Do You Have Any Of These 17 Signs? You Could Have A Mental Illness.

Complex Borderline Personality Disorder: How Coexisting Conditions Affect Your BPD and How You Can Gain Emotional Balance. Available at:

In this video we’re going to go over the 17 common signs of mental illness in adults, adolescents, and young children. These symptoms are things everyone experiences at different time, but they become a part of mental health illnesses when they are intense, prolonged, and cause socioeconomic dysfunction. Learning about these symptoms in yourself or your adolescent or young children will help you stop them, so you can seek out appropriate treatment.
1. Extreme worrying or fear
2. Feeling extremely sad or down
3. Disorganized thinking or difficulties concentrating and learning
4. Intense mood changes, including overwhelming “highs” or feelings of euphoria
5. Sustained or intense feelings of irritability or anger
6. Avoiding friends and social activities
7. Difficulties understanding or relating to other people
8. Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy
9. Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite
10. Changes in sex drive
11. Difficulty distinguishing reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don't exist in objective reality)
12. Lack of ability to recognize changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (“lack of insight” or lack of ability to perceive the realities of one's own condition)
13. Overuse of alcohol or drugs
14. Multiple physical complaints without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”)
15. Thinking or planning self-harm
16. An intense distress of weight gain or concern with appearance
17. Lack of ability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress

Mental health conditions can also begin to develop in those before adolescence. Because they’re still learning how to identify and talk about thoughts and emotions, their most observable symptoms are behavioral. Symptoms in children may include the following, begin at 26:32:
• Changes in school performance
• Extreme worry or anxiety, for instance fighting to avoid bed or school
• Hyperactive behavior
• Recurrent nightmares
• Recurrent disobedience or aggression
• Recurrent temper tantrums

Daniel J. Fox, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in Texas, international speaker, and a multi-award winning author. He has been specializing in the treatment and assessment of individuals with personality disorders for over 15 years in the state and federal prison system, universities, and in private practice. His specialty areas include personality disorders, ethics, burnout prevention, and emotional intelligence.

He has published several articles in these areas and is the author of:

Thank you for your attention and I hope you enjoy my videos and find them helpful and subscribe. I always welcome topic suggestions and comments.
00:00 Introduction
01:32 What is worry and fear
01:46 Extreme worry and fear
02:13 Extremely sad or down
03:48 Disorganized thinking
07:55 Irritation or anger?
09:28 Avoiding friends and social activities
10:37 Difficulty relating to others
12:07 Sleep deprivation
12:42 Changes in sleep
13:59 Sleep habits
15:10 Changes in eating habits
15:23 Changes in sex drive
16:34 Difficulty distinguishing reality
17:35 Lack of insight
18:49 Overuse of alcohol
19:15 Physical complaints
21:03 Treating mental illness
26:29 Behavioral indicators

[leighsaldivar]

I think I have a mental illness due to untreated trauma. I don’t even know where to start. It’s gotten a lot worse since my mom and my fiancée died.

[jean-pierrep]

I had extreme worry and fear and felt deep sadness. Depression and Anxiety. All a result of childhood trauma and feeling unsafe.

[frannybkranny]

It feels good to know that someone understands you. And can explain to you what's wrong and how you got there. Thank you, Dr. Fox.

[l.k.]

I believe all humans are mentally insane; some just have been able to seemingly adapt better, especially their outside appearance, to an insane world.

[Amused_Comfort_Inc]

Hey Dr. Fox, great video as always! 💌 so theres.. a few, things I wish you could go over heheh if you ever need future video ideas 😋
• the difference between Adult ADD, and BPD
•the differences between vulnerable narcissists and BPD
•Rejection sensitivity vs fear of abandonment
•The 3 types of fatigue and how they affect P.D's
•BPD and inattentive, or cold behaviors
Love & Respect Dr. Fox ! 😊

[bintulislam]

My therapist just passed away from covid .. I was hoping you could discuss what should be done after such great loss and trauma. Thank you for all your videos.. they are a great help for so many people I believe.

[heythere]

You are such a knowledgeable, empathetic, clinically experienced psychologist, yet I am sick of seeing Jordan Peterson's face everywhere instead of yours. There's no justice in the world.

[nicktaber]

I'd just rather not view myself as mentally ill and see my suffering for what it is. I wish more people knew that was an option for them.

[jspider]

Wish this was something that my parents understood when I was a teenager. Thanks for being a positive source of information Dr Fox.

[Nikki-]

1-17 ✅😞
I've been seeing doctors since I was 12 or 13 and I am 38! I have lost hope in feeling "normal" or "better."

[outofthebox]

I see no way out of my mental illness it would be nice to feel normal. Great video!

[shoonyah]

Absolutely amazing information...we have created the ideal environment for a perfect storm for our children with the way we live. The tsunami of health disorders it will bring in in the years to come is a scary scary thought.
Love what you do doc ..we need more coffee table conversations like this with practical advise for adults.. more than kids.

[entrotlek]

I wish this video could have come out 10 years ago when I was in college. Its odd finally hearing all of the things I've felt internally being so succinctly described. I used to bash my self so heavily for not being as social and energetic and connected as others. I just thought I wasn't trying hard enough which would send me into a perpetual cycle of self hate and trying to push though the social withdrawal, reading and writing issues, and anger. So glad I am getting treatment finally.

[mireilleclement]

I have ALL of the 17 signs of BPD pretty bad. I'm 44 yrs old and I only found out about 1 year ago that's what I have. I used to look for it online thinking it might be bipolar but that didn't fit 100% with what I was feeling. But when I saw BPD symptoms it's like a light switch came up. I still haven't gone to my doctor because I am ashamed of not having gone sooner and worry what she is going to think of me and also I'm wondering if medication would actually improve or not. The word here is AFRAID of what people are going to think.

[rhyestripes]

i dont act out any more because it hurts my life, but i still feel like i should, i still believe people are trying to hurt me, i just dont act on it. It works for relationships but im constantly invalidating myself and it destroys my self esteem

[SweetyShanice]

This was very informative. I was able to resonate with a lot of this. I really liked how you broke it down. Thank you for this video.

[GEENIAH]

My bpd is very hard to control but at least ive learned to deal with IT better. Deep inside i know im broken but im still believing in myself. Dr Fox is our best Friend. Merci trop 🤓

[caramelfrappuccino]

It's so calming to finally have some answers about myself .

[Humanaut.]

A large problem is that mental illness causes socioeconomic dysfunction but treatment requires money which is scarce when life is falling or fell apart.

[brandiee.]

This was very educational and helpful Dr. Fox! Thank you always😊