A psychiatric disorder is a mental illness diagnosed by a mental health professional that greatly disturbs your thinking, moods, and/or behavior and seriously increases your risk of disability, pain, death, or loss of freedom.
In addition, your symptoms must be more severe than expected response to an upsetting event, such as normal grief after the loss of a loved one.
Examples of ongoing signs and symptoms of psychiatric disorders include:
- Confused thinking
- Reduced ability to concentrate
- Deep, ongoing sadness, or feeling “down”
- Inability to manage day-to-day stress and problems
- Trouble understanding situations and other people
- Withdrawal from others and from activities you used to enjoy
- Extreme tiredness, low energy, or sleeping problems
- Strong feelings of fear, worry, or guilt
- Extreme mood changes, from highs to lows, often shifting very quickly
- Detachment from reality (delusions), paranoia (the belief that others are “out to get you,”) or hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t there)
- Marked changes in eating habits
- A change in sex drive
- Drug or alcohol abuse
- Excessive anger, hostility, and/or violence
- Suicidal thinking
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