Adult Psychiatry Psychiatric disorders in adulthood can be extremely debilitating and distressing, affecting your career, education, physical health, and relationships with friends, partners, and children. Taking proactive steps to seek help and persevere with treatment can be one of the most courageous things you can do for yourself and your loved ones.

Though all adults will have occasional moments of distraction or difficulty concentrating, individuals with ADHD have persistent and significant challenges with attention and impulsivity that can impact daily function. In adulthood, the symptoms of ADHD can affect your relationships, career, and study. As a neurodevelopmental disorder, ADHD typically begins in childhood but many people only receive proper assessment and help in their adult years. 

In adulthood, ADHD is less likely to involve hyperactivity and poor impulse control, and more likely to look like:

• Difficulties with concentration and attention
• Forgetfulness
• Poor organisational skills and time management
• Difficulty completing bigger projects
• Restlessness
• A preference for immediate reward at the expense of long-term gain

Most adults with ADHD benefit from a combined treatment approach of cognitive behavioural therapy and medication. An adult psychiatrist is involved in managing ADHD through:

• Offering appropriate psychotherapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy
• Prescribing stimulant or non-stimulant medication for ADHD
• Diagnosing and providing medical management of co-existing mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder

Experiencing a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, domestic violence, war, or abuse, is enough to cause most people to feel unsettled for a period after. When this reaction to the traumatic event lasts for longer than a month and interrupts your daily functioning, you may be diagnosed with PTSD.

The symptoms of PTSD in adults can include:

• Flashbacks, recurrent memories, or nightmares involving the traumatic event
• Avoiding people, places, objects, or situations that cause you to remember the trauma
• Low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities that used to interest you
• A distorted and negative perception about yourself or other people
• Feeling irritable and angry
• Hypervigilance and unwarranted suspicion 
• Reckless or self-destructive behaviour
• Problems with memory and concentration

Many adults with PTSD will be able to manage and overcome their condition with time and the support of their family and social networks. But if your symptoms are debilitating and very distressing, it’s best to seek help from a psychiatrist who can:

• Offer cognitive behavioural therapy
• Prescribe medications to help with low mood, sleep issues, hallucinations, anxiety, and to make your psychotherapy more effective

Mood disorders is a category of mental illness characterised by a mood instability.

These conditions can have a significant impact on your function, affecting your personal relationships, studies, and performance at work, as well as reducing your overall quality of life. 

The most common types of mood disorders in adults include:

• Major depression, a mental illness involving constant feelings of hopelessness, despair, sadness 
• Bipolar disorder, during which periods of depression alternate with periods of mania or euphoria
  • Substance-induced mood disorder, triggered by recreational drugs, alcohol abuse, or medication side effects 
• Dysthymia, a persistent mild degree of depression or irritability lasting for at least two years

Fortunately, evidence-based treatment for mood disorders can be effective at restoring your ability to engage well with everyday life. A trained adult psychiatrist can:

• Perform a comprehensive psychiatric assessment to identify the type of mood disorder and whether there are any contributing factors that need to be addressed
• Treat your mood disorder through psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy
• Prescribe medications to stabilise your mood and relieve your symptoms
• Administer transcranial stimulation or electroconvulsive therapy where indicated for severe cases

Most people feel temporary anxiety as a response to an anticipated nerve-wracking or threatening event, but when the anxiety becomes persistent and overwhelming or, it may be diagnosed as an anxiety disorder. Anxiety-related conditions include generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or a specific phobia. They also very often co-exist with other mental health conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Living with an anxiety disorder can be debilitating as you frequently battle with intense, disproportionate, and persistent fear over harmless situations. Though it’s a mental health disorder, anxiety can present with physical symptoms, too, such as stomach upsets, sweating, sleep difficulties, chest pain, feeling light-headed or faint, and shortness of breath.

When you see a psychiatrist for help for an anxiety disorder, they will:

• Make a formal diagnosis
• Assess you for other co-existing conditions and identify whether other health factors are contributing to your anxiety
• Suggest cognitive behavioural therapy
• Prescribe medication to help manage your symptoms, in appropriate cases

OCD is a type of anxiety disorder characterised by an involuntary and distressing fixation on a particular thought, image, or urge (obsessions), and repeated behaviours (compulsions) used to manage the anxiety that comes from the obsession. Over half a million Australians live with OCD. While OCD symptoms typically start in late childhood or early adolescence, many people reach adulthood without a proper diagnosis.

OCD can vary, but common experiences include:

• Intrusive thoughts or repetitive behaviors that are hard to control and consume time or mental energy
• Intense fear of illness or contamination, leading to excessive handwashing or cleaning
• Discomfort when things don’t feel “just right,” like disrupted arrangements
• Repeatedly checking locks, switches, or appliances due to persistent doubt
• Repetitive grooming behaviors, such as pulling out hair, driven by tension or discomfort

Many people with OCD feel ashamed or embarrassed, and unfortunately there is still a degree or stigma surrounding this condition. But remember that treatment for OCD is usually very effective and, alongside support from your family and friends, can stop your symptoms from controlling your life. Treatment with a psychiatrist for OCD can include:

• Cognitive behaviour therapy to teach you strategies for coping with your symptoms
• Medications can help reduce the distress caused by obsessions, allowing you to engage in exposure treatment and function better in life

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness characterised by a severe alteration to an individual’s perception and understanding of both their external and internal worlds. This disconnect leads to symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, false beliefs about yourself, and disordered thinking and behaviour. Unfortunately, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are relatively less well understood and more highly stigmatised than most other mental health conditions.

Schizophrenia exists on a spectrum alongside other psychotic disorders, including:

• Schizophreniform disorder, a condition similar to schizophrenia but persisting for less than six months without necessarily affecting function 
• Schizoaffective disorder, presenting with a combination of schizophrenia and major depression or bipolar disorder
• Brief psychotic disorder, when schizophrenic symptoms last for less than one month
• Delusional disorder, occurring when only delusions are present and lasting for at least a month, and without the other symptoms of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia spectrum and related psychotic disorders are severe conditions requiring care by an experienced psychiatrist. By their nature, these mental health disorders can have a significant impact both on the person living with the condition as well as their loved ones around them. But with the right help and treatment plan, symptoms can be managed. A psychiatrist can:

• Confirm a diagnosis of schizophrenia after ruling out other causes of your symptoms through blood tests, brain imaging, and drug testing
• Prescribe medications to make your symptoms more manageable and less intrusive
• Provide psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy

Everyone has a personality, encompassing likes, dislikes, beliefs, values, behaviours, and the characteristics that make you unique. It’s normal to have some unusual personality quirks, but when these quirks are extreme, deviate significantly from the social norm, and impact your ability to function in society, it may be diagnosed as a personality disorder.

There are many different types of personality disorders, ranging from antisocial disorder and dependent disorder, to narcissistic personality disorder and the paranoid subtype. The symptoms of many of these subtypes overlap with one another, but in general, a personality disorder is characterised by:

• Problems with relationships, at school, or at work
• Unpredictable behaviour
• Extreme distrust of others
• Risk-taking behaviour
• Poor emotional regulation, with mood swings and outbursts

Seeking help early if you suspect you or a loved one have a personality disorder can give you the best chance of minimising the impact of the condition on your life. Though there is no cure for personality disorders, treatment can be highly effective. When you see an adult psychiatrist for care, they may:

• Make a formal diagnosis of a personality disorder, ruling out other more temporary conditions that may cause an upset in normal behaviour or thought patterns
• Provide psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy or dialectical behavioural therapy
• Prescribe medication to help with related symptoms, such as mood swings and impulsivity