Mental Health

A neuroadaptive state in which chronic GABA-potentiation and glutamate suppression by alcohol forces the brain to re-tune its own excitatory-inhibitory balance, so that stopping abruptly unmasks a dangerous rebound hyperexcitability.

A disorder in which fear of weight gain drives deliberate energy restriction to a degree that starves every organ system, and where the starvation state itself entrenches the cognitive distortion that sustains it.

A disorder of mood instability in which the same reward-and-arousal circuits that fail low in depression periodically fail high, producing episodes of mania or hypomania that redefine the whole illness and its treatment.

An acute, fluctuating disturbance of consciousness and attention driven by an underlying physical illness, and a medical emergency until the cause is found and treated.

A persistent disorder of mood, motivation and cognition that is diagnosed clinically and, at moderate-to-severe intensity, responds to antidepressants and structured psychological therapy.

Chronic, free-floating worry that is out of proportion to circumstance and is driven by a threat-detection system stuck in the 'on' position, producing both psychological and autonomic symptoms.

A disorder of a hyperactive cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical 'error-detection' loop that generates intrusive doubt the mind cannot dismiss, and compulsions that relieve anxiety just enough to entrench the loop further.

A failure to file a traumatic memory away as 'over', so the amygdala continues to fire it as a present-tense threat, producing intrusive re-experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance long after the danger has passed.

A psychotic disorder rooted in dysregulated dopaminergic signalling that produces positive symptoms through subcortical excess and negative/cognitive symptoms through cortical deficit, diagnosed on duration and function rather than any single test.

A behaviour and a risk state, not a diagnosis, arising when overwhelming distress outstrips a person's coping resources and problem-solving narrows to escape rather than solutions.