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Mental Health Check List

Mental Health Checklist

These are some of the symptoms and conditions that Joanie experienced over her life. If you relate to these conditions described within Don’t Tell: Finding Home After Family Betrayal, please see a physician. 


I am not a doctor and am not qualified to diagnose anyone. - Kathy Isaac



This symptom checklist and prayer is taken from Dr. Grant Mullen’s book Emotionally Free. 


The information here is for educational purposes only and does not replace medical evaluation or a physician. These checklists are adapted from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth Edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

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CHECLISTS


Compare yourself to the symptoms listed below. If you see yourself being described, you should take this to your physician and discuss it with them.



DEPRESSION


At least five of the following symptoms need to be present every day for at least two weeks and there is no other personal situation (such as grief) or medical condition (such as drugs or low thyroid) that may be causing the symptoms. 

  1. Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood, most of the time, most days

  2. Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism and low self-esteem

  3. Feelings of guilt, worthlessness or helplessness

  4. Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex

  5. Insomnia, early morning awakening or oversleeping

  6. Loss of appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain

  7. Decreased energy, fatigue, feeling “slowed down” or agitation that can’t be controlled

  8. Procrastination, since simple tasks seem harder

  9. Thoughts of death or suicide, suicide attempts or constant feelings of “life isn’t worth living like this”

  10. Restless, irritable, bad tempered or never relaxed or content

  11. Difficulty concentrating, remembering and making decisions due to persistent, uncontrollable cluttering of down, sad, negative thoughts that can’t be kept out of the mind. 

Other common symptoms of depression are:​

  1. Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders and chronic pain

  2. Continuous anxiety that can’t be turned off; uncontrollable worry about small things, including physical health

  3. Social isolation or withdrawal due to increasing difficulty making small talk

  4. Other relatives with depression, alcoholism or nervous breakdowns

  5. In children, look for increased irritability, persisting complaints of physical problems, agitation and unwarranted anxiety or panic or social withdrawal.



ADOLECENT DEPRESSION


    1.  Depressed mood or irritability that may lead to antisocial or rebellious behaviour

    2.  Unstable mood that changes rapidly even with insignificant events

    3.  Poor concentration, drop in school performance, skipping school

    4.  Loss of interest in school or friends, social withdrawal even from family

    5.  Inability to stop worrying

    6.  Inability to sleep or always oversleeping to escape

    7.  Over or under-eating

    8.  Too much restless energy or always overtired

    9.  Inability to enjoy things that they used to find pleasurable 

    10. Many Physical complaints such as muscle pains, headaches, or abdominal pains

    11. Feeling picked on or that everyone is against them

    12. Inappropriate guilt, shame and blame

    13. Increased use of street drugs or alcohol to self-medicate

    14. Loss of interest in own appearance and personal hygiene



MILD DEPRESSION


Mild depression is defined as a depressed mood most of the time for most days for at least two years with at least two of the following:


  1. Poor appetite r overeating

  2. Insomnia or oversleeping

  3. Low energy, always tired

  4. Low self-esteem 

  5. Poor concentration and difficulty making decisions

  6. Feeling hopeless

  7. These symptoms interfere with social or vocational function


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ANXIETY


Do you have excessive or unrealistic anxiety and worry about a number of events or actives? Has it been noticeable on most days for at least six months?

    Is it difficult to control or “turn off” the worry? 

    On most days in the past six months have you felt:

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  1. Restless, keyed up, or on edge

  2. Tired frequently

  3. Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank

  4. Irritability

  5. Muscle tension

  6. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

    

    Does the worry or anxiety cause significant distress (i.e., it bothers you that you worry too much) or significant interference with your day-to-day life? For example, the worry may make it difficult for you to perform important tasks at work. Interfere with relationships or get in the way of sleep. 

    Do you experience feelings of anxiety, fear or panic immediately upon encountering a feared social situation? 

    Is the anxiety out of proportion to the actual threat or danger the situation poses, after taking into account all the factors of the environment and situation? 

    Do you tend to avoid a feared social situation, or if you can’t avoid it, do you endure the situation with intense anxiety or discomfort? 



OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER


  1. The person experiences recurring intrusive and persisting, disturbing thoughts that cause anxiety and distress

  2. The thoughts are unrelated to actual events

  3. The person tries to stop the thoughts with another thought or action

  4. The person is aware that the thoughts are untrue and from his own mind

  5. Repetitive meaningless behaviour (hand washing, ordering, checking) or thought rituals (praying counting repetitions) that they must do to neutralize the unwanted disturbing thoughts

  6. The thoughts and resulting actions are time consuming, disruptive and embarrassing to the person but they have no control over them



MANIA OR HYPOMANIA (MILD MANIA), INDICATING BIPOLAR DISORDER


  1. Exaggerated elation, rapid unpredictable mood changes

  2. Irritability, impatience with others who can’t keep up with them

  3. Inability to sleep, not needing as much sleep, too busy to sleep and mot being tired at the end of the next day

  4. Big plans, inflated self-esteem, exaggerated self-importance, impulsive overspending

  5. Increased talking, louder and faster and can’t stop

  6. Racing and jumbled thought, changing topics rapidly, no one can keep up

  7. Poor concentration, distractibility

  8. Increased sexual desire, uninhibited, acting out of character or promiscuous

  9. Markedly increased energy, “can’t be stoped” erratic aggressive driving

  10. Poor judgement, no insight, refusing treatment, blaming others

  11. Inappropriate high-risk social behaviour, brash, shelling people off, overreaction to events, misinterpreting events, distortion of meaning of ordinary remarks

  12. Lasts hours to days, usually ending with a crash into profound depression

  13. Not caused by street drugs like “speed” or cocaine

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PRAYER

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Father God, I come before you now and thank You for your unfailing love and compassion for me. Thank you that you care about my struggles and that you are walking with me all the time. 

   I ask that You would release Your healing anointing upon me today so that my serve cells would be healed, my serotonin levels would be corrected, my concentration would be restored and I would feel Your peace with a clear mind.

   I thank You that I no longer have to feel any shame or condemnation for having a mood disorder or for taking treatment. 

   Show me how to help others find freedom from their mood disorders.

   I ask this in the name of Jesus, AMEN.

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