Category: Mental Health

There are many types of mental health disorders. While many of these can share similar symptoms, it’s important to understand that a disorder may affect one person differently than another. For this reason, it’s always best to seek professional evaluation and guidance. A professional offering sustainable recovery will have the experience and insight needed to guide you along your journey as you strive to heal your mind, body, and spirit.

In this article, we’re exploring several common types of mental health disorders. If you suspect you may be experiencing one of the following mental health disorders and turn to substances to self-medicate uncomfortable feelings, consider exploring the benefits of co-occurring disorder treatment.

Types of Mental Health Disorders

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) contains close to 200 diagnoses, and it would be outside the scope of this article to begin to list them all. Thankfully, the authors of the current DSM have neatly categorized the various disorders underneath headings that encompass the core of the concern. The following are some of the major categories of disorder, as well as a few of the more common diagnoses ascribed to them.

Here are several common types of mental health disorders and variations.

Anxiety-Related Disorders

Having a sense of anxiety is perfectly normal when being faced with a genuine threat. Anxiety stems from our instinctual flight-or-fight response and is the body’s way of preparing for danger. When we carry around that high level of alertness throughout the course of a normal day, however, an anxiety disorder may be the cause.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most frequently diagnosed mental disorders. It is characterized by feeling a sense of dread, worry, or anxiousness, but without having a direct source of concern to point a finger at. Those struggling with GAD may find themselves struggling to concentrate and unable to get a good night of sleep, and may also experience physical symptoms related to the stress.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety is something that many of us experience as teens. If we are unable to move past this developmental feeling of awkwardness around others, we may be suffering from a social anxiety disorder. People with this disorder will excessively worry about how others may be judging them and will be unable to relax in social situations.

Mood Disorders

When we think of mood, most of us think of feelings. While feelings are definitely linked to mood, your mood is more of a state of predisposition. When our mood orientation is negative or fluctuating, our feelings tend to follow suit.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

Major depressive disorder is another very common diagnosis. With MDD, a person will consistently feel hopeless, sad, and unmotivated to move forward in life. The level of diagnosis will be specified based on the severity and recurrence of the symptoms, ranging from mild to severe.

Bipolar Disorder

Compared to the doldrums of MDD, bipolar disorder may seem like it has some benefits. Rather than only feeling depressed, a person with bipolar disorder will also experience intense periods of feeling good. Unfortunately, these manic periods often come with lapses in judgment that can result in regrettable actions.

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

The diagnoses found underneath this category in the DSM-V were once placed in various other sections. As our knowledge of the impact of trauma grew, crafters of the manual determined that it deserved a category of its own. Diagnoses under this category may also be accompanied by many of the symptoms described in others.

The most common diagnosis found under this category is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) The criteria for being diagnosed with PTSD include the onset of symptoms following exposure to a traumatic event. The event can be caused by first-hand experience or second-hand exposure to a traumatic event. The subjective nature of what constitutes trauma, combined with the individual’s ability to process the events, makes the condition of PTSD best left in the hands of an experienced professional.

Personality Disorders

Unlike other disorders, personality disorders are generally considered to be something a person has been – and will be – living with for her lifetime. Focus on specific personality disorders tends to follow a trend, with some of the types of diagnoses falling out of the limelight, while others gain attention.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

One of the fastest-growing categories of personality disorder is that of borderline personality disorder. General consensus is that those with this disorder have undergone some sort of difficulty in childhood, resulting in an adult life that is maladapted to the requirements of adult functioning. A person with borderline personality disorder has difficulty forming healthy relationships with others, will tend to experience severe mood swings, and suffers from a poor sense of self.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

Women with NPD are unlikely to seek mental health treatment on their own, which can make arriving upon a definitive diagnosis difficult. NPD is characterized by an inflated sense of self-worth and a callous approach toward the needs and feelings of others.

Psychoses

Diagnoses related to psychosis have common symptoms of hallucination, delusion, and disorganized thinking. In some cases, the psychosis can manifest as catatonia, which is the absence of response to external and internal stimuli. The subtle differences in expression will determine which diagnosis best captures what is going on for a person with psychosis. By far, the most common diagnosis of psychosis is that of Schizophrenia. Other forms of psychosis include Schizoaffective Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Each of these diagnoses varies in the amount of disruption that they cause in the daily life of the sufferer.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

When it comes to mental health, it can be difficult to determine which symptoms are related to a mental state, and which are related to the actual structure of the neurons in the brain. Experts have determined that certain types of disorders are based on the latter. Mood and behavioral disturbances for those diagnosed in this category are typically connected to the differing ways that the brain works. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Intellectual Disability, and Autism Spectrum Disorders all fall into this category.

Substance Abuse Disorders (SUD)

Substance abuse disorders and mental health are increasingly being taken into consideration as co-existing conditions. The DSM has a myriad of SUD diagnoses. They are categorized on the basis of which type of drug is being used, how frequently, and which mental health symptoms are arising as a result. Mental health symptoms associated with SUD include all of the anxiety and mood disorders, as well as symptoms of psychosis.

Conclusion

There are many types of mental health disorders, each of which can have a unique effect on how you feel. If you believe you might identify with any of the mental health disorders mentioned above and you regularly turn to alcohol or prescription drugs as a form of self-medication, it’s time to reach out for help.

Explore the benefits of sustainable recovery at Villa Kali Ma and discover the inspiration you need to move forward with confidence.

An anxiety disorder is a mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry or fear. Though this type of mental health disorder can impact us all differently, there are several common signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental disorder in the United States. Each year, over 18% of adults suffer from symptoms of anxiety that are worthy of a diagnosis, and statistics are indicating this number has increased over the course of the 2020 pandemic.

With the vast availability of the information available on the internet, finding data to confirm suspicions of anxiety disorder has become an easy task. There are several commons signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders, including excessive worry, fatigue, and more.

If you feel the following symptoms of anxiety disorders and attempt to self-medicate the uncomfortable feelings with alcohol or prescription medication, consider exploring the benefits of treatment for co-occurring disorders.

Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

Not all anxiety is bad. In fact, anxiety is a sign that our minds and bodies are prepared to get us out of a dangerous situation.

Anxiety is a mechanism of the flight-or-fight response, which has evolved to help humans to survive. When we are faced with a genuine life-or-death scenario, we want our anxiety to be in full effect.

If the anxiety is operating out of context or persists for an unreasonable amount of time, an anxiety disorder may be at the root. In order for a diagnosis of anxiety disorder to apply, several of the following symptoms must be present.

Here are several common signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Excessive Worry

It can be difficult to determine what constitutes an excessive amount of worry. Each of us has our own way of going about things, and we all encounter problems which we have to solve in our own, unique, way.

In general, the amount of worry can be considered excessive if it is interfering with your ability to go about daily life in a normal fashion. If it has you spinning your mental wheels continually, but with no real solution in sight, it might be considered excessive. If the worry persists for six months or more, it might be considered excessive.

Finally, if the amount and duration of the worry are much more severe than the average person would consider putting into a similar scenario, your worry may be considered excessive.

Insomnia

With all of that worry going on, one can imagine that it would be hard to slip off into dreamland and enjoy a blissful sleep.

Insomnia can include anything from not being able to fall asleep in the first place, to not being able to stay asleep throughout the night, to waking up far too early.

Challenges with sleeping can also be a symptom of physical health changes – such as menopause and aging – which makes it important to consider other factors when exploring a diagnosis of anxiety.

Fatigue

Combine constant worry and difficulty sleeping, and you’ve got the prime variables for creating fatigue.

Some may be surprised to learn that mental activity can be even more draining on the body than physical activity. Thinking is such a strenuous activity, that the brain actually uses up calories to do it. While the average person will only rely on a small amount of brain energy to go about the day, the brain of a person with anxiety is in overdrive.

By the time you try to hit the bed at night, you will have expended the energy needed for a mental marathon. Worse still, your brain may refuse to stop running long enough for you to recharge through sleeping.

Difficulty Concentrating

By now, it is easy to see the way that excessive anxiety creates a score of interwoven problems.

Yet another of those is that of inability to concentrate. Not only is the brain of an anxious person exhausted, but it is also consumed with the focus of the worry. Remembering the flight-or-fight response that is at the root of anxiety, it can be surmised that our minds are not designed to think about anything other than what it perceives as a threat.

For the anxious mind, the threat is never-ending. Instinct tells us that our survival depends on being able to eliminate the threat, and our brains won’t let up on the task until it feels safe.

Thinking about mundane topics such as office work and household chores is not considered to be a survival necessity during times of anxiety.

Irritability

Being asked to concentrate on something else while your brain is screaming at you that there is danger afoot can be extremely annoying.

Life is rolling on while the anxious person is invisibly consumed, and others are not likely to have any idea about the inner turmoil that is being experienced.

They may be shocked, hurt, or angry at the irritation that the anxious person expresses when being asked to spare some of the drained attention span on trivial issues.

We only have so much energy to give to others in a day, and the anxious person is running on an empty tank.

Physical Problems

While it can be easy to consider that anxiety is confined to a mental problem, the fact is that it all ties into our biology.

The body is not designed to be in a constant state of alertness. It is designed to amp up long enough to deal with a problem, and then return to a state of homeostasis.

For a person struggling with persistent anxiety, the body is being asked to stay in a perpetual state of readiness for action. Eventually, the resources devoted to this unreasonable task mean that focus is diverted away from tending to other, vital, biological functions.

Persistent anxiety can eventually result in a myriad of physical problems, including digestive issues, muscle pain, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and migraines.

Types of Anxiety Disorder

While there are several common signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders, an anxiety disorder may impact one woman differently than another woman.

The specific scenarios in which the anxiety is experienced, and the approaches taken in an attempt to relieve the anxiety, will inform your mental health provider as to which anxiety-related diagnosis is most appropriate for your situation.

These factors can range from feeling anxious across all situations for most of the day to only feeling anxious under certain conditions. The severity of symptoms can be described anywhere from mildly distracting to all-consuming.

If you find yourself self-medicating with alcohol or prescription drugs to self-medicate these underlying conditions, consider the benefits of dual-diagnosis treatment. Explore the benefits of holistic recovery and discover the inspiration and guidance needed to help you calm the mind, body, and soul.

I was anxiously lamenting all the little fires in my life to a friend over tea recently.

“There’s so much, and I don’t even know where to begin. How do you rebuild everything from nothing?” I cried out, having talked myself into a frenzy at the sheer magnitude of the pressures I faced.

She regarded me with a steady gaze, “Well, how do you eat an elephant?”

She paused.

“One bite a time.”

Her silly and slightly disturbing mental image filled my mind, and close on its heels was the heavyweight of realization. Nothing needs to be solved in one fell swoop. Tiny habits, not massive overhauls, are the first steps to sustainable change. Through goal setting with bite-sized chunks of life’s elephants, you can (and will!) overcome them.

Start now.

New Year’s Resolutions have this way of making us feel prepared. Outlines and action plans can give us an illusion of control over our success. But often, when we start them, we become paralyzed by the magnitude of change and quit. In fact, the enthusiastic hope-plan-doom cycle of a resolution contributes to failure almost 80% of the time.

Take charge of your time, boost your recovery and your future. There is no perfect moment coming that will unlock your success, but every step forward will benefit you. Make it a habit to start now, not in five minutes or five days, to reap big rewards.

Prioritize yourself.

Establishing a habit is a commitment. Most often, the hardest ones to keep are the “To me; Love, me” kind. The ones that benefit you and are led by your action. It can feel selfish and like an indulgence. But it is not. Making yourself a priority is the gift that keeps on giving.

Allow space for the things you want and need, then hold that space for them. Make this your first tiny habit, as it will be the key to ensuring you do not slip into harmful coping mechanisms when those wants and needs are ignored.

Small but mighty change.

When you feel untethered, handing over your power can be a struggle, but it’s not always necessary. Cliché as it sounds, sustainability must begin from the inside out. Many mini-mind shifts will produce powerful results without involving anyone but you.

The holistic healing staff at Villa Kali Ma suggest incorporating into your daily schedule little habits like mindful breathing, a short yoga flow, or reframing the words and emotions you use to express yourself. These can offer small shifts with a big influence. Other small but mighty changes you can make are:

• • Offer kindness to others when you are feeling low.
  • Google something interesting. Anything, really, but learning something new can productively engage your mind.
  • Start your day with a glass of water.
  • However, feels good to you. Just get your thoughts out on paper for a few minutes every day.

Think about it.

It seems so simple, but how often do you take the time to sit with an idea and flesh it out? Spend time with those ideas (even the worries). Take inventory of them, and process them accordingly. Intrusive thoughts can feel intense, even when they’re good ones. We are often told to stop the spirals in our heads.

What if sometimes the answer is thinking them through?
To pause and give them space.

Use a timer to give yourself a structured few minutes. Then pause and consider as many of those loose ends as you can. Spend time with the thought in its entirety, even if it’s uncomfortable. This tiny habit of giving yourself permission to pause and make space for your thoughts and feelings can have powerful results, and the cue is already ingrained when you feel that building push of an idea, pause.

Lean on experts.

Tiny Habits aficionado BJ Fogg has a reputation you can rely on- and you should. With more than two decades of research into a sustainable life change, Dr. Fogg supports small changes to make the most impact. Fogg suggests getting highly specific to optimize the prompt you’ll use to engage it.  Using the combined force of motivation, ability, and a prompt within a moment, you can establish a behavior. Boost your recovery by allowing it to motivate you.

Set your habits with intention and specificity, but don’t eat your elephant in one big gulp. Small bites, tiny habits, and consistent effort toward your end goal will move you steadily toward it. Allow expertise to strengthen your resolve and support the habits you put into motion right now. If you find you need some assistance to boost your recovery or begin your healing journey, Villa Kali Ma offers a holistic program that supports setting goals and teaches mindfulness practices.

Contact us today to learn more about sustainable recovery and the life change available to you when you are in a supportive environment like Villa Kali Ma.

The beginning of 2020 brought about the end of a decade – a time to reflect on the past and create hopes and dreams for the future. However, we quickly learned that this year was not likely to make good on the promise and hopes we set. Instead, 2020 taught us to stay flexible and adapt, and through enduring many trials, it reminded us of just how strong we are. As we near the end of 2020, we again set our sights on the year to come, closing the chapter on a year that has been fraught with many stressors, both planned and unplanned.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

As the virus drew national and international attention in its spread to all corners of the globe, our response to it has moved through many stages as our ability to cope has been tested.

The Unrest Begins

The first wave – the onset of the virus – created an environment full of fear and uncertainty about how our lives would be affected and for how long. From that fertile ground quickly rose seeds of dissent, anger, and frustration about how others handled themselves during this time and the extent of the precautions they were (or were not) taking.

The messaging shifted very quickly, encouraging us to “look at the bright side” and seek opportunities for growth and advantages offered by this worldwide reset. Lurking underneath this mask of our “new normal,” however, there still existed plenty of distress: depression, hopelessness, anxiety, insomnia, and for some, traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts.

On August 14th, 2020, a CDC study reported that 40% of US adults reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, or increased substance use, with 10.7% reporting having suicidal thoughts in the past 30 days. This represented a substantial increase from past studies.

Stress Continues

As the pandemic has worn on and we watch “the numbers” rise, our sense of helplessness has become difficult to counter in the face of the year’s many challenges. The losses we suffered began to stack up. Starting with a worldwide shift that called for us to stay at home, facing necessary adaptations to age-old traditions, economic unrest, educational changes, workplace reform, and disconnection from those around us, we have arrived at is a completely changed way of life.

This changed way of life has led to many new stressors: many Americans have lost their homes, jobs, and businesses, just as they have also lost their standard ways of coping with it. What is more, many young adults lost their identity as goals they had worked years towards achieving were lost to the pandemic. Even for those where the real casualties have been minimal, many of these factors’ cumulative stress creates profound effects.

The Vulnerable Among Us

While everyone is understandably affected by the virus, some communities remained disproportionately vulnerable to its effects, including Blacks, Hispanics, the elderly, people of lower socioeconomic status of all races, and health care workers.

For them, this is a crisis of physical health and takes a toll on their mental health. From these conditions, three months into the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement reignited and brought further unrest and unease to our already tenuous state.

Further on into the year, as we prepared for a 2020 presidential election, even basic public health strategies such as testing, quarantining, and wearing masks have become politicized. Civil political discussions moved to a hostile online environment, and we feel distant and unrecognizable to those with an opposing view.

Substance Misuse and Our Mental Health

The pandemic challenges exist in isolating us from others and the very solutions to deal with our stresses. In protecting our physical health, social distancing, and stay-at-home measures deeply affected our mental health. This is especially true for those with substance use disorders or those who are in recovery from them.

We have learned time and time again from speakers such as Johann Hari that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety; it is human connection. The strain of isolation takes a particular toll on us, whether our problematic relationship with substances began before or after the pandemic started.

Those who already were in active addiction – now isolated from their support services – have begun to use their pre-programmed coping skill to deal with the new stresses they face. Those who may not previously have had a problem have now found themselves reliant on alcohol or other drugs to make it through the day, to calm their anxieties, or to pass the time.

Hope in 2020 and Beyond

Although the challenges of this time are genuine, it is essential to realize that while the ways you may have traditionally received support are no longer available, the counseling and treatment world has adapted right along with the virus. We understand intimately the losses associated with this pandemic: the loss of life, of how we do things, and of when things were more comfortable.

However, those of us in the recovery community are also no stranger to learning to adapt and learning to carve out a new way of life for ourselves. We are familiar with making the difficult choice to avoid numbing, exploring our past, and walking the path that will lead us to experience happiness and fulfillment ultimately.

At Villa Kali Ma, we want to hold onto hope for you that things will get better, and with clinical expertise and holistic healing methods, we want to show you the way. Contact us today to learn more about our trauma-informed and sustainable treatment programs.

You can’t forgive without loving. And I do not mean sentimentality. I do not mean mush.
I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.’

— MAYA ANGELOU

In general, as a culture, we have become so good at striving for success and recognition, and at the same time so bad at dealing with missteps and mistakes, especially our own. We understand the concept that “everyone makes mistakes” and that theoretically, “it is not about the fact that we made a mistake, but how we recover from it.” However, this is an incredibly difficult belief to hold on to when facing our own shortcomings or failures.

Many people struggle with self-condemnation that stems from feeling as though they’ve either done something “wrong” and have guilt related to how they acted, or because they feel that they themselves are “wrong” or defective in some way which leads to a sense of shame. For those who develop a problematic relationship with alcohol or other substances, these experiences of guilt and shame are universal.

The ability to find forgiveness for self is in so many ways the key to the healing process. In life, as with the process of recovery, true freedom comes once you find it within yourself to let go— to offer yourself the cleansing relief that comes with moving on and like the quote above, having the courage to love yourself enough to be finished with it.

The Road to Self-Forgiveness

Learning how to accept ownership over mistakes, let go, move on, and forgive yourself is important for mental health and well-being, although often it is much easier said than done. Self-forgiveness requires empathy, compassion, kindness, and understanding, and ultimately, requires you to make the choice to be honest with yourself throughout the process.

1. Setting Aside Time to Process

One of the biggest traps that we fall into as humans is believing that if we are not actively thinking about something that it is not a problem for us. Rather than dealing with our emotions, we tend to disregard them, “stuff them down”, or avoid them entirely.

When you are trying to create a new life for yourself free from the influence of substances, nothing can quite stunt your progress as this tendency. We need time to sit with ourselves and to acknowledge and process all the emotions that arise in us. Allow yourself permission to recognize and accept the feelings that are triggered in you as you think about where your life has taken you so far.

2. Acknowledging What Happened

Facing the realities of what you have done in the past or what has happened is an important step towards self-forgiveness. It is often our initial temptation to make excuses or to try to rationalize or justify our actions in order to make them seem acceptable.

However, by taking responsibility and owning up to the fact that you have engaged in actions that have hurt others, you can begin to free yourself – and them – from some of the burdens. It is also helpful to adopt the narrative that “I did the best I could with the tools and knowledge I had at the time”. In this way, we can balance the forces of accountability and compassion and develop a realistic perspective of what happened.

3. Considering What You Have Learned From the Experience

It can be a helpful exercise to consider each mistake of the past as a learning experience that helps you to discover more about the person you want to be in the future. This is the primary function of guilt as an emotion.

When we feel guilty, this is a message from our subconscious mind letting us know that our actions are not in line with our beliefs and ultimately helps us to make a different choice in the future. Progress looks like moving away from shame-based beliefs about the self:

• • “I am a bad person” and moving towards a more hopeful narrative.
  • “I made a bad choice, but I have the power to make better choices in the future.”
  • Or even just “I’ve experienced an incredibly painful lesson in who I don’t want to be.”

4. Having a Conversation With Your Inner Critic

Moving towards self-forgiveness means developing an active practice of self-compassion. In addition to learning to be kind to ourselves, this means taking a closer look at the internal dialogues that we allow to take place in our minds. An actionable step you can take is to write out a conversation between you and your inner critic as a way to recognize the thoughts that are getting in the way of forgiveness. This can help you identify thought patterns that are sabotaging your ability to forgive yourself.

You may also need to examine the expectations and standards you hold for yourself. The expert on self-compassion, Kristin Neff recommends considering your situation as if your best friend were the one in crisis. What would you say? How would you comfort them? Ultimately, how is that conversation compared to the one you had earlier with your inner critic? Why is it so difficult to extend the same message of love and forgiveness to ourselves?

5. Making a Plan for Moving Forward

Making amends is an important part of forgiveness, even when the person you are forgiving is yourself. The best way to move past your guilt is to take action to make up for your mistakes. While we may never “earn” forgiveness or fully make up for it, apologizing or even being willing to have the conversation with others about their experience is an important step. This aspect of self-forgiveness is about responding to what happened in a way that you can be proud of, no matter whether others ultimately accept your apology.

6. Quit Playing the Tape

While in many ways, it is human nature to spend time and energy replaying our mistakes, at some point, it becomes no longer healthy for us to continue in that way. Falling into the trap of rumination, self-hatred, or even pity can be incredibly damaging to your recovery process.

When you catch yourself playing the “I’m broken” or “I’m a horrible human” tape, stop yourself and focus on one positive action step. Interrupting the thought pattern can help you replace the negative experience and even reduce stress and anxiety.

7. Focusing on Today and the Hope of Tomorrow

Self-forgiveness is incredibly important to the healing process as it allows you to let go of the anger, guilt, shame, sadness you may be holding on to and move on. Working through this process gives you a plan for the future, rather than allowing self-defeating thoughts to continue plaguing you.

As you learn to identify what you are feeling, tame your inner critic, and work towards a different outcome, you will begin to see how freeing forgiveness can be. The power of forgiveness is in being able to offer yourself that gift, to accept it, and to step into the hope that tomorrow will be different.

Healing at Villa Kali Ma

When it comes to processing through your past, this is the work of therapy—to learn to offer yourself forgiveness, to sit with your pain and emotion, and move through it. At Villa Kali Ma, we know the importance of the relationship you develop with yourself on the recovery journey, as well as the challenges of meeting your inner critic face-to-face.

In addition to working with you through the process of self-forgiveness, we teach you the skills of mindfulness, of how to stay present in your experience, and how to offer yourself self-compassion along the way. If you or an important woman in your life is struggling with addiction to alcohol or other substances, contact us today to learn more about our program and how we can help!