm or harm to others.
Another e.g. Of altered reality states is a manic patient. A patient in a mania state has raised self-esteem, talks excessively, has a lot of energy, needs very less sleep, gets frequently irritated and often engages in risky behaviour such as gambling or sexual behaviour.
Such patients are suffering from a serious form of psychiatric illness. Given the lack of awareness about their illness, please do not expect them to listen to you, understand consequences or take sensible decisions. These illnesses require proper treatment and any attempt to persuade them/convince them to change/correct their behaviour would be futile.
SUCH PATIENTS ARE NOT CANDIDATES FOR COUNSELLING.
THEY HAVE A BIOLOGICAL ABNORMALITY, LIKE ANY OTHER ILLNESS, WHICH REQUIRES MEDICINES FOR ADEQUATE TREATMENT.
DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A DISABILITY OF INTELLIGENCE. It is an illness and has nothing to do with how intelligent, educated, smart or productive the patient is, or has been.
💡 Let the Psychiatrist assess the patient and give their expert opinion. Do NOT rely on YOUR RELATIVES, FRIENDS OR “AAJU BAJU WAALE LOG’.
The division I explained is a broad categorisation for the simple understanding of Psychiatry and psychiatric disorders.
I hope it covers a few doubts that people have about psychiatry. I am trying my bit to bring actual awareness of the subject. I am open for questions if you have any, I shall be explaining disorders in detail as well in the further blogs.