Illness - Mental

Mental

Mental illness (or Emotional disability, Cognitive dysfunction) is a broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment. Specific illnesses known as mental illnesses include major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to name a few. Mental illness can be of biological (e.g., anatomical, chemical, or genetic) or psychological (e.g., trauma or conflict) origin. It can impact one’s ability to work or go to school and contribute to problems in relationships. Other generic names for mental illness include “mental disorder”, “psychiatric disorder”, “psychological disorder”,“abnormal psychology”, “emotional disability”, “emotional problems”, or “behavior problem”. The term insanity is used technically as a legal term. Brain damage may result in impairment of mental function.

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Famous quotes containing the word mental:

    What a man calls his “conscience” is merely the mental action that follows a sentimental reaction after too much wine or love.
    Helen Rowland (1875–1950)

    [T]hat moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its least possible dimensions.
    Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

    all the categories which we employ to describe conscious mental acts, such as ideas, purposes, resolutions, and so on, can be applied to ... these latent states.
    Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)