Warning Signs and Symptoms

• 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.