If you or a loved one is struggling, it’s always a sign that you should be looking into getting help. That’s true whether you have signs and symptoms of mental illness or if you think you’re fine, but things are hard. It’s always worth talking to your doctor to have a third party and an expert help you assess how things are going. However, making that trip to the doctor normally starts with realizing that things aren’t okay and that means figuring out what “not okay” looks like. For many of us, especially those of us who have had a mental illness go undiagnosed for a long time, that can be extremely difficult. The signs and symptoms of mental illness may look and feel a lot like ordinary life – because to you it is.
Today, an estimated 23.1 percent of the U.S. population or 59.3 million Americans have a mental illness of some kind. This means that almost one in five Americans is struggling with mental health. Luckily for most of us, getting treatment, learning coping mechanisms and practicing interventions to restore mental health can be enough to restore quality of life. But, that starts with realizing something is wrong and getting help.
What are the Warning Signs of Mental Illness?
For most people, mental illness starts out as difficulty with sleep, habits, and hygiene. For others, the first symptoms will appear as mood swings, difficulty controlling impulsivity, and trouble with work or school.
From the outside, the warning signs of mental illness usually look like:
- Sleeping too much or too little. People with mental illness often struggle with sleeping habits and may struggle with fatigue. They may struggle to get out of bed, to go to bed at night, or may even take naps in the middle of the day. Often, sleeping habits become unhealthy, whether they turn into too much or not enough sleep.
- Irritability or mood swings. People with mental illness often have more trouble controlling mood swings and outbursts, which can lead to them being sensitive, irritable, or overly angry or upset about things. That can translate into things like overreacting when children or pets knock things over, driving with road rage, responding badly to traffic jams, etc.
- Poor coping mechanisms. People with mental illness often resort more and more frequently to poor coping mechanisms like drinking, using pills, or escapism to avoid negative emotions and stress. That can look like having alcohol after work, it can look like abusing prescription medication, engaging in risky behavior like gambling or unsafe sex, sleeping too much, etc.
- Reduced hygiene and routines. People with mental health issues very often have significant trouble maintaining personal hygiene. That means difficulty cleaning, difficulty showering regularly, difficulty maintaining haircuts, difficulty changing clothes, difficulty cleaning their home, washing dishes, etc. You’ll see lapses in personal hygiene in most – although that won’t always be the case.
- Withdrawal from social activities and hobbies. Often people experiencing mental illness do less with people and they engage less with the things they used to like, even to the point of stopping hobbies or activities entirely. This, unfortunately, exacerbates the issue but is often a very significant warning sign that things are going wrong.
Eventually, people who have mental health problems typically look like they are losing their grip – because they are. That turns into reduced functioning, reduced ability to keep up with responsibilities in the home and at work, and reduced ability to take care of themselves.
Early Symptoms of Mental Illness
For people with mental illness, symptoms often appear as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, increased worry, and decreased motivation to do things. This experience of things can be difficult to see from the outside, but you can talk about it and share it to establish that those symptoms are there.
- Difficulty performing (mentally or physically) to previous levels at work, school, or in hobbies and games
- Fatigue, especially during the middle of the day
- Brain fog or difficulty thinking
- Feeling nervous or suspicious of things
- Apathy or reduced initiative to do things or participate in things
- Feeling of disconnection from people, places, or things
- Feeling less in control of emotional shifts especially anger or sadness
- Feeling less able or motivated to do tasks like cleaning or showering
- Increased sensitivity to light, sound, or smell
- Problems with memory, logical though (e.g., math), or translating thoughts to speech
- Problems concentrating, which can translate to difficulty focusing or a tendency to zone out or lose focus after a few minutes
- Feeling off or bad or like things are dull or grey or like you are off. Some people immediately feel this is “depression” and others feel like they “aren’t themselves” or “they have difficulty waking up” or “they walk around in a haze all day”. The description can vary, but if you experience a feeling of things being off more days than not
Essentially, you’ll normally feel as if things are off or bad, if you have trouble thinking, or if you’re having difficulty being yourself, it’s a very good sign that something is majorly wrong and you should get help.
Why Not Everyone Has the Same Signs & Symptoms
It’s important to keep in mind that not everyone has the same symptoms. You can express the same problems in different ways than someone with matching issues. It’s also important to keep in mind that mental illness is a very broad spectrum. Depression and anxiety are among the most common mental health disorders. However, you can have PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and wide range of other problems. All of them have different causes, different symptoms, and will impact your life in different ways. You might also experience mental health disorders in different ways. Some people are better at managing symptoms. The fact that you maintain better coping mechanisms than someone else doesn’t mean you have fewer problems. If you’re struggling, you are struggling and it is important to get help.
Getting Help
In most cases, getting help with mental health problems means reaching out to your doctor. You can start by talking to friends, family, and your general practitioner. From there, you’ll be recommended into treatment, usually starting with intake and diagnosis at a mental health treatment facility.
This normally starts with therapy and helping you to learn coping skills, so you can deal with the pressing issues that drove you to ask for help in the first place. Afterwards, you’ll typically still want to ensure you’re taking steps to maintain recovery by learning long-term routines and coping skills to help you stay in recovery after treatment. At the same time, a round of therapy may not be enough to help you overcome mental health problems. You might need longer-term treatment or medication – but in either case, you’ll have to start by getting a diagnosis and then going through the first steps of treatment to find out how you respond to it and what’s next.
Millions of Americans struggle with mental health. It’s so normal that almost 1 in 5 of us quality for a diagnosis. If you’re struggling, it’s important to reach out, talk to your doctor, and start making the steps that will improve your quality of life.