Anxiety & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
True or False: Anxiety is a normal part of the human experience.
True.
Anxiety is a universal human experience that can help to promote safety & survival by motivating self-protective action.
Anxiety disorders occur when this normal response becomes disproportionate or interferes with a person's ability to cope and/or function in daily life.
True or False: Everyone with Bipolar Disorder experiences episodes of psychosis during manic episode.
False.
True or False: You can always tell that someone is struggling with an Eating Disorder by looking at them.
False.
While there are a number of physical signs associated with specific symptoms of various eating disorders, it is impossible to determine if a person does or does not have an eating disorder simply by looking at them.
True or False: Personality Disorders are often associated with a history of trauma and/or disorganized family attachment styles.
True.
Childhood trauma is considered a major risk factor in the future development of personality disorders. Especially those listed in Cluster B.
True or False: People diagnosed with schizophrenia can never work or live independently.
False.
Many people with schizophrenia and related conditions live independently and lead fulfilling lives, which may involve having a family, building a career, pursuing higher education, travel, or any number of alternative life goals.
True or False: Substance Use Disorder only affects people who use illegal substances and/or Alcohol.
False.
Many legal substances other than alcohol can result in a type of substance use disorder, including caffeine, Cannabis, Nicotine, and more.
True or False: Seeking support from someone you trust is a healthy way to cope with stress and reduce feelings of isolation.
True.
Connecting with trusted people is one of the most effective healthy coping skills and can make tough moments easier to navigate.
True or False: Psychotherapy is only intended for people who are struggling with severe mental illness.
False.
Anyone can benefit from psychotherapy. While many people do seek out therapy to help manage/treat mental illness, others seek out therapy to help them navigate life transitions, cope with unexpected changes or loss, improve communication skills, develop skills to improve time management and organization, learn to cope with stress, change problematic behavior, or any number of other reasons.
True or False: Anxiety Disorders are the most common type of Mental Illness.
True.
Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental health condition, though depressive disorders follow closely in second place.
True or False: Only people with Anxiety Disorders experience Panic Attacks.
False.
Anyone can experience a panic attack under the right conditions.
Panic Attacks are not specific to Anxiety and Panic Disorders.
True or False: Major Depressive Disorder is among the leading causes of disability worldwide.
True.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.
True or False: Everyone struggling with Anorexia Nervosa is underweight.
False.
While there is a weight specific criteria in the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, the majority of people who are struggling with this condition.
For those who present with an underweight BMI, weight restoration is often considered one of the first steps in the recovery process, while other elements of both physical and psychiatric recovery can take much longer to achieve, meaning that many people suffering from AN are not considered to be medically underweight for the majority of the time they are struggling with the condition.
Further, a notable percentage of people who require treatment for AN are diagnosed with Atypical Anorexia Nervosa, a subcategory of AN in which the person struggling has all of the symptoms and meets all the criteria for AN, including drastic weight loss, but does not become medically underweight.
It is important to note that these individuals can experience the same medical complications and nutritional deficits despite not meeting the specific criteria to be classified as medically underweight.
True or False: Personality Disorders are categorized into three distinct "clusters" based on shared characteristics.
True.
Personality Disorders are further categorized into Cluster A, Cluster B, and Cluster C.
True or False: Everyone who experiences psychosis has schizophrenia.
False.
Although Schizophrenia is the most common cause of psychosis, other psychotic disorders include schizoaffective disorder, schizoid personality disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder. People with severe mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder may also experience psychosis.
Psychosis can also be triggered by factors such as sleep deprivation, various medications/substance use, or extreme levels of stress.
True or False: Chemical dependence is always involved in the development of an addiction.
False.
Behavioral Addiction involves a compulsive dependence on a non-substance-related action that a person continues to engage in despite negative consequences to their health, relationships, finances, or general well-being, etc...
These actions typically involve triggering a reward pathway in the brain.
Example: Gambling Disorder
True or False: Self-care is just selfishness and greed that has been rebranded with a positive twist.
False.
Self‑care isn’t selfishness or greed. It involves any intentional action you take to promote your physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual health and well‑being.
In the context of mental illness, self‑care is a necessary part of managing symptoms, preventing burnout, and gaining or maintaining stability.
It is essential in helping people to cope with stress and develop or maintain healthy relationships with important others.
True or False: Psychotherapy and the use of psychiatric medication work better when used together than alone.
True.
True or False: In any given year, 1 in 5 people in Canada are living with a mental illness.
True.
A disorder characterized by severe anxiety or fear that occurs in relation to social and/or performance situations.
What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Also known as Social Phobia, this debilitating condition can lead to avoidance of any number of social situations, reinforcing the anxiety/fear associated with them and leading to further avoidance that perpetuates a cycle of fear, avoidance, and social isolation.
Loss of the ability to experience joy or pleasure through engaging in activities that previously brought about these feelings.
What is Anhedonia?
Anhedonia is a key feature of depression.
The most common of the specified feeding and eating disorders.
What is binge-eating disorder?
Binge-eating disorder is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating. These episode involve eating very rapidly until feeling uncomfortably full, and are typically accompanied by feelings of guilt, shame, distress, or feeling "out of control".
Unlike in Bulimia Nervosa, these episodes are not followed by compensatory behaviors.
This personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing distrust and suspiciousness of others that typically presents as hypervigilance.
What is Paranoid Personality Disorder?
Cluster A (Odd/Eccentric): Includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders.
This symptom involves seeing, hearing, feeling, or otherwise sensing something that is not actually present.
What are hallucinations?
A word that reflects negative attitudes, biased opinions, harsh judgment and strong feelings of disapproval against a person, group, characteristic, trait, or condition, and can be associated with discrimination and negative outcomes.
What is Stigma?
People experiencing substance use disorder and/or concurrent disorders face a number of barriers when seeking help to address their mental health concerns. Stigma is a pervasive example of one such barrier.
Three essential aspects of health to focus on regulating in the recovery and management of Mental Illness (not including prescription medication).
What are:
1. Sleep
2. Nutrition & Hydration
3. Physical Activity
This modern treatment is performed under general anesthesia and uses a small, controlled electrical signal to create a brief therapeutic seizure, helping to reset brain circuits to provide fast, effective relief for a variety of severe and debilitating mental health conditions.
What is Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)?
Name the mental health condition with the highest mortality rate.
Anorexia Nervosa has the highest case-fatality rate of any mental illness.
More generally, Eating Disorders & Substance Use Disorders are known to have the highest "all-cause" mortality rates of any/all mental health condition's.
OCD is often categorized into subtypes based on the content and/or presentation of specific obsessions, compulsions, intrusive thoughts, repetitive behaviors, etc..
List one or more of the common subtypes of OCD.
What is:
-Contamination OCD
-Relationship OCD
-Pure "O" OCD
-Symmetry or "Just Right" OCD
-Harm OCD
-Scrupulosity (AKA: Moral or Religious) OCD
This Star Wars Actress was a fierce advocate who spoke openly about her struggles with Bipolar Disorder.
Who was Carrie Fisher?
The Diagnostic Label applied when a person is identified to have a clinically significant eating disorder, but their symptoms do not quite fit into the strict diagnostic criteria of the more well-know eating disorders such Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, or Binge Eating Disorder.
Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder.
This personality disorder is characterized by emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, dissociation, suicidality, unstable identity, and an extreme fear of abandonment, often resulting in chaotic interpersonal relationships.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?
Cluster B (Dramatic/Erratic): Includes antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders.
A severe and persistent mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. This mental illness is classified as a psychotic disorder, meaning it involves a significant distortion of reality.
What is Schizophrenia?
Characterized by the simultaneous presence of a substance use disorder and a mental health condition such as depression, PTSD, or bipolar disorder, this term describes the complex clinical picture where both issues interact and require integrated treatment.
What are concurrent disorders?
When a person is struggling with both a substance use disorder and another mental health condition, they are described as having concurrent disorders.
This essential self-care skill involves clearly communicating your limits to protect your time, energy, and emotional well‑being, which helps to support long‑term stability and improve relationships over time.
What is boundary setting?
This treatment modality helps reduce fear by gradually and safely facing situations, sensations, or memories that trigger anxiety with the support of trained therapist.
What is Exposure therapy?
Exposure therapy is a structured therapeutic technique commonly used in the treatment of anxiety disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder, Other Specific Phobias, OCD, and PTSD.
When a person has two or more health conditions at the same time.
Note: This term can apply to mental and/or physical health conditions.
What is comorbidity?
A condition characterized by active avoidance of any situation in which escape might be difficult or embarrassing, or where help may not be available if panic-like symptoms were to occur.
What is Agoraphobia?
This disorder often develops in individuals with a history of panic attacks or other moderate-to-severe anxiety disorders.
In particular, untreated social anxiety disorder and panic disorder are strongly associated with the development of agoraphobia.
This condition is characterized by episodes of depression and at least one episode of mania, with periods of experiencing a "normal" pattern of mood and energy levels when not in one of these extreme states.
What is Bipolar I Disorder?
There are two main types of bipolar disorder, depending on patterns of manic or hypomanic and depressive episodes.
Mania is a period of abnormally elevated or irritable mood with marked impairment, possible psychosis, and often hospitalization.
Hypomania involves similar elevated mood and increased energy but is shorter, less severe, and does not cause psychosis or significant functional impairment.
An eating/feeding disorder characterized by the persistent consumption of non-food items such as chalk, clay, paint, glue, etc...
What is Pica?
One of the most prevalent personality disorders, this condition is marked by rigid perfectionism, strict adherence to rules and moral standards, indecisiveness, a strong need for control, and difficulty being flexible or accepting others’ ways of doing things. It often leads individuals to become preoccupied with order, structure, and doing things “the right way.”
What is obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)?
Cluster C (Anxious/Inhibited): Includes avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
This group of personality disorders is defined by high levels of fear and anxiety, including extreme sensitivity to criticism, dependence on others for reassurance, and rigid perfectionism that makes everyday tasks feel overwhelming.
An umbrella term used to describe a collection of symptoms associated with a "break from reality" or a mental state in which the person has difficulty differentiating what is real from what is not. These symptoms can include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking or speech, etc...
What is Psychosis?
Psychosis is an umbrella term used to refer to a collection of symptoms that can occur as a result of several different mental and physical health conditions, including but not limited to schizophrenia.
Prioritizing safety, stability, and practical support over immediate abstinence, this approach helps people with both substance use disorders and mental health conditions reduce risks (such as overdose, infections, or psychiatric destabilization) while staying engaged in care.
What is Harm Reduction?
More specifically, what is Harm Reduction for concurrent disorders?
This coping skill involves noticing an emotional reaction, naming it, and choosing a response that will promote long‑term well‑being instead of acting on impulse.
What is emotional regulation?
The 3 key elements of emotional regulation include:
1. Recognizing when an emotional response is triggered.
2. Identifying the specific emotion.
3. Responding intentionally instead of impulsively with an action that supports your well-being.
In 1993, Dr. Marsha Linehan developed a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) to assist in the treatment of individuals with intractable behavioral disorders involving emotional dysregulation.
What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)?
Fun Fact: Dr. Marsha Linehan used her lived experience with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to help guide the development of DBT. She publicly shared her personal history with this condition in 2011, hoping to reduce the heavy stigma associated with it.
Automatic thoughts that are exaggerated or irrational and lead to false assumptions and misrepresentations of reality that may fuel negative emotions.
What are Cognitive Distortions?
Cognitive Distortions include a variety of negative thought patterns frequently observed in people struggling with their mental health.
These can include:
- All-or-nothing thinking
- Overgeneralizations
- Catastrophizing
- etc...