Origins of Mental Health Challenges, Substance Use Disorders & Co-occurring Disorders

The term mental illness includes numerous psychiatric disorders and can widely vary in severity. Mental health researchers and professionals have advanced several theories to explain the causes of mental health and addiction problems, however, the question of what constitutes these disorders is not quite as simple to explain. Mental illness diagnoses and addiction disorders are generally categorized into a variety of subtypes with multiple specific conditions that make up each subtype. Some major mental illness subtypes include disorders that are initially diagnosed in childhood, or early adolescence such as schizophrenia, as well as other psychotic disorders, which can significantly alter the course of a person’s life. Early experiences, such as a traumatic event, or stressors that occur later in life such as the loss of a job, the birth of a child, or chronic health conditions can further a person’s chances of developing psychological problems. Furthermore, other disorders such as those related to mood, anxiety, somatic problems, gender identity, eating, sleep, impulse control, and personality disorders might develop later in life, as a response to one’s environment which other social factors can exacerbate.²⁰

Mental health is understood as emotional, behavioral, and social maturity or normality, in the absence of mental or behavioral problems. Some believe cultural factors such as racism, discrimination, and violence may contribute to the causes of mental illness, reinforcing the idea that the environment plays a suggestive share in the development of such disorders. Patterns of illness(es) in individuals with disorders tend to have a hereditary component, thus the likelihood of being affected by disorders that are present in a person’s lineage is more prevalent and therefore often out of their control.

For treatment by the psychiatric and mental health communities, there are defined criteria in the diagnosis of medically accepted mental illnesses, which are described in detail in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders.²¹ The criteria described in the DSM-IV-TR form the basis for almost all mental health treatment conceptualization in the United States.

The United States is believed to have the highest incidence of people diagnosed with mental health problems (26.4%) in the developed world.¹⁰ Mental illnesses are legitimate medical conditions, like heart disease or cancer, and thus require appropriate treatment.