When and How to Get Help

How can you tell when someone—including yourself—needs treatment for a mental disor­der? How do you handle your own problems? How do you help someone else? Where do you turn for professional help? We will discuss some of the answers to these questions below.

Coping with Everyday Living

We all face problems in our daily lives. We are sometimes frightened, embarrassed, threatened, frustrated. We are made to feel anger, guilt, inadequacy. Usually, we overcome such feelings. Occasionally, though, we face situations that are beyond our ability to cope. At such times, we may experience symptoms of psychological disturbance.

Sometimes such symptoms can be avoided by the use of certain strategies. For one thing, you can try to avoid unreasonable problems. If, for instance, you find you always argue with another student in your school, you can make plans to see as little of the student as possible. Find different friends. Go to different places. you can also try to develop skills for coping with problem situations. The more practice you get in trying different strategies — and the more successful you are — the better adjusted you become. Here are some examples:

1 John wanted to become a paramedic. However, when he looked at the required chemistry course, he knew it was not for him. Rethinking goals and switching to another subject is reasonable coping behavior. On the other hand, switching courses because of a minor setback — a bad grade on one exam — is not good coping.

2 Choosing your own interests is vitally important for your growth. Ben decided to quit the football team and to take up swimming, even though his father wanted him to play football. Such a change may be good for developing Ben's reliance on his own feelings. However, if Ben had quit the football team because he was angry with his father and wanted to hurt him, it would not have been helpful.

3 The best way to get rid of extreme acrophobia (fear of heights) is not suddenly to walk to the edge of a roof and look over. Instead, people should accustom themselves to high places gradually. They should go step by step. The same applies to many other fears and phobias.

4 Suppose you feel you just cannot speak in public Try to speak to a group whose members not only understand your fear but share it. The desire of all the members to overcome the fear will give support to each one.

5 Everyone runs out of energy now and then. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the pressure and pace of your life, take it easy for a while. Withdraw from some activities. Get away by yourself until you feel like reengaging with the world.

Most importantly, avoid developing be­havior patterns that are destructive to yourself or to others. Kicking a younger brother who angers you may vent the anger. But it also causes you to feel stupid and guilty. A better solution may be to express your anger in words. This allows the other person to take a part in resolving the conflict.

Signs of Mental Disorders

How can you tell when a person's coping strategies are not sufficient? How can you dis­tinguish between the normal disturbances everyone has and a disorder that needs help? What are the warning signs of mental disorder?

In addition to the symptoms described al­ready, the following are other signs:

1 a prolonged and intense anxiety (This is a feeling that something bad is going to happen when there is no real reason for such a feeling.)

2 a severe and persistent depression (Here the per­son feels low, unhappy, uncaring. A depressed person often has little energy or motivation, withdraws from most activities, and finds it hard to do anything.)

3 a sudden change in mood or behavior that is un­characteristic (A generally passive person may become very aggressive, change her or his patterns of dress, speech, or actions, and appear strange and reckless.)

4 one or more physical complaints (The person may begin to complain of headaches, nausea, pains, sleeplessness, shortness of breath, or the like. Yet there is no medical cause for the complaints).

5 performance falling far short of earlier promise (Here the person's actions in work, play, or rela­tionships suddenly fall much below what he or she is capable of doing.)