7 Health Conditions You Didn't Know Were Mental Health Conditions

Pregnancy- and menstruation-related disorders
Any woman (or her partner) knows that pregnancy and menstruation often come with emotional changes. But sometimes things go from just emotional to being serious enough to affect the woman’s ability to continue her normal life. Which is where a psychiatrist or other mental health professional might need to come in.

Sexual disorders
Yes, sexual disorders are a major reason to see a psychiatrist. And the reason is simple when you think about it: once you rule out sexual problems caused by physical conditions, all that’s left is problems of behaviour. Which other doctor can you think of who would handle that?

Bedwetting
Almost everyone knows someone who used to bedwet. (Or maybe even still does.) And although there are all kinds of ways people try to address bedwetting, most people I’ve met don’t seem to even consider psychiatric help as an option. But once you rule out physical causes, bedwetting (or enuresis, as we call it) is totally a behavioural problem.

Alcohol and drug use problems
Most people don’t really think of alcohol and drug use problems as psychiatric, except the person starts to behave unusually or something. Which is sad, because harmfully using drugs and alcohol is already a behavioural problem. Waiting until abnormal behaviour starts means many who are already living below their potential don’t get help.

Anxiety disorders
Did you ever see Iron Man 3? Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr) was having attacks of sudden anxiety where he would basically freak out and have flashbacks (from his near-death experience in Avengers — you saw that, at least?). You may not have known specifically, but those were panic attacks and his problem was something along the lines of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Which is totally a psychiatric problem — he definitely needed to see a psychiatrist or other mental health professional.

Learning disorders
I see kids all the time who struggle in school and everyone thinks they’re dumb. Which is sad, because some of them are trying very hard, but they’re struggling with learning difficulties like dyslexia (reading disorder) and dyscalculia (arithmetic disorder). Kids with problems like this don’t do well because skills they struggle with skills most other kids can luckily take for granted. And our whole system of education is based on the assumption they already have these skills. (Imagine what it’s like for those who don’t.)

Dementia
I’ve seen people with elderly relatives who have been forgetting stuff consistently for years, but they didn’t realise that was a problem. They assumed it was part of normal old age. (It’s not). By the time these people get to the hospital (usually because of unusual behaviour, which is the only mental health symptom most people know), it’s late. Maybe not too late, but later than would have been ideal.

These are just a few, obviously. I havent mentioned eating disorders, or child and adolescent behavioural disorders, or other disorders of old age and so on. I’ve said nothing about conversion disorders and somatisation disorders and other kinds of schizophrenia.