• Anxiety disorders
  • Excessive worrying
  • Sleep problems
  • Irrational fears
  • Muscle tension
  • Chronic indigestion
  • Stage fright
  • Self-consciousness
  • Panic (attacks)
  • Flashbacks
  • Perfectionism
  • Compulsive behaviors
  • Self-doubt

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• Mood disorders
  • Depression
    • Persistent sad, anxious or “empty” mood
    • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
    • Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
    • Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
    • Sleeping too much or too little, early morning awakening
    • Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
    • Decreased energy, fatigue, feeling “slowed down”
    • Restlessness, irritability
    • Difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions
    • Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as: headaches, digestive disorders, constipation, and chronic pain
    • Thoughts of death or suicide

• Bipolar disease
  • Abnormally elevated mood, hyperactivity
  • Severe insomnia, no apparent need for sleep
  • Grandiose notions, may be accompanied by delusions of grandeur
  • Irritability
  • Increased talking, speaking
  • Racing thoughts, accelerated thinking
  • Increased activity, including sexual energy
  • Markedly increased energy
  • Poor judgment that leads to risk-taking behavior
  • Inappropriate social behavior

• Dysthymia Depression
  • Feels hopeless
  • Low self-esteem
  • Fatigue or low energy
  • Sleep disturbance
  • Appetite disturbance
  • Poor concentration
  • Indecisive

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• Schizophrenia/psychotic disorders (serious brain disorder and is characterized by a profound disruption in cognition and emotion)
  • Cannot start or maintain conversations
  • Minimal flow of thought
  • Lack of motivation
  • Unable to feel pleasure
  • Minimal self-care and grooming

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• Dementias (disturbance of conscience such as memory loss and a decline in intellectual and physical functioning)
  • Cannot show feelings (flat effect)
  • Cannot start or maintain conversations
  • Minimal flow of thought
  • Lack of motivation
  • Unable to feel pleasure
  • Minimal self-care and grooming

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• Eating disorders.
  • Anorexia Nervosa (self-starvation)
    • Emaciation
    • A restless pursuit of thinness
    • Unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy body weight
    • Distortion of body image
    • Intense fear of gaining weight
    • Eating, food and weight control become obsessions
    • Other symptoms include: thinning of the bones, brittle hair and nails, dry/yellowish skin, growth of fine hair over body, mild anemia/muscle weakness, severe constipation, low blood pressure/slowed breathing and pulse, drop in internal body temperature causing a person to feel cold all the time, lethargy.
  • Bulimia Nervosa (binge eating followed by purging or excessive exercising)
    • Recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food
    • Feeling a lack of control over the eating
    • Behavior to “compensate” for the binge eating such as purging, fasting and/or excessive exercise.
    • Other symptoms include: chronically inflamed and sore throat, swollen glands in the neck and below the jaw, worn tooth enamel; decaying teeth due to exposure to stomach acids, intestinal distress and irritation from laxative abuse, kidney problems from diuretic abuse, severe dehydration from purging of fluids.
  • Binge Eating Disorder (untrollable consumption of food)
    • Recurrent binge eating episodes during which a person feels a loss of control over his or her eating
    • Binge eating is NOT followed by purging, excessive exercise or fasting
    • Often overweight or obese
    • Experiences guilt, shame and/or distress about the binge eating, which can lead to more binge eating.
    • Other symptoms include: co-occurring psychological illnesses such as anxiety, depression and personality disorders; cardiovascular disease, hypertension.

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Mental illnesses among teens are not frequently talked about, yet they affect a majority of the population. According to TeenMentalHealth.org, 20 percent of the population suffers from a mental illness. That’s one in every five people. To put this in perspective, there are approximately 520 students at Wahlert. If one out of every five students suffered from a mental illness, 104 of our students would be battling a mental illness.

Many mental illnesses remain unknown to individuals. For some, symptoms can be so subtle that people believe what they are going through is normal. For others, symptoms can be so intense that it can be hard to function. The list of illnesses appears to be endless.

There are five major categories of mental illnesses, which include but are not limited to anxiety disorders, eating disorders, dementias, mood disorders, and schizophrenia/psychotic disorders. Each disorder has specific symptoms (for more information, see the boxes next to this story).

Adolescents often develop different habits to help cope with their mental state, whether they are aware of their condition or not. Many result in substance abuse, intense fear of weight gain, a constant negative behavior or attitude, inability to cope with daily problems, frequent outbursts of anger, and uneven sleeping patterns.

These symptoms are just signs, not a way to diagnose oneself. If signs or symptoms are present in your life, or the life of someone close to you, encourage them to seek professional help. There may not always be cures, but there are ways of managing.