Understanding Mental Health
Mental ill-health is very common. It affects one in four people in the course of their lives. Chana is here to support and guide anyone who is struggling with Mental Health that’s preventing or affecting them whilst on their fertility journey.
The following content is for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your GP or Doctor if you have any questions regarding your health.
Anxiety Disorders
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Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Some people find it hard to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can often affect their daily lives.
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OCD is a mental health condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. It can affect men, women and children. People can start having symptoms from as early as 6 years old, but it often begins around puberty and early adulthood.
OCD can be distressing and significantly interfere with your life, but treatment can help you keep it under control.
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Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear.
Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety and panic at certain times. It's a natural response to stressful or dangerous situations. But someone with panic disorder has feelings of anxiety, stress and panic regularly and at any time, often for no apparent reason.
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A phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal.
Phobias are more pronounced than fears. They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object.
If a phobia becomes very severe, a person may organise their life around avoiding the thing that's causing them anxiety. As well as restricting their day-to-day life, it can also cause a lot of distress.
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Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is a long-term and overwhelming fear of social situations. It's a common problem that usually starts during the teenage years. It can be very distressing and have a big impact on your life.
For some people it gets better as they get older. But for many people it does not go away on its own without treatment. It's important to get help if you are having symptoms. There are treatments that can help you manage it.
Eating and Body image Disorders
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Anorexia nervosa (often called anorexia) is an eating disorder and serious mental health condition.
People who have anorexia try to keep their weight as low as possible. They may do this in different ways, such as not eating enough food, exercising too much, taking laxatives or making themselves sick (vomit). This can make them very ill because they start to starve.
They often have a distorted image of their bodies, thinking they're fat even when they're underweight. Men and women of any age can get anorexia, but it's most common in young women and typically starts in the mid-teens.
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Binge eating disorder involves regularly eating a lot of food over a short period of time until you're uncomfortably full.
It's a serious mental health condition where people eat without feeling like they’re in control of what they’re doing.
Binges are sometimes planned in advance, but can be spontaneous. They are usually done alone, and may include "special" binge foods. You may feel guilty or ashamed after binge eating.
Men and women of any age can get binge eating disorder, but it often starts when people are in their 20s or older.
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Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about flaws in their appearance. These flaws are often unnoticeable to others.
People of any age can have BDD, but it's most common in teenagers and young adults. It affects both men and women.
Having BDD does not mean you're vain or self-obsessed. It can be very upsetting and have a big impact on your life.
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Bulimia is an eating disorder and mental health condition.
People who have bulimia go through periods where they eat a lot of food in a very short amount of time (binge eating) and then purge the food from their body to try to stop themselves gaining weight.
Purging could include making themselves vomit, using laxatives (medicine to help them excrete) or diuretics (medicine that makes you urinate more), fasting or doing excessive exercise, or a combination of these.
Anyone can get bulimia, but it is more common in young people aged 15 to 25.
Feeling Suicidal and Self Harm
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Suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideation means thinking about or planning suicide. Thoughts can range from a detailed plan to a fleeting consideration.
Thoughts of suicide can affect anyone at any time.
People might think about suicide for different reasons. Often there isn’t one main reason why someone is thinking about taking their life, it can be a result of problems building up to the point where they feel unable to cope and see suicide as the only option to escape from what they are experiencing.
If you are feeling suicidal please seek immediate help from:
THE HELPLINE - Phone 0330 127 3333 Text- HELPCHAT AT 07479 273 333
Available 24/7 – including Shabbos and Yom Tov . Completely anonymous – we are unable to view or track your number. Completely free to use from landline or mobile*
Samaritans- Phone 116 123 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Shout free text helpline- 85258 24/7 text us any time, day or night.
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Self-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body.
Self-harm may be linked to bad experiences that are happening now, or in the past. But sometimes the reason is unknown. The reasons can also change over time and will not be the same for everybody.
If you feel like self harming please seek immediate help from:
THE HELPLINE - Phone 0330 127 3333 Text- HELPCHAT AT 07479 273 333
Available 24/7 – including Shabbos and Yom Tov . Completely anonymous – we are unable to view or track your number. Completely free to use from landline or mobile*
Samaritans- Phone 116 123 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Shout free text helpline- 85258 24/7 text us any time, day or night.
Mood Disorders
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Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that affects your moods, which can swing from 1 extreme to another. It used to be known as manic depression.
People with bipolar disorder have episodes of: depression – feeling very low and lethargic and mania – feeling very high and overactive
Symptoms of bipolar disorder depend on which mood you're experiencing.
Unlike simple mood swings, each extreme episode of bipolar disorder can last for several weeks (or even longer).
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Cyclothymia, or cyclothymic disorder, causes mood changes – from feeling low to emotional highs. Cyclothymia is a mild form of bipolar disorder.
Most people's symptoms are mild enough that they do not seek mental health treatment, or the emotional highs feel nice, so they do not realise there's anything wrong or want to seek help. This means cyclothymia often goes undiagnosed and untreated.
The mood swings can affect daily life, and cause problems with personal and work relationships.
People can get cyclothymia at any age.
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Depression affects people in different ways and can cause a wide variety of symptoms. They range from lasting feelings of unhappiness and hopelessness, to losing interest in the things you used to enjoy and feeling very tearful. Many people with depression also have symptoms of anxiety.
There can be physical symptoms too, such as feeling constantly tired, sleeping badly, having no appetite or sexual drive, and various aches and pains. The symptoms of depression range from mild to severe. At its mildest, you may simply feel persistently low in spirit, while severe depression can make you feel suicidal, that life is no longer worth living.
Most people experience feelings of stress, anxiety or low mood during difficult times. A low mood may improve after a short period of time, rather than being a sign of depression.
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When a person experiences continuous mild depression that lasts for over 2 years it is called dysthymia. It can also be ne known ap ersistent depressive disorder or chronic depression.
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Postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby.
It's a common problem, affecting more than 1 in every 10 women within a year of giving birth. It can also affect fathers and partners.
It's important to get help as symptoms could last for months or get worse and have a significant impact on you, your baby and your family.
With the right support most people make a full recovery.
Neuro-developmental Disorders
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects people's behaviour. People with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.
Symptoms of ADHD tend to be noticed at an early age and may become more noticeable when a child's circumstances change, such as when they start school.
Most cases are diagnosed when children are under 12 years old, but sometimes it's diagnosed later in childhood. Sometimes ADHD was not recognised when someone was a child, and they are diagnosed later as an adult.
The symptoms of ADHD may improve with age, but many adults who were diagnosed with the condition at a young age continue to experience problems.
People with ADHD may also have additional problems, such as sleep and anxiety disorders.
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Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how a person perceives and relates to the world around them. The term ‘spectrum’ is used as no two people are the same. All people with Autism share certain strengths and difficulties, but these will affect each individual in different ways.
People with Autism experience difficulties in:
Social Communication and Interaction
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities
Sensory preference and sensitivities
Personality disorders
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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disorder of mood and how a person interacts with others. It's the most commonly recognised personality disorder.
In general, someone with a personality disorder will differ significantly from an average person in terms of how he or she thinks, perceives, feels or relates to others.
The causes of BPD are unclear. BPD appears to result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Psychosis
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Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition. It causes a range of different psychological symptoms.
Doctors often describe schizophrenia as a type of psychosis. This means the person may not always be able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.
Trauma and stress related Disorders
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Birth trauma is another term for post-traumatic stress disorder after childbirth. A traumatic birth can result from feeling out of control during birth, if things happen that you weren’t prepared for or if you and/or your baby’s health was impacted or threatened. Some women who have had birth trauma go on to have future births that are positive and healing whereas others choose not to have any further children. Recovery from birth trauma is an ongoing process and takes time.
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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
In most cases, the symptoms develop during the first month after a traumatic event. But in a minority of cases, there may be a delay of months or even years before symptoms start to appear.
Some people with PTSD experience long periods when their symptoms are less noticeable, followed by periods where they get worse. Other people have constant severe symptoms.
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Trauma refers to an overwhelmingly distressing, negative or intense event that overwhelms a person’s capacity to cope. Children and young people can be traumatised if overwhelming events happen directly to them, or if they witness or hear about them happening to somebody else.
Traumatic events usually occur beyond a person’s control, and include:
Physical or sexual attacks
Terrorist attacks
Natural disasters
Serious accidents
Sudden deaths of a family members or close friends
Whether a person experiences an event as traumatic will be personal to them and will depend upon many factors such as previous experiences, current environment, and level of support from others.
All the information listed has been resourced from the NHS website. Press the link below to find out more information on any of these topics