Signs You Should Take a Mental Health Evaluation

Are you constantly feeling low or depressed? Do you have constant trouble sleeping or managing things? If you answered the above questions in the affirmative, you might want to get a mental health evaluation.

Mental health evaluation or assessment is a series of tests your doctor, psychologist, or psychiatrist will perform on you to assess your mental health. It includes a physical exam to rule out neurological and thyroid disorders. You can check with therapists near you for this purpose. 

The doctor then conducts lab tests, for example, blot tests, blood, urine tests, and brain scans to check for physical abnormalities. Moreover, your doctor will ask about your mental health history and personal history, for example, past traumas, drug use, or sources of stress.

Lastly, the doctor will conduct a mental and cognitive evaluation to assess your behavior and memory.

Having good mental health is the key to living a successful life. According to CDU, good mental health leads to increase in learning, improves creativity, promotes positive social relationships, and improves physical health and life expectancy.

Therefore, you should prioritize your mental health. Learn about your mental health risks, triggers, stressful conditions, and other factors that might be affecting your mental health.

However, if you want to quickly know if there is something you need to be doing for your mental health, then read on below about the signs that should make you worry:

1. You cannot focus:

Are you experiencing problems with focusing? If you are studying or working, you need your focus; and if you can’t focus, it might be causing your productivity or grades to dip.

In schools, there are professionals that conduct health screenings, which might to early diagnosis of possible mental health conditions. During sessions at health screening schools experts look for these signs by examining the schoolchild’s emotional and behavioral condition. Early detection helps resolve these issues, so they don’t get the chance to fester and become complicated in adulthood.

Going through an assessment will help you learn more about the state of your mental health. You can then use that assessment to eliminate distractions, stress, or any other hurdles in your focus.

2. Mood changes:

Mood fluctuations are normal and healthy if they are due to some external factors. However, if these fluctuations are persistent, then it is a sign that you may need a mental health evaluation.

Constant feelings of apathy, desperation, sadness, and irritability point toward a mental health problem. According to the Recovery Village Rehab, 1 in every 5 Americans has some kind of mental illness or mood disorder.

Around 20.9 million American aged 18 or older have a mood disorder. Another study in NIH states that 9.7% of U.S adults had a mood disorder in the past year. It also tells that the prevalence of mood disorders for females was higher than for men.

Therefore, constant mood disruptions are a sign of a mental illness, i.e., bipolar disorder. You should monitor your symptoms carefully and visit a professional for treatment and correct diagnosis. 

3. You neglect your personal needs:

Neglecting something not on your priority list or not feeling like doing anything because you are lazy is okay; there is no need to rush to a psychiatrist for that. However, if you are constantly neglecting tasks, canceling plans, and ignoring everything to a point where you cannot function properly, consider visiting a mental health professional.

According to the WHO, this behavior is called self-neglect, and it prevents people with mental health illnesses from getting treatment.

Hence, if you feel like you are constantly neglecting your personal needs and pushing them under the rug, you need to assess yourself and get medical attention.

4. Your life is a mess:

Mental health issues can affect your day-to-day life as well. You can have severe mood changes, problems focusing on work or study, fluctuations in energy levels, and productivity and procrastination issues.

You have trouble communicating with people around you. When you work, you either work too hard or not hard enough.

If your work and personal life are chaotic and you cannot seem to balance it, chances are you have a mental health issue to cope with and it would be better to visit a mental health practitioner.

According to the NCBI, research shows that people with mental illness find it difficult to maintain a normally functioning life.

Act before it’s too late. Assess your own behavior, talk to the people around you, ask for their help, and call your psychiatrist if you don’t feel well.

5. You are disinterested in daily activities:

We all feel down from time to time in life or feel demotivated and lazy. However, if you persistently feel apathetic toward the activities that you once enjoyed, you might want to seek help. According to the WHO, apathy in performing daily tasks points to the existence of depression.

Depression is a mood disorder that causes severe mood swings in the people affected by it. A depressive person performs poorly at home, work, and in social situations.

Depression causes the afflicted person to stay in bed all day and feel demotivated mood to do anything in life. In worst cases, depression can lead to suicide. According to the WHO, approximately 280 million people worldwide have depression.

If you are displaying signs of this tragic disorder, you must immediately consult a mental health practitioner.

6. Negative or suicidal thoughts:

If your attitude toward life is overly pessimistic or you constantly think negatively about life in general, then you need to get yourself assessed.

Ignoring them will only aggravate the problem down the line, leading to unnecessary mental tension and stress, damaged self-esteem, and warped perception of reality.

7. Substance use:

Do you ever overindulge in prescription medications, or are you a heavy drinker? If you have a drug or alcohol addiction, you are at a higher risk of developing a mental illness.

According to the NIH, individuals who have a substance abuse disorder will also experience a co-occurring mental disorder, i.e., anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar disorder.

Therefore, if you have a history of drug or alcohol addiction, you need to visit the doctor for a complete mental assessment and consider entering into a Coral Springs drug rehab.

 Conclusion:

Mental health issues are often considered taboo, no matter where you live. The stigma around mental health and mental health counseling stops people from openly talking about it or to seek help when they need it. The above-mentioned signs should be a good start for anyone who wants to know whether they would be better off with a mental health evaluation.