Suicidal ideation, thoughts and attempts.

Suicidality

A small but growing literature has examined the health of transgender and gender diverse people, and data suggest that transgender and gender diverse people are at substantially elevated risk for various negative health outcomes compared to cisgender people (i.e., individuals whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity).

Differences in Mental Health Problems, Substance Use, Violence, and Related Psychosocial Factors in Youth and Young Adults Between Gender Minorities and Gender Conforming Populations

It is well known that sexual minority youth have more negative mental health outcomes than heterosexual youth. However, data suggests that there are important variations in mental health outcomes between certain minority identities as well.

Differences in Mental Health Outcomes within Sexual Minority Youth

Individuals with a disability experience many types of ableism in their daily lives: one type being microaggressions. Disabled adults who experience microaggressions regularly have lower mental health quality, increased negative affect, and higher somatic symptoms. These microaggressions sustain stereotypes and discrimination against marginalized groups. 

Ableist Microaggressions and the Mental Health of Disabled Adults

More and more students with disabilities are going to college. While this is an overall positive occurrence, research shows that individuals with a disability have overall lower mental health than their nondisabled peers. Students who receive professional and social support have better mental health and less academic issues. 

Mental Health and Professional Help-Seeking Among College Students with Disabilities

About ⅓ of people living on disability status are doing so as a result of a mental health disability. Living on disability is costly as well as encourages those with mental illness to become passive about their health and discourages hope of feeling better. Evidence - based treatments, while effective, are rarely discussed or researched. Policy is so important, but many do not view mental health and disability as areas that need policy improvement. Policy and treatment working in tandem can make or break the experience of having a disability. 

Mental Health Disability: An International Perspective 

While people who hold vulnerable identities are more likely to experience hardship, the highest levels of distress are felt by people whose identities intersect with other marginalized identities such as class, race, gender, and disability status. Not many people realize that this vulnerability extends to natural disasters primarily as a result of poverty, structural disadvantage, and social exclusion. 

The Effects of Disaster on the Mental Health of Individuals with Disabilities

Quality of life as a measure of overall well-being is a popular variable used in psychosocial research. Rarely, however, has it been used when assessing coping, specifically coping with chronic illness and/or a disability. Even less studied is the relationship between community level interventions and personal coping. 

Quality of Life and Coping With Chronic Illness and Disability: A Temporal Perspective

- Self-Diagnosis: How does it occur?
- Self-Diagnosis: Why does it occur?
- Self-Diagnosis: References

Mental Disorders and Self Diagnosis

Reference for A “Scar” of a Mental Disorder

A “scar” of a mental disorder is a term used to describe the lasting effect on the individual’s characteristic approach of feeling, thinking, and interacting with other people due to previously experiencing an acute psychological disorder like major depression disorder or psychosis. This lasting effect can be exhibited by an ongoing subthreshold manifestation of the psychological disorder, such as schizophrenia’s residual phase looking like the traits of schizotypal personality disorder. It can also be exhibited by the formation of new personality traits because of the experience or existence of the psychological disorder, such as developing the traits of dependent personality disorder due to previously experiencing psychotic episodes or recurring panic attacks.

A “Scar” of a Mental Disorder

Various health and life outcomes of mental disorders/mental illnesses. 

Arizona State University

Kalamazoo College

Also called psychological disorders, these are disorders rooted in mental thought patterns that impair the person's functioning, with specific disorders having their own disgnostic criteria. 

Mental Disorders/Mental Illnesses

- Anxiety disorders
- Mood disorders 
- Psychotic disorders
- Personality disorders
- Eating disorders
- Sleep disorders
- Addiction
- Adjustment disorders

Categories of mental disorders/mental illnesses

Psychopathology is a term with a dual meaning. It refers to the scientific study of psychological disorders, which includes investigating their symptoms, etiology (causes), and potential treatments. Concurrently, the term can also describe the manifestation of a psychological disorder itself, meaning the abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that indicate its presence.

Psychopathology

Characteristics associated with a lower likelihood of developing a mental illness/disorder.
- Biophysical 
- Psychological 
- Social 
- Spiritual 

Protective Factors

Mental Disorders/Mental Illnesses Outcomes

Anxiety Sensitivity (AS) describes the fear of anxiety-related symptoms that are often accompanied by hyperarousal, pain, stomach distress, and racing thoughts. Individuals experience physical and social fears alongside concerns for mental capability.

Anxiety Sensitivity

In this study, researchers collected data on healthy eating barriers which impact individuals suffering from mental illness. They found that participant's barriers towards a healthy lifestyle were modifiable and suggested helpful intervention techniques. 

Healthy Eating in Persons with Serious Mental Illnesses: Understanding and Barriers

The cause of comorbid Anxiety and Depression is debated within the scientific community. Adolescents experience comorbidity of Anxiety and Depression at rates ranging from 15.9%-61.9%.  

Comorbidity of Anxiety and Depression in Youth

Gender Dysphoria is characterized by the subjectively experienced distress that arises from the mismatch between gender identity, or internally felt sense of gender, and assigned sex at birth.

Gender Dysphoria

An emerging field which seeks to identify which dietary components are truly important for mental health, including in psychiatric disease, as well as to whom,
under which circumstances and at which specific dosages these nutritional interventions have preventative and therapeutic efficacy.

Nutrition Psychiatry

Factors that predispose adults and children to develop a mental disorder
- Biological 
- Psychological 
- Social 
- Spiritual 
- Cultural

Risk Factors for Developing a Mental Disorder

Neurological disorders are a specific type of disorder that occurs as a result of injury or trauma to the brain or central nervous system, consisting of the spinal cord and the connected nerves. Neurological disorders can impair movement and speech to various degrees, depending on the intensity and the specific type of neurological disorder. Neurological disorders can also occur as a result of genetic abnormalities and infections. Specific neurological disorders include cerebral palsy, ADD, and conversion disorder.

Neurological Disorders

References for Neurological Disorders

The term of psychiatric survivor comes from the c/s/x movement and is meant to position individuals as survivors of the psychiatric system and psychiatric industrial complex.

Psychiatric Survivor

Ex-patient was used as a term starting in the 1970s by individuals in the growing ex-patients movement. The term was used at the time because of how madness and mad as derogatory terms were not yet reclaimed. It was used as an identity to indicate individuals who have previously been 
patients in asylums or other mental health systems.

Ex-patient

The term psychiatric consumer originated at the 1985 Alternatives Conference and was chosen to represent individuals who receive care from mental health and psychiatric services. It was chosen in part because it was meant to signify that patients have, or ideally should have, a choice of services and treatment.

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