• Question: Will there be any mental health issues that you have come across that people might not have heard of?

    Asked by anon-216133 to Robert, Olly, Nicola, Jasmin, Dennis, Caroline on 12 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Oliver Clabburn

      Oliver Clabburn answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      Hmm, this is an interesting one! Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any MH issues that people might not have heard of. During my motor neurone disease work I learnt about a type of dementia that often affects people living with MND- Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD).

    • Photo: Caroline Brett

      Caroline Brett answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      There are a lot of different types of phobia that are quite unusual (they pretty much cover everything in existence). An unusual condition that has always perplexed me is borderline personality disorder (which is also known as ’emotional unstable personality disorder’ – I’m not sure that’s a better title to be honest). It is quite rare, complex, and interesting. If you have ever seen the film “Girl, Interrupted”, this is what Winona Ryder’s character is diagnosed with. You can decide for yourself whether you think it is a worthwhile diagnosis

    • Photo: Jasmin Moon

      Jasmin Moon answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      People have often heard of schizophrenia but there is also a condition called schizoaffective disorder, which is thought to be something between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. People with this disorder often experience psychosis (hallucinations and delusions) as well as experiencing very low or manic moods (or both). You can read an article here written by someone with schizoaffective disorder: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/schizoaffective-disorder-and-me/#.XQEpvYhKiHs

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      Trichotillomania. It’s pulling your hair all the time. It is rare so some might have not heard of it. Human behaviour can be very fascinating!

    • Photo: Robert Dempsey

      Robert Dempsey answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      Dissociation is an interesting one. It seems like we all experience some degree of dissociation – e.g. if you’ve every had that out of body type experience or almost had a memory blank where you’ve walked somewhere and not remembered how you got there – these seem quite common. People who’ve had a significant trauma happen often experience these dissociative experiences (a disconnect from reality, your own thoughts/feelings), but it seems that everyone’s had this to some extent even without having being traumatised.

    • Photo: Nicola Johnstone

      Nicola Johnstone answered on 13 Jun 2019:

      I think that it’s surprising that mental health issues are just very normal aspects of cognition that can make us feel bad, or make it difficult to cope. For example, one aspect of OCD is constant, intrusive thoughts. Everyone has intrusive thoughts, but there is an issue when the become a and start to bother someone.

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