Like depression, stress, and anxiety, mental health disorders are underdiagnosed. The main cause for this is that many individuals do not realize that their moods may change and be influenced by stressors or other mental health disorders.
These disorders are also hard to diagnose because they look different across each individual and have symptoms that differ from person to person.
Mental Health Disorders Causes
The leading causes of mental health disorders can be various combinations of genetics, personality traits, brain chemistry, diet choices, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors like trauma.
These causes can be further broken down into direct and indirect causes. Direct causes are factors that have specific causal relationships, meaning that when one of these direct causes occurs, then a mental health disorder will most likely follow.
Indirect causes are factors that may not cause mental health disorders but contribute to the overall odds of developing one.
For example, a person whose family has a history of depression would have an increased chance of developing depression due to their genetic makeup and family history. These individuals may also develop depression due to stressful life events or overall poor coping skills.
Types Of Mental Health Disorders
There are several types of mental health disorders caused by genetics or heredity. These include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Clinical depression
Major depression, also known as clinical depression, is a mood disorder characterized by feelings of sadness and hopelessness that can last for weeks or months.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder categorized by extreme shifts in energy levels and mood. Major depression and bipolar disorder are heritable traits caused by variations in the genes that code for the synthesis of neurotransmitters that affect those moods.
Other Causes
Additionally, people with immediate family members with these disorders are more likely to develop them than people who do not have any close relatives.
It has been proven that genetics also plays a role in developing certain personality disorders. Research suggested that genetics may significantly affect the development of personality disorders.
Studies have shown that close relatives of people who suffer from borderline, antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic traits are more likely to have those same mental health disorders than people who do not have a family history of them.
It may be because some personality disorders may be more strongly linked to one specific gene, but multiple genes may influence others.
Environmental factors
Environmental factors also play a role in developing certain mental health disorders. Trauma is one such factor, and recent research suggests that trauma can cause changes in brain chemistry, resulting in mood changes and mental illness.
It is thought that childhood trauma such as sexual abuse, domestic violence, and parental neglect can lead to mental illness in the long term. Other environmental factors include substance use and abuse of certain drugs.
These substances can alter a person’s mood and brain chemistry, which may start a cycle of substance abuse and mental health disorders.
Some of the direct causes or contributing factors may seem obvious to people, but others are less known. For example, drug use is a major contributor to developing a mental illness because drugs alter the neurotransmitters in the brain that control moods.
Many people may not realize how much stress can influence their overall moods and how stressful life events can trigger mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety disorders.
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