With the accelerating pace of life, people are under increasing pressure, leading to a high incidence of mental illnesses. It is hoped that everyone must have a deep understanding of the factors that trigger mental illnesses to avoid pitfalls. What are the causes of mental illnesses? How should mental illnesses be prevented and treated?
Causes of Mental Illness
The main causes of mental illness are due to work and environmental pressures, especially for young people faced with strong social competitiveness and stress. Also, it is related to the physical constitution of the individuals.
According to the renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from Suzhou Yusheng Tang, these mental illnesses are caused by depression or blood circulation blockages. Patients often experience symptoms such as dizziness, forgetfulness, insomnia, confused thinking, dry mouth, chest tightness, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal disorders, back pain, among others, collectively known as personal functional disorders.
Symptoms of Mental Illnesses
Clinical Manifestations
1. Early Signs
(1) There are sudden changes in personality. Originally lively and friendly individuals become cold, distant, isolated, lazy, undisciplined, and lose enthusiasm for everything.
(2) Emotional disturbances lead to emotional numbness, indifference towards family, disinterest in surroundings, irritability, sudden angry outbursts over trivial matters, inexplicable laughter, or crying spells.
(3) Peculiar behaviors begin to emerge. Engaging in aimless staring, solitude, making communication difficult for others.
(4) Heightened sensitivity and suspicion, where everything is perceived as directed towards them. Feeling like others are talking about them, loss of appetite, insomnia, distorted perceptions, and even hallucinations.
(5) Sleep disorders manifest as difficulty falling asleep, easily waking up even after falling asleep, shallow sleep, insomnia, vivid dreams, or excessive sleep.
(6) Activities of substances like mental, alcohol poisoning, organophosphate poisoning, non-dependence disorders, disorders due to corticosteroids, sedative-hypnotic poisoning.
2. Common Symptoms
(1) Sensory disturbances include hypersensitivity, reduced sensitivity, misperceptions, inadequate internal sense, among others.
(2) Perceptual disturbances manifest as illusions, visual misperceptions, hallucinations, and sensory integration syndromes.
(3) Cognitive impairments involve racing thoughts, slow thinking, poverty of thought, looseness of thoughts, incoherence, tangentiality, illogical thinking, delusional thinking, among others.
(4) Attention disorders encompass active and passive attention disturbances.
(5) Memory disorders comprise enhancement, decline, amnesia, confabulation, false recollection, latent memories, déjà vu symptoms.
(6) Intellectual impairments include congenital intellectual disabilities, acquired dementia.
(7) Emotional disturbances involve experiencing and expressing various emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, hatred, sorrow, worry, and common emotional imbalances like elation, sadness, anxiety, fragility, and more.
If individuals exhibit symptoms of mental illnesses, it is advised to seek medical attention early, undergo examinations, and opt for appropriate treatments under medical guidance.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Approaches to Mental Illness Treatment
Renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from Suzhou Yusheng Tang notes that some patients tend to overlook the seriousness of mental illnesses and self-medicate by purchasing drugs from pharmacies. Others directly opt for Western medicine without investigating the root causes. While controlling the neurological or central inhibitory mental state may temporarily improve symptoms, this approach fails to address the underlying issues. Additionally, continuous self-medication without understanding the unidentified causes can lead to drug resistance and dependence in the body, exacerbating the condition upon cessation.
Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes dialectical treatments for curing diseases, aiming to identify the root causes for effective treatment. Conditions like neurosis, depression, anxiety, and insomnia are treated using traditional acupuncture along with traditional herbal decoctions. The therapy includes adjusting prescriptions regularly based on the patient’s condition to help alleviate symptoms and restore social functionality promptly.
Mental illnesses can generally be treated with medication or acupuncture therapy. Different symptoms call for different treatment methods.
Medication Treatment: Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes calming and soothing the mind for mental illness treatment. Patients can use Chinese herbs like sour jujube seeds, arborvitae seeds known for nourishing the heart and soothing the mind or opt for pills like Zhusha’s calming and soothing pills for treating mental illness. Acupuncture Therapy: Acupuncture is a widely used clinical treatment in Traditional Chinese medicine where stimulating specific acupuncture points helps in the treatment. Patients with mental illnesses can undergo acupuncture stimulation on points like Neiguan (P6), Baihui (DU20), which has calming and mind-soothing effects, effectively managing symptoms like insomnia, forgetfulness, and depression.
Early diagnosis, prompt treatment, and medication adjustments under medical supervision are recommended when experiencing symptoms of mental illnesses.
Preventing Mental Illness
1. Enhance Physical Fitness: Strengthen the body’s resistance and immunity to reduce the occurrence of mental disorders caused by acute and chronic central nervous system infections and physical diseases.
2. Improve Nutrition: Ensure comprehensive nutrient intake and avoid selective eating habits. Pay special attention to adequate protein and vitamin intake. Good lifestyle habits facilitate better prevention of disease invasion.
3. Strengthen the Treatment of Chronic Diseases: Utilize comprehensive treatments for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, etc. Disseminate medication knowledge, monitor drug side effects and toxic reactions to prevent the onset of more diseases.
4. Workplace Safety: Be vigilant against mental disorders caused by acute and chronic poisoning from substances like mercury, lead, benzene, manganese, carbon monoxide (gas), and certain pesticides. Avoid smoking, excessive drinking, and prevent traffic accidents.
