Anger only becomes a problem when it gets out of control and harms you or people around you. This can happen when:
 

• you regularly express your anger through unhelpful or destructive behaviour

• your anger is having a negative impact on your overall mental and physical health

• anger becomes your go-to emotion, blocking out your ability to feel other emotions

• you haven’t developed healthy ways to express your anger

Bipolar disorder is a mental health problem that mainly affects your mood. If you have bipolar disorder, you are likely to have times where you experience:

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• manic or hypomanic episodes (feeling high)

• depressive episodes (feeling low)

• potentially some psychotic symptoms during manic or depressed episodes

You might be given a diagnosis of BPD if you experience at least five of the following things, and they’ve lasted for a long time or have a big impact on your daily life:

• You feel very worried about people abandoning you, and would do anything to stop that happening.

• You have very intense emotions that last from a few hours to a few days and can change quickly (for example, from feeling very happy and confident to suddenly feeling low and sad).

• You don’t have a strong sense of who you are, and it can change significantly depending on who you’re with.

• You find it very hard to make and keep stable relationships.​

• You often self-harm or have suicidal feelings.

• You have very intense feelings of anger, which are really difficult to control.

• When very stressed, you may also experience paranoia or dissociation.

Recreational drugs are substances people may take:

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• to give themselves a pleasurable experience

• to help them feel better if they are having a bad time

• because their friends are using them

• to see what it feels like.

They include alcohol, tobacco (nicotine), substances such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, and some prescribed medicines.

We might say someone is ‘hearing voices’ if you hear a voice when no-one is present with you, or which other people with you cannot hear.

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People have many different experiences of hearing voices. Some people don’t mind their voices or simply find them irritating or distracting, while others find them frightening or intrusive.

 

It’s common to think that if you hear voices you must have a mental health problem.

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But research shows that lots of people hear voices and many of them are not mentally unwell. It’s a relatively common human experience.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder. It has two main parts: obsessions and compulsions.

• Obsessions are unwelcome thoughts, images, urges, worries or doubts that repeatedly appear in your mind. They can make you feel very anxious (although some people describe it as ‘mental discomfort’ rather than anxiety).

• Compulsions are repetitive activities that you do to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsession. It could be something like repeatedly checking a door is locked, repeating a specific phrase in your head or checking how your body feels.

You could be diagnosed with schizophrenia if you experience some of the following symptoms:

• a lack of interest in things

• feeling disconnected from your feelings

• difficulty concentrating

• wanting to avoid people

• hallucinations, such as hearing voices or seeing things others don’t

• delusions (which could include paranoid delusions) – strong beliefs that others don’t share

• disorganised thinking and speech

• not wanting to look after yourself

Delusions and hallucinations are types of psychosis. (See our information on psychosis, paranoia and hearing voices.)

Anxiety can become a mental health problem if it impacts on your ability to live your life as fully as you want to. For example, it may be a problem for you if:

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• your feelings of anxiety are very strong or last for a long time

• your fears or worries are out of proportion to the situation

• you avoid situations that might cause you to feel anxious

• your worries feel very distressing or are hard to control

• you regularly experience symptoms of anxiety, which could include panic attacks

• you find it hard to go about your everyday life or do things you enjoy.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is an anxiety disorder related to body image. You might be given a diagnosis of BDD if you:

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• experience obsessive worries about one or more perceived flaws in your physical appearance, and the flaw cannot be seen by others or appears very slight

• develop compulsive behaviours and routines, such as excessive use of mirrors or picking your skin, to deal with the worries you have about the way you look.

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If you have BDD, these obsessions and behaviours cause emotional distress and have a significant impact on your ability to carry on with your day-to-day life. In this way, BDD is closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, and affects your everyday life. In its mildest form, depression can mean just being in low spirits. It doesn’t stop you leading your normal life but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can be life-threatening because it can make you feel suicidal or simply give up the will to live.

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We all have times when our mood is low, and we’re feeling sad or miserable about life. Usually these feelings pass in due course.

 

If you are given a diagnosis of depression, you might be told that you have mild, moderate or severe depression. This describes what sort of impact your symptoms are having on you currently, and what sort of treatment you’re likely to be offered. You might move between different mild, moderate and severe depression during one episode of depression or across different episodes.

An eating problem is any relationship with food that you find difficult.

 

Food plays an important part in our lives and most of us will spend time thinking about what we eat. Sometimes we may try to eat more healthily, have cravings, eat more than usual or lose our appetite. Changing your eating habits every now and again is normal.

But if food and eating feels like it’s taking over your life then it may become a problem.

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Lots of people think that if you have an eating problem you will be over- or underweight, and that being a certain weight is always associated with a specific eating problem. This is a myth. Anyone, regardless of age, gender or weight, can be affected by eating problems.

Hoarding is acquiring or saving lots of things regardless of their value.

If you hoard, you might:

• have very strong positive feelings whenever you get more items

• feel very upset or anxious at the thought of throwing or giving things away

• find it very hard to decide what to keep or get rid of.

Panic attacks are a type of fear response. They’re an exaggeration of your body’s normal response to danger, stress or excitement.

During a panic attack you might feel very afraid that you’re:

• losing control

• going to faint

• having a heart attack

• going to die.

Suicide is the act of intentionally taking your own life.

Suicidal feelings can range from being preoccupied by abstract thoughts about ending your life, or feeling that people would be better off without you, to thinking about methods of suicide, or making clear plans to take your own life.

If you are feeling suicidal, you might be scared or confused by these feelings.

But you are not alone. Many people think about suicide at some point in their lifetime.

Everyone’s experience of suicidal feelings is unique to them. You might feel unable to cope with the enduring difficult feelings you are experiencing. You may feel less like you want to die and more like you cannot go on living the life you have.

These feelings may build over time or might fluctuate from moment to moment. And it’s common to not understand why you feel this way.