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Mental Disorders

Mental disorders are any one of various conditions that are characterized by an impairment of an individual’s normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functions. These disorders could have been caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other such factors like an infection or severe head trauma. These dysfunctions also give rise to a number of atypical behaviors or mental events (called a syndrome).

These syndromes are often characterized by a great degree of emotional distress, impairment of decision making abilities, and/or severe difficulties in adapting to normal day to day situations. These could be problems with relationships, work, hygiene, health-related behaviors, or even making choices in life.

For symptoms to be considered as signs of a mental disorder these uncommon behaviors or mental events should not be:

1. culturally acceptable responses to rare situations (like grieving over a death in the family

2. individual variations that are considered as expressions of a particular subculture (coloring one’s hair purple because one’s peers are doing it)

In both of these cases, these atypical behaviors are not a sign of an internal dysfunction.

A person can only be considered as having a mental disorder if both of the following conditions are met

- The behavior or mental experience are associated with regular emotional distress and/or problems in adapting to everyday situations

- The behavior is not conventional in the person’s culture or subculture.

Web Resources On Mental Disorders

Mental and Behavioral Disorders
Various Definitions of Mental Illness

Book Resources On Mental Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by The American Psychiatric Association
Mental Disorders, Medications, and Clinical Social Work by Sonia G. Austrian

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