Just like there are signs of changing seasons, as we ease into fall, there are signs of someone with mental illness. Mental health problems are rampant, it is obvious the mental health system is gravely broken. What can we do to help those with signs and symptoms of mental illness? Are their red flags with mental illness?
Last week Aaron Alexis, a lone gunman armed initially with a shotgun, fatally shot twelve people and injured three others in a mass shooting at the headquarters of the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. Another senseless shooting that can be attributed to mental illness. Innocent lives lost because no one recognized the signs, symptoms and behavior of mental illness.
Earlier this year, the American Psychiatric Association unveiled the fifth edition of its handbook of diagnoses, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Disorders (D.S.M.-5). Fourteen years in the making, the D.S.M.-5 is a manual that provides common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. The handbook is a guide to assist those medical professionals looking to identify and help their patients with psychiatric assessment.