What is a Mental Health Crisis and What Does it Look Like?
Being familiar with the basic definitions of the challenges people face is the first and potentially most critical step to overcoming those challenges. This includes understanding what things like a mental health crisis, addiction, substance use, behavioral disorders, mood disorders, panic attacks and more actually are. You simply can’t face a challenge you don’t understand.
In the first section of “HaDerech,” we have included the Blue Dove Foundation’s updated “Mental Health Glossary,” complete with common and central mental health terms and definitions and a guide to how to talk about mental health concerns most sensitively and effectively. We encourage you to continue to learn and explore mental health terminology so you can provide powerful, loving and informed support to yourself and your loved ones.
Quick Definitions
Any situation in which a person’s behavior puts them at risk of hurting themselves or others and/or prevents them from being able to care for themselves or function effectively in the community.
A chronic disorder involving complex interactions among the brain, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. Addiction can involve substances, or it can refer to behaviors that become compulsive and continue even despite harmful consequences. Substance use disorders do not always turn into addiction.
A mental disorder that affects a person’s brain and behavior, leading to a person’s inability to control their use of substances such as legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medications.
Any persistent and repetitive pattern of behavior that violates societal norms or rules, seriously impairs a person’s functioning, or creates distress in others. The term is used in a very general sense to cover a wide range of disorders or syndromes. Common behavioral disorders include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder.
A mental health condition in which one experiences long periods of extreme happiness, extreme sadness, or both. Certain mood disorders involve other persistent emotions, such as anger and irritability. Common mood disorders include, but are not limited to, depression and bipolar disorder.
Sudden, unreasonable feelings of fear and anxiety that cause physical symptoms like a racing heart, fast breathing, and sweating. This experience can be frightening, and sufferers often feel physically out of control. Some people become so fearful of these attacks that they develop panic disorder, a type of anxiety disorder.
Lashon Hara is gossip and hurtful speech that damages communities and relationships. The language we use makes a difference. As you navigate your mental health crisis, it is important to think about which words and phrases are helpful to say and which should be avoided.