What is an illness?
Psychiatric illnesses are treatable. This is good news. Some psychiatric illnesses respond to treatment better than others, but each illness can be successfully treated with a combination of several different techniques. Different methods of treatment and medications may be used to treat different illnesses and each illness has its own set of symptoms and methods of management.
Anxiety and depression are among the most common forms of mental illness. They are also the most undiagnosed symptoms seen by medical professionals making, them the most undertreated medical conditions of all times. Other mental illness also show some degree of both anxiety and depression. People with chronic, debilitating or life threatening illnesses have these symptoms as well. They are treatable by a combination of medication and psychotherapy.
Individuals may see their medical professional for what they perceive as a medical condition, however the medical condition may have its roots in a chronic depressive disorder or other mental process. Professionals may not ask the right questions (“Are you depressed?”) and individuals may be embarrassed in admitting the symptoms. The disorder goes untreated and the medical condition worsens. Treating depression will actually affect the course the medical condition takes. Change your mind and change your overall wellbeing. It works!
Substance abuse and other addictions are grouped under the mental illness category. An addiction may often be seen in individuals with a mental illness, but an addiction itself can also be the primary problem and not associated with a mental illness.