Page 7 - Teens and Mental Health

and ultimately impede normal developmental tasks that the anxious
feelings and emotions can be considered pathological.” 10

Many teens experience emotional ups and downs. Very intense
and persistent mood swings, however, may indicate a mood disorder.
As clinical psychologist Linda Wilmshurst says, “For individuals

suffering from mood disorders, depressed or elated states can
be extreme and long lasting, causing problems with day-to-day
functioning.” 11

The Many Faces of Mental Illness

Although the term mental illness is often used in the singular,
mental illness is not a single condition with a uniform set of features.
Symptoms vary from person to person, and mental illnesses come
in many types and degrees. Different disorders affect one’s behavior,
emotions, thought patterns, and personality in different ways.

For example, eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia
nervosa cause severe distress about body weight and food intake.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves recurring unwanted
thoughts and actions that feel out of a person’s control. A person with
OCD may compulsively engage in fixed rituals, such as excessive
hand washing. Schizophrenia causes psychosis, or a state of
being out of touch with reality. People with this disorder experience
episodes of severely disorganized and confused thought and speech.

These episodes often consist of hallucinations, or sensations of things
that are not real, and delusions, which are fixed ideas that do not
correspond with reality.

These are just a few of the many types of mental disorders that
teens can experience. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American
Psychiatric Association, lists 541 different diagnostic categories.

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