Psychosomatic syndrome is a collective name for many different mental health and psychological problems. Depending on the manifestations, symptoms, nature, causes of the disease and other factors, we can divide it into many separate mental illnesses. Let’s learn about some common psychological syndromes in the following article.
Common psychological syndromes
Physical health plays a very important role in everyone’s life. At the same time, spirit is also one of the factors that need to be paid much attention and attention. Also because at present, psychological diseases are increasingly common and tend to increase significantly in the community.
According to experts, any of us are at risk of facing psychological syndromes in life. However, due to prejudices and misconceptions, many cases have lost the opportunity for timely medical examination and treatment, causing many negative effects on health and daily life.
According to recent statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, Vietnamese people have a mental illness rate of about 15 to 20% during their lifetime. In which, depression accounts for 6% of the population, forms of anxiety disorders account for more than 10%, bipolar disorder accounts for 1%, schizophrenia 1%, etc.
Specifically, some common psychological syndromes today are as follows:
1. Depression
Depression is a common mental disorder that can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex or social class. Based on statistics, each year, nearly 850,000 people die from depressive disorders.
Experts say that people with depression are more likely to have experienced major life events, such as unemployment, bankruptcy, divorce, childbirth, bereavement, or traffic accidents. , being abused, etc. It is the strong impacts on their personal and spiritual lives that make them face many challenges and make them change.
People with this disease are often characterized by sadness, depression, depression, no longer interested in anything happening around life. At the same time, the patient may also be accompanied by symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite, memory loss, loss of concentration, decreased sex drive, body aches.
Not only does depression have a direct impact on mental health, but it can also have a host of negative effects on your physical, relationships, lifestyle, or even increase your risk of suicide. close in patients. Currently, there are also many methods to support depression treatment, the most popular being psychotherapy and the use of drugs combined with healthy, positive lifestyle changes.
2. Anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorder is an emotional disorder characterized by excessive fear and anxiety accompanied by autonomic neuropathy such as sweating, headache, nervousness, dry mouth, palpitations, and irritability. restless, standing still. However, you need to make a specific distinction between a general state of anxiety and an anxiety disorder.
For cases of normal anxiety, that anxiety is appropriate to the situation, the incident is happening or has not been satisfactorily resolved. As for anxiety disorder, this is a state of insecurity, excessive worry but no specific cause can be identified. Anxiety is also persistent, causing a lot of discomfort and affecting the patient’s life activities.
There are many different types of anxiety disorders, such as:
- Generalized anxiety disorder: Also known as generalized anxiety disorder, it is characterized by excessive worry about certain activities or events. At the same time, patients also have symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, irritability, muscle tension.
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): People with this disorder often have obsessive thoughts, repetitive behaviors that are difficult to control. For example, constantly washing hands, disinfecting, arranging solids, cleaning the house, etc.
- Panic disorder: A prominent feature is panic attacks, extreme fear of the patient that occurs suddenly and lasts for a short time. Patients will tend to avoid places that cause panic, entrenched in the house, not communicating.
- Social Anxiety Disorder: An anxiety disorder characterized by excessive worry about everyday social situations. For example, fear of the spotlight, fear of crowds, fear of meeting strangers, etc.
Until now, it is not possible to pinpoint the exact cause of anxiety disorders. However, scientists have also found a number of related factors such as genetics, childhood trauma, prolonged stress, neurochemical factors.
Similar to common psychological syndromes today, anxiety disorders are also mainly treated with psychotherapy combined with the use of drugs. At the same time, patients also need to focus on their daily routine, get enough sleep, eat right, exercise regularly, avoid prolonged stress to recover health soon.
3. Emotional disturbance
Emotional disorders are considered as one of the second most common psychological syndromes today that people are facing. Experts say this is an abnormal syndrome of the brain when the psyche has abnormal changes and is emotionally unstable.
People with this disorder can quickly change their emotions and moods from depression to euphoria and vice versa. According to estimates, this disease now affects more than 5% of the total population worldwide and causes negative impacts on the health and lives of patients.
Mood disorders are divided into two states: depression and mania:
Depression is a state that is characterized by boredom, moodiness, fatigue, lack of energy, negative thinking, pessimism, and loss of interest and interest in any activity that occurs in life. including things that the patient used to love.
Mania is a state of sudden increase in mood, the patient will become cheerful, happy, full of energy. Patients will be active continuously, actively participating in events and plans non-stop, even reducing their need for sleep significantly.
Although it is a common psychological syndrome, until now scientists have not been able to find the exact cause of emotional disorders. Many theories suggest that this disease is related to physiological and biological factors.
To improve emotional disorders, patients may be prioritized to apply psychotherapy. At the same time, for more severe cases, some additional treatment drugs will be indicated. In addition, when patients do not respond well to common treatments, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be considered, which changes brain chemicals.
4. Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that is currently on the rise in the community. Patients will have different manifestations, but in general, they all affect the patient’s life, can affect and change the patient’s personality in the long run.
According to experts, this is a severe mental and psychological syndrome that can last a lifetime. Patients will have manifestations characterized by incorrect and inappropriate thoughts that people around cannot explain and explain to them to understand what is right and what is wrong.
It is because of those thoughts that people with schizophrenia often have extremely strange and unusual activities due to the influence of paranoia, poor emotions. Patients will tend to isolate themselves, alienate themselves from everyone around them, rarely meet or talk to others, become reflective, or think, worry or even suffer from high levels of paranoia. heavy.
The most basic symptoms of schizophrenia are delusions and hallucinations. Patients may develop delusions of being harmed, delusions of self-esteem, or delusions of being dominated. At the same time, they can also hear sounds and voices echoing in their ears or appearing in their heads. Those illusions are usually things with negative content such as curses, accusations, humiliation, reproach, laughter.
5. Insomnia
Insomnia seems to be a fairly common problem, but in reality it finds many hidden dangers. This psychological syndrome is extremely common, especially in today’s modern society. People with this condition often have poor sleep quality due to psychological disorders.
Prolonged sleep loss will make the body tired, bored, lethargic, not having enough energy to work, study, and ensure daily activities. This directly affects the health, quality of life as well as work performance of people.
Surely all of us know that sleep plays a very important role in the overall health and daily life of everyone. Depending on the needs and health of each individual, each person’s sleep needs will also be somewhat different. However, according to the advice of the National Institutes of Health “The National Institutes of Health”, adults need to ensure a minimum of 7 hours of sleep per night.
Accordingly, the National Sleep Foundation has also defined insomnia syndrome, they say that this is an extremely common sleep disorder, including acute insomnia and chronic insomnia. The patient will have difficulty falling asleep, unable to sleep deeply, or having nightmares, waking up many times during the night and having difficulty falling back to sleep, waking up early in the morning even though there is no work problem.
Often, insomnia will be related to a state of stress, anxiety, and prolonged stress. People who are often under a lot of pressure and stress in their lives will have poor sleep quality, the risk of sleep disorders accounts for nearly 19%.
Many studies have found that sleep loss can have a big impact on a person’s happiness quotient. Therefore, it is necessary to intervene early by using drugs, applying folk remedies along with a healthy and active lifestyle.
6. Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is a mental disorder that manifests as an eating disorder. Patients will always tend to refuse to maintain a normal, balanced body weight. They are always obsessive and afraid of gaining weight and have a false perception of weight, weight and body shape.
According to research, this psychological syndrome is more common in women than in men, the rate is 10 to 20 times higher. In particular, the possibility of disease is higher for girls who work in the art world or jobs that require high physique.
Symptoms of the disease will usually begin as early as the age of 13 to the age of 20. If this mental disorder is not detected early and with appropriate interventions, it will cause many dangerous consequences, even death. Also due to excessive malnutrition or many cases of suicide. Accordingly, the mortality rate in patients with anorexia nervosa accounts for more than 10%.
Some common symptoms in patients with anorexia nervosa include fear of weight gain, obsession with weight, false perception of body weight and shape, fear of body deformation, and unwillingness to maintain weight. normal weight. They will tend to fast, try to exercise excessively with the desire to have a “thin” body.
How do I know if I have a mental illness?
Although each psychological syndrome will have different characteristics, in general, the symptoms of the disease will be somewhat similar. It will be quite difficult to determine if you are suffering from a mental illness or not and what kind of disease you are suffering because you are not professional enough to diagnose the signs of illness.
However, psychological changes and instability can also be easily noticed. If you constantly have negative thoughts, sadness, depression or unusual mood swings for many days, you should consider meeting and consulting with a psychologist.
For example: When certain events happen, you often feel anxious about them even if they have been resolved or have passed for a long time. Prolonged state of anxiety causes you to form physical problems such as aches, back pain, headaches, etc.
If you have applied relaxation measures but these symptoms do not show signs of improvement, you should also consider seeing a psychologist for the most accurate examination and diagnosis. With their expertise and experience, experts will help you identify the mental health problem you are experiencing and offer appropriate remedial measures.
The above article has helped readers understand more about some of the most common and common psychological syndromes today. Each of us has the potential to suffer from mental and psychological health problems, so it is necessary to be more proactive in understanding, preventing and timely intervention.