Video transcript: Understanding common mental health conditions

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When we think about anxiety, I think we all have a kind of an OK idea or what we think, or know anxiety to be. But really, anxiety disorders are characterized by a persistent worry, fear, and/or stress. And again, that interfere with one's everyday life. So why it's so important to say that last part is that we all may feel feelings of anxiety, right? I might feel anxious before this meeting today or this webinar with you because that's just a natural reaction to have.

But when we're thinking about it from this lens of a mental health concern or a condition, it's that inability to have it kind of react with our normal day life. So if it's interfering with everyday life, that's when you know that there's an issue. So from the outside, what does that look like? It certainly can look like someone that maybe looks disorganized or a bit frantic.

That individual might have difficulty with concentrating or focusing in on something specific. From that standpoint from a colleague at work, they may look like they're missing meetings or deadlines. Appearing overwhelmed in a meeting is also certainly a trigger or a clue. And then lastly, some of those physical complaints that people might be having, heart racing, those types of things with no known physical causes.

Moving into depression, and you'll see here, this is where it can be difficult to determine what someone's struggling with, is because there's a lot of overlap in the presentation of these types of conditions. So again, knowing that that's not your role to determine which one the individual falls under, but rather be on the lookout that if you do see these types of behavior changes, that you know how to respond.

And so depression is really more characteristic-- characterized, sorry, by that persistent low mood, that hopelessness or helplessness fatigue, profound sadness, and again, that interfering with one's everyday life. It can also, from the other person viewing it, it can look like irritability increased. Aggressiveness or angry outbursts can certainly be a symptom or characteristic of depression.

I mentioned before that changes in sleep or eating patterns can certainly be a sign. But we with depression, it could be insomnia. They're not sleeping at all. Or, it could be sleeping way more. Same with eating. It could be increased eating or decreased eating. Low energy. And then, again, thinking about the person that maybe is missing work altogether, not showing up for meetings can also be a characteristic.

And then lastly, substance use disorders. Again, how it feels or how it's defined is really that frequent use of alcohol and/or drugs that impact, again, their day-to-day life. From the outside, looking in, how could it look? Certainly changes in appearance. So someone that is starting to have-- their hygiene is deteriorating a little bit. Even physical signs with red eyes or dilated pupils, certainly, that could indicate maybe even active use.

Signs of impairment, whether that's slurred speech or rapid pressured speaking, excessive energy could also be a characteristic. And then again, you'll see that this missing meetings, work, or deadlines is shown throughout. But we know that that could also be a characteristic for those that maybe are suffering with substance use issues as well.

Again, you can see that there's, again, a lot of overlap in some of these presentations and symptoms. But the more you're able to understand or recognize that it's really more about the change in someone's behavior that we want you to pay attention to.

So rather than feeling like you need to know which category belongs to which symptom, I'd rather you focus on recognizing if there is a change in someone's usual behavior. So if someone's typically appears one way and then all of a sudden has been really trouble focusing and missing meetings, really being able to hone in on a behavior change as a way to guide that next step.

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