BASIC WAYS IN WHICH HUMAN MINDS CAN DYSFUNCTION

When a child is born, the mind is not fully developed. In the early years of growth, there is a lot of physical and mental development that happens. The brain of a human fully develops after a few years of birth and after that, there are only modifications that can happen.

The basic mind is developed and the person can only acquire traits and learn new things. Once the mind is fully developed, it starts to control the thoughts, emotions, etc. of the person. The individual grows, learns, adapts, and modifies their behavior for life but the basic functioning of the brain cannot be changed.

A lot of times, when the mind is evolving or completely evolved, it may develop certain tendencies to dysfunction too. There are various mental disorders that can develop after a certain age in an individual, depending on the working of their mind and also their experiences as they grow up.

Some disorders need special care and treatment or they can become a threat to the overall wellbeing of an individual. Talking therapy can be a common starting point for almost all kinds of mental illnesses including depression and OCD treatment.

For other mental illnesses, one may need the help of medications or even electroconvulsive therapy sometimes. Therapy or counseling may involve a professional counselor who can try to work on the thoughts and emotions of an individual using various techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy.

Broadly speaking, there are some few ways in which a human mind can show symptoms of illnesses or dysfunctioning. These are:

ANXIETY DISORDERS

One of the most common types of mental disorders is the ones in which the individual experiences bouts of anxiousness or feeling panic at times, in such a way that it starts to affect the quality of their life and interferes with their routine and daily life.

Anxiety disorders can be of various types and some may require special treatment if it reaches a point when the individual starts to compromise on the quality of his life and emotions, and his relationships. Some common ways in which anxiety disorders manifest in people are:

● OCD: Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD disorder happens when an individual has uncontrollable urges to perform certain activities or follow certain routines. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder may start by just being extremely careful about how they place their things and after a while, they may just start to feel anxious if they see a couple of things lying around, not kept in order.

Ocd treatment needs to begin with simple counseling or therapy sessions and if the situation cannot be handled with talking, the individual may need to be put on medications.

● PANIC DISORDERS: another way that the mind of anxiety-prone people can become dysfunctional is when people experience extreme anxiety from time to time to such an extent that their heartbeat fluctuates, they may start to get nauseous or some other clear physical indications of being anxious.

Most panic disorders are related to unhealed traumas and any similar experience can cause the individual to experience anxiety. Therapy can help and do wonders for people with panic disorders.

MOOD DISORDERS

Another common mental disorder is the one related to the mood of an individual. Some examples of mood-related disorders are:

● DEPRESSION: one of the most common mental illnesses that are affecting even the youth these days is depression. This disorder is characterized by various things and it may start with very subtle indications like change in appetite, weight gain, weight loss, or change in sleeping patterns.

If an individual is suffering from depression then he may feel hopeless at times, may not feel like getting involved with people, and may even cut them off from friends and family.

If developed further, depression may even cause an individual to commit suicide or inflict harm to themselves. Therapy can help in the beginning stages but if serious, the person may need to be put on medications.

● BIPOLAR DISORDER: this is characterized by extreme changes in the mood of an individual. Particularly, it may even be so that a person feels like crying one moment, and right after a few minutes, they catch themselves laughing. Bipolar disorder is also a common mental illness that causes the individual to experience mood swings.

There may be periods of mania or feeling very happy followed by feeling very low or even depressed in some cases. The treatment for bipolar disorder may include lifelong counseling or therapy sessions in some cases or sometimes, using medications.