List of Mental Disorders and Definitions

A

1. Aboulia is a type of personality disorder characterized by a lack or even the disappearance of the will. Aboulia can also be a symptom of a more serious condition such as depression or dementia.
2. Absence seizures are generalized seizures that occur in school-aged children. Typical absence seizures consist of sudden cessation of movement, staring, and sometimes blinking.
3. Acute stress disorder is characterized by the development of severe anxiety, dissociative, and other symptoms that occurs within one month after exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor.
4. Adjustment disorder is a short-term condition that occurs when a person is unable to cope with, or adjust to, a particular source of stress, such as a major life change, loss, or event.
5. Antisocial behavior may be overt, involving aggressive actions against siblings, peers, parents, teachers, or other adults, such as verbal abuse, bullying and hitting; or covert, involving aggressive actions against property, such as theft, vandalism, and fire-setting.
6. Agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, or help wouldn't be available if things go wrong. A person with agoraphobia may be scared of: travelling on public transport, visiting a shopping centre, leaving home.
7. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks.
8. Amnestic disorders are a group of disorders that involve loss of memories previously established, loss of the ability to create new memories, or loss of the ability to learn new information.
9. Anterograde amnesia is a selective memory deficit, resulting from brain injury, in which the individual is severely impaired in learning new information. Memories for events that occurred before the injury may be largely spared, but events that occurred since the injury may be lost.
10. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of a disregard for other people’s rights, often crossing the line and violating those rights. It usually begins in childhood or as a teen and continues into their adult lives.
11. Anxiety disorders are mental illnesses. The different types of anxiety disorders include: phobias, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and other mental illnesses.
12. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a problem of not being able to focus, being overactive, not being able control behavior, or a combination of these. For these problems to be diagnosed as ADHD, they must be out of the normal range for a person's age and development.
13. Autophagia is one name for both the process of eating parts of one’s own body and a term used to describe a psychological condition marked by the desire to do so.

B

1. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
2. Body dysmorphic disorder, or body dysmorphia, is an anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance and to have a distorted view of how they look.
3. Brief psychotic disorder is a short-term, time-limited disorder. An individual with brief psychotic disorder has experienced at least one of the major symptoms of psychosis for less than one month.
4. Bulimia nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.

C

1. Conversion disorder is a mental health condition in which a person has blindness, paralysis, or other nervous system symptoms that cannot be explained by medical evaluation.
2. Cyclothymic disorder is a mild form of bipolar disorder in which a person has mood swings over a period of years that go from mild depression to emotional highs.

D

1. Delusional disorder refers to a condition associated with one or more non bizarre delusions of thinking - such as expressing beliefs that occur in real life such as being poisoned, being stalked, being loved or deceived, or having an illness, provided no other symptoms of schizophrenia are exhibited.
2. Depersonalization disorder consists of persistent or recurrent feelings of being detached from one's body or mental processes, usually with a feeling of being an outside observer of one's life.
3. Dissociative fugue is one or more episodes of amnesia in which patients cannot recall some or all of their past and either lose their identity or form a new identity.
4. Dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, is one of a group of conditions called dissociative disorders. Dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception.
5. Dyspareunia is painful sexual intercourse, due to medical or psychological causes. It can affect men, but is more common in women.
6. Dysthymic disorder is a depressive mood disorder characterized by a chronic course and an insidious onset. Many people with dysthymia describe lifelong depression.

E

1. Exhibitionism is a mental disorder characterized by a compulsion to display one's genitals to an unsuspecting stranger.

F

1. Female orgasmic disorder is the continuous or frequent inability of a woman to have an orgasm, climax or sexual release, after sufficient sexual arousal and sexual stimulation.
2. Fetishism - in psychology, erotic attachment to an inanimate object or a non genital body part whose real or fantasized presence is necessary for sexual gratification.
3. Frotteurism is a disorder in which a person derives sexual pleasure or gratification from rubbing, especially the genitals, against another person, usually in a crowd.

G

1. Gender identity disorder is a conflict between a person's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies as. For example, a person identified as a boy may actually feel and act like a girl. The person is very uncomfortable with the gender they were born.
2. Generalized anxiety disorder is an anxiety disorder that affects about 5% of the population. People with GAD worry excessively and uncontrollably about daily life events and activities.

H

1. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is the most common form of female sexual dissatisfaction and occurs when there is a persistent lack of desire or absence of sexual fantasies. In other words, you're rarely in the mood; you neither initiate sex nor seek stimulation.
2. Hypochondriasis is an overwhelming fear that you have a serious disease, even though health care providers can find no evidence of illness. People with hypochondriasis misinterpret normal body sensations as signs of serious illness.

I

1. Intermittent explosive disorder involves repeated episodes of impulsive, aggressive, violent behavior or angry verbal outbursts in which you react grossly out of proportion to the situation. Road rage, domestic abuse, throwing or breaking objects, or other temper tantrums may be signs of intermittent explosive disorder.

K

1. Kleptomania is a well known impulse-control disorder characterized by an intense urge to steal things. A person suffering from this disorder experiences a compulsive urge to steal things, usually of trivial value. It often occurs among people with obsessive compulsive disorder or bulimia.

M

1. Male erectile disorder - persistent or recurrent inability to attain, or to maintain until completion of the sexual activity, an adequate erection.
2. Major depression is a mood state that goes well beyond temporarily feeling sad or blue. It is a serious medical illness that affects one's thoughts, feelings, behavior, mood and physical health. Depression is a life-long condition in which periods of wellness alternate with recurrences of illness.

O

1. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental illness. It's made up of two parts: obsessions and compulsions. People may experience obsessions, compulsions, or both, and they cause a lot of distress.

P

1. Pain disorder is chronic pain experienced by a patient in one or more areas, and is thought to be caused by psychological stress. The pain is often so severe that it disables the patient from proper functioning.
2. Panic disorder is diagnosed in people who experience spontaneous seemingly out-of-the-blue panic attacks and are preoccupied with the fear of a recurring attack. Panic attacks occur unexpectedly, sometimes even during sleep.
3. Pathological gambling disorder occurs when a person gambles compulsively to such an extent that the wagering has a severe negative effect on his or her job, relationships, mental health, or other important aspects of life.
4. Personality disorders are conditions in which an individual differs significantly from an average person, in terms of how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others.
5. Pedophilia is defined as the fantasy or act of sexual activity with prepubescent children. Pedophiles are usually men, and can be attracted to either or both sexes.
6. Posttraumatic stress disorder is a serious potentially debilitating condition that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a natural disaster, serious accident, terrorist incident, sudden death of a loved one, war, violent personal assault such as rape, or other life-threatening events.
7. Premature ejaculation is the most common sexual problem for men. It is a lack of control over ejaculation so that it often happens sooner than the man or his partner would want, causing distress for one or other of them.
8. Pyromania is defined as a pattern of deliberate setting of fires for pleasure or satisfaction derived from the relief of tension experienced before the fire-setting.

S

1. Schizophrenia is an illness, a medical condition. It affects the normal functioning of the brain, interfering with a person’s ability to think, feel and act. Some do recover completely, and, with time, most find that their symptoms improve.
2. Schizoaffective disorder is a combination of two mental illnesses - schizophrenia and a mood disorder. The main types of associated mood disorder include bipolar (characterised by manic episodes or an alternation of manic and depressive episodes) and unipolar (characterised by depressive episodes).
3. Schizophreniform disorder is similar to but milder than schizophrenia. Symptoms (positive or negative) last between one and six months, and patients are able to function socially and at work during this time. When symptoms persist beyond six months in duration, the diagnosis is changed to schizophrenia.
4. Sexual aversion disorder is phobic aversion to and avoidance of sexual contact with a sexual partner, which causes personal distress.
5. Sexual masochism refers to engaging in or frequently fantasizing about being beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer, resulting in sexual satisfaction. Blindfolding, spanking and humiliation in the form of defecation, urination, or forced imitation of animals are other methods used by these patients.
6. Sexual sadism - individuals with sexual sadism disorder have persistent fantasies in which sexual excitement results from inflicting psychological or physical suffering (including humiliation and terror) on a sexual partner.
7. Shared psychotic disorder is diagnosed when delusions develop in an individual involved in a close relationship with another individual already afflicted with delusions arising out of a different psychosis such as Schizophrenia, Delusional Disorder or psychotic Major Depression.
8. Social phobia is a strong fear of being judged by others and of being embarrassed. This fear can be so strong that it gets in the way of going to work or school or doing other everyday things.
9. Somatization disorder is a chronic condition in which a person has physical symptoms that involve more than one part of the body, but no physical cause can be found. The pain and other symptoms people with this disorder feel are real, and are not created or faked on purpose.
10. Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs.

T

1. Transvestic fetishism is defined as sexual arousal which is derived from fantasizing and wearing clothing designed specifically for the opposite sex. This disorder generally affects only men who prefer women's clothing, undergarments or other items.
2. Trichotillomania is hair loss from repeated urges to pull or twist the hair until it breaks off. Patients are unable to stop this behavior, even as their hair becomes thinner.

V

1. Vaginismus is defined as involuntary spasm/contraction/reflex of the muscles surrounding the entrance to the vagina, making penetration impossible and/or painful, which causes personal and/or relationship distress.
2. Voyeurism is one of the behaviors in a group of sexual problems called paraphilias. Paraphilias are associated with sexual arousal in response to stimuli not associated with normal sexual behavior patterns. Voyeurism is a practice in which an individual derives sexual pleasure from observing other people.