High-functioning Mental Health Disorders: How To Identify Them?
Who would have thought that Juan, the life of the party, was depressed? Or that María, the one who always has advice and nice words for others, can’t sleep or eat well because of the anxiety that overwhelms her? “No one would believe me,” people tell me over and over again, of different ages and genders, from different professions, religions and socioeconomic strata. They tell me this by describing their symptoms, embarrassed by their reality. After this phrase comes the explanation of why they would not believe it and they all end in one reality: they are functional in society in some way or another.
Being functional in a society implies being able to comply with social responsibilities and norms, being able to establish relationships and being able to contribute, in some way, to it. When we see a person with an established routine that meets social demands, we do not tend to think that the person may be going through a difficulty
The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which each individual develops his or her potential, can cope with the stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute something to his or her community.” Without a doubt, here the definition of mental health is highly linked to functionality and it is important to emphasize that we are defining good mental health. However, the opposite is not necessarily correct.
We cannot assume that impaired or poor mental health automatically means an absence of functionality. We cannot think that a person is not experiencing discomfort merely because they continue to function socially. This is important because many times, both the affected individuals themselves and their loved ones ignore the seriousness of the discomfort until the situation has worsened drastically, considerably reducing a good prognosis
High functioning and mental disorders
So how do we know when it’s time to see a mental health professional and when it’s the normal downturns in life? For psychological disorders, not psychiatric disorders, it is a good idea to keep three factors in mind: intensity, duration, and frequency.
Intensity has to do with two things: whether the person has the ability and tools to tolerate and move through the symptoms and whether the symptoms are appropriate for the trigger For example, if the levels of anxiety, sadness, anger, disappointment are in accordance with what triggered these feelings.
Duration refers to how long the symptoms last and whether they persist when the trigger disappears or whether they persist despite the passage of time. For example, if sadness persists even after a year of having had a significant loss or if anxiety persists even after being exposed to what caused anxiety.
Frequency is how often these symptoms arise. It is also important to analyze whether there are many triggers that cause these symptoms. These three factors help us have an idea if it is necessary to seek help and all three factors do not have to be present. Just having a lot of intensity or long duration or high frequency is a sufficient indicator
This leads us to the next question: if the person who needs help is someone else and is functional, and maintains these factors without talking about them, how do we know that they need support or that they may be going through a difficulty? To answer this, we must focus on the person and not specifically on their actions. Some good questions to ask ourselves are: “What does it look like? what is your mood? Has anything changed in your way of being or facing situations? Has it been isolated? Is he quieter or more talkative?”
Our intention when asking ourselves these questions is to identify if something has changed, if something seems strange or alien to what is normal in the person we usually know. YesIf, on the contrary, we focused on whether the person functions or not, we could ignore the reality of many who do need direction towards psychological and emotional well-being
Functionality should not be an exclusive indicator of emotional and mental well-being. For patients, loved ones, and mental health professionals alike, it is crucial that we deny the thinking that “if you’re working, you’re fine,” “if you’re still going to school, you’re not so bad.” For some, many things can be achieved on a cognitive level, even if emotions and/or thoughts are affected. A person can reach the most extreme depths of their illness, even with a full schedule and a stable job.
