Each diagnosis has its own set of symptoms, but common signs of mental illness in adults and adolescents can include the following:
- Excessive worrying or fear
- Feeling excessively sad or low
- Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning
- Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria
- Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger
- Avoiding friends and social activities
- Difficulties understanding or relating to other people
- Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy
- Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite
- Changes in sex drive
- Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don’t exist in objective reality)
- Inability to perceive changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (”lack of insight” or anosognosia)
- Overuse of substances like alcohol or drugs
- Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)
- Thinking about suicide
- Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress
- An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance
Examples of Behavioral Changes in Teens and Young Adults:
- Starting to miss school classes
- Poorer performance on tests
- Decreasing interest in personal hygiene
- Becoming lethargic and withdrawn
- Pronounced mood swings
- Dropping existing friends and hanging around with others whose behavior is questionable
- Difficulty maintaining good personal hygiene (showering, brushing teeth, etc)
Community Resources
The United Way has provided a list of resources in Asheville/Buncombe County and Henderson County that are up-to-date and connect residents to the following needs:
- Behavioral health
- Child and family resources
- Food resources
- Financial and legal resources
- Health resources
- Income related
- Utility information
- Childcare
- Evictions/Foreclosures
- Scams/Price Gouging
- Homelessness
For any resource needs, call 2-1-1 to be connected to the appropriate resource