Mental Health Conditions: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment Guides

Three things separate a diagnosable condition from ordinary distress: how long it has lasted, how much of your life it affects, and whether it is out of proportion to what is going on. Ordinary stress and sadness ease when the situation changes. A condition tends to persist for weeks or months, shows up across work, relationships and sleep, and does not lift on its own. The normal anxiety or anxiety disorder and depressed or just sad guides walk through this in detail.

No. A screening test tells you whether your symptoms are similar to those of people who have a condition, which is useful for deciding what to do next. Only a licensed professional can diagnose, because diagnosis also rules out other explanations, including medical ones. Our free tests use validated screening questionnaires where one exists and explain what your score means and does not mean.

For most common conditions the strongest evidence is for structured psychotherapy, medication, or the two together, and the guides say which applies. Cognitive behavioral therapy has the broadest evidence base across anxiety, depression, OCD and insomnia; exposure-based therapy is the treatment of choice for phobias, panic and OCD; trauma-focused therapies such as EMDR and prolonged exposure are used for PTSD. Where an approach has weak evidence, the guide says so.

Each guide names its author and its clinical reviewer at the top, with the date it was published and last updated. Authors are mental health professionals; reviewers are licensed clinicians on our editorial board. Our editorial policy explains sourcing and how updates work.

If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 in the United States to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available around the clock. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Psychology.com is an educational site and not an emergency service. The suicide prevention and crisis counseling guides explain what happens when you reach out.