Mental illness is an emotional disturbance that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, making it difficult to live a normal life. It can be caused by organic factors like physical illnesses or injuries affecting the brain, or functional factors like environmental conditions or poor coping skills. There are several types of mental disorders, including affective disorders like depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, somatoform disorders, and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia involves a split from logical thought processes that can result in unusual behaviors and withdrawing from reality, with one type being paranoid schizophrenia where the individual has delusions of persecution or grandeur.

2. What is mental illness?
Mental illness is an emotional disturbance
which affects the way an individual thinks,
feels, and behave making it difficult to
live a normal life. It may be caused by
organic or functional disorders. Organic
mental disorders are due to physical
injuries and illness affecting the brain.
Functional mental disorders can be due to
environmental conditions or poor coping
skills.

3. What causes mental disorders?
•Life situation and experience—these include
insecurities in early life like broken homes,
loss of loved ones, marital problems, financial
difficulties, unemployment, and others.
•Physical Conditions—includes fever,
intoxication from alcohol or drugs, trauma like
head injuries, senility, and disturbance of the
endocrine glands.

4. What are the early signs and symptoms
of mental health?
•Disturbed sleep for a prolonged period
•Prolonged headache
•Restlessness and irritability, being talkative,
depressed, and suspicious
•Easily get tired
•Impaired memory
•Isolating self from families and friends

5. What are the practical ways to help oneself
when these danger signs occur?
Share out—entrust to someone trustworthy
Divert for a while—have a relaxation to have a better
condition emotionally and intellectually
Lose off anger—do physical activities like exercising or
house beautification
Do something for others—learn to help others who may
be more problematic
Carry tasks by steps—do most urgent tasks one at a
time, and set aside others for the time being

6. What are the different mental disorders?
•Affective Disorders—involves extreme mood
although the exact cause is not known, but they are
more common in some families. Three types of
affective disorders are clinical depression, bipolar
disorder or manic depressive order, and seasonal
affective disorder. Clinical depression involves long-
lasting feelings of hopelessness, sadness or
helplessness. Bipolar disorders or manic-depressive
disorder is when moods vary from extreme
happiness to depression. Seasonal affective
disorder is caused by reduced exposure to sunlight.

7. •Anxiety Disorder—is when real or imagined fears
prevent an individual from enjoying life. A panic attack is
the intense fear and anxiety with some body changes.
Body changes include increase heart rate, sweating,
shaking, shortness of breath, loss of control, chills, and
fear on dying. The different types of anxiety disorders
are generally anxiety disorder, phobia, and obsessive
compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
General anxiety disorder is a recurring state of anxiety,
fear restlessness, and tenseness. Phobia is an excessive
fear of certain things, situation or people. Obsessive-
compulsive disorder is the urgent need to repeat a
thought or action. Post-traumatic stress disorder is
when, after effects of a past event, disturbs an individual
from having a normal life.

8. •Dissociative Disorders—is when an
individual has memory loss, confused,
identity or multiple identities. Two types of
dissociate disorders are amnesia and
dissociative identity disorder. Amnesia is the
inability to recall past experiences.
Dissociative identity disorder is a rare mental
disorder in which two or more personalities
coexist within the same individual.

9. •Somatoform Disorder—has symptoms of a
disease for which no physical cause can be found.
Two types of somatoform disorders are
hypochondria and conversion disorder. An
individual with hypochondria constantly feels
aches and pains and worries about developing
some illness and disease. As a result of this
emotional state, an individual with conversion
disorder experiences sudden health changes.
These include sudden loss of vision or hearing and
loss of sensation of skin.

10. Schizophrenia—a split breakdown in
logical thought processes resulting to
unusual behaviors. Individuals with
this disorder may appear desperate
and withdraw from the real world. One
type is paranoid schizophrenia where
an individual has delusions of either
persecution or greatness.

11. Schizophrenia—a split breakdown in
logical thought processes resulting to
unusual behaviors. Individuals with
this disorder may appear desperate
and withdraw from the real world. One
type is paranoid schizophrenia where
an individual has delusions of either
persecution or greatness.