Psychiatric Disorders: Common Types and Symptoms

What is a Psychiatric Disorder?

A psychiatric disorder is a mental illness diagnosed by a mental health professional that significantly disturbs your thinking, moods, and/or behavior and increases your risk of disability, pain, death, or loss of freedom. The symptoms must be more severe than a normal response to an upsetting event, such as grief after losing a loved one.

Common Types of Psychiatric Disorders:

1. Neurodevelopmental Disorders:
2. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

3. Autism spectrum disorders

4. Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders:

5. Detachment from reality

6. Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and speech

7. Bipolar and Related Disorders:

8. Episodes of mania (excessive excitement, activity, and energy) alternating with periods of depression

9. Depressive Disorders:

10. Persistent feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and reduced interest in activities

11. Major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder (PDD)

12. Anxiety Disorders:

13. Excessive and unrealistic worry and fear

14. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder

15. Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders:

16. Repeated and unwanted urges, thoughts, or images (obsessions)
17. Compulsions to perform specific actions in response to obsessions

18. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

19. Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders:

20. Develop during or after stressful or traumatic life events

21. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute stress disorder

22. Dissociative Disorders:

23. Disruptions in sense of self, identity, and memory

24. Dissociative identity disorder

25. Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders:

26. Distress and physical symptoms with no clear medical cause

27. Illness anxiety disorder

28. Feeding and Eating Disorders:

    • Disturbances related to eating
    • Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder

29. Elimination Disorders:

    • Inappropriate elimination (release) of urine or stool
    • Bedwetting (enuresis)

30. Sleep-Wake Disorders:

    • Interference with a person's ability to get adequate sleep
    • Insomnia disorder

31. Sexual Dysfunctions:

    • Disorders of sexual response
    • Premature ejaculation, erectile disorder, female orgasmic disorder

32. Gender Dysphoria:

    • Distress associated with a person's desire to be a different gender

33. Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders:

    • Difficulty with emotional and behavioral self-control
    • Kleptomania, intermittent explosive disorder

34. Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders:

    • Problems associated with excessive use of alcohol, drugs, or gambling

35. Neurocognitive Disorders:

    • Affect thinking and reasoning
    • Delirium, Dementia

36. Personality Disorders:

    • Lasting pattern of emotional instability and unhealthy behaviors
    • Borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder

37. Paraphilic Disorders:

    • Sexual-interest disorders
    • Sexual sadism disorder, voyeuristic disorder, pedophilic disorder

38. Other Mental Disorders:

    • Psychiatric disorders due to other medical conditions or not meeting criteria for other groups

Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorders:

• Confused thinking
• Reduced ability to concentrate
• Ongoing sadness or feeling "down"
• Difficulty managing day-to-day stress and problems
• Trouble understanding situations and others
• Withdrawal from activities and others
• Extreme tiredness, low energy, or sleep problems
• Intense fear, worry, or guilt
• Rapid mood swings
• Delusions, paranoia, or hallucinations
• Changes in eating habits and sex drive
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Excessive anger, hostility, or violence
• Suicidal thoughts

When Does a Mental Health Concern Become a Psychiatric Disorder?

Unlike time-limited mental health concerns, psychiatric disorders are ongoing and significantly impact daily life, causing distress to the individual and those around them. They interfere with the ability to perform day-to-day tasks.