What Causes A Mental Disorder To Develop?

Past Mental Illness

Past mental illness can have an impact on an individual's chances of developing mental illness in the future. A few different factors are at play here. One is that patients may be more predisposed toward certain chemical imbalances that lead to mental health symptoms. Certain mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, tend to be caused by ongoing chemical imbalances. They require lifelong treatment, typically with a combination of medication and therapy. If patients stop taking the medication, they might experience a recurrence in their symptoms that feels like a new mental illness. Another factor is mental illness causes distorted patterns of thinking and cognition. If individuals have had trouble regulating their thoughts and emotions in the past, they might continue to experience those problems in the future. One of the most helpful things for individuals with emotional regulation issues is cognitive behavioral therapy, which aims to help patients identify unhealthy patterns and break them. It's also possible individuals might experience mental health symptoms of a past disorder even after months or years in recovery.

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