Mental Health Assessment

The Power of a Mental Health Assessment

If you believe that you might have a mental health disorder, it can be frightening to ask for help.

However, until you receive a mental health assessment, you will not know with certainty if you do or do not.

A mental health assessment is a measuring stick that mental health professionals use to make a professional diagnosis of any mental illness.

Only by using standardized mental health assessment tools can a provider make an accurate diagnosis.

How do Assessments for Adults Work?

The assessments for adults ask a series of standardized questions regarding how you feel during specific situations.

They may also ask you to rate how often you experience those emotions or to rate them on a scale from lowest to highest.

Once this data is collected, you receive a score.

This number indicates if you have a mental health diagnosis.

It also may offer insight as to the severity of your condition, from mild to moderate to severe.

What is a Mental Health Risk Assessment?

A mental health risk assessment is like a mental health assessment.

However, doctors use the feedback gleaned from this assessment to determine more precisely how much a mental health patient feels that they may harm themselves or others.

Here is an example. A patient takes an assessment. He is diagnosed with a severe form of bipolar depression.

If the person also indicates that he might injure himself, the doctor might conduct a mental health risk assessment.

Taking this extra step above and beyond can help prevent self harm, mitigate risk to others, or even prevent a suicide.

How Accurate is a Mental Health Diagnostic Assessment?

Every doctor has standardized mental health assessment tools available to check for a variety of mental health disorders.

These tests are very effective at painting a picture of a person’s mental health.

What Conditions Can A Doctor Diagnose Using a Mental Health Assessment?

Some of the mental health disorders that they will look for can include the following:

Mental Health Assessment for Anxiety

The website of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reveals that Generalized Anxiety Disorder, often abbreviated GAD or just called anxiety, causes people to worry excessively over things out of their control.

They feel nervous, out of control, or inexplicably fearful over things even without cause to feel this way.

Some of the signs of GAD include the following:

• Excessive worry over minor things
• They know they are worried for no reason but cannot control it
• They are jumpy or startled easily
• Inability to focus or concentrate on routine tasks due to worry
• Disrupted sleep due to the anxiety
• Feeling tired or fatigues
• They feel edgy, moody, or irritable

The fear can become so uncontrolled that those who struggle with anxiety feel a decrease in the quality of daily living

However, an assessment can provide the doctor with the data they need to treat this person so they can live an improved life.

Standardized Mental Health Tools for Depression

Mental health professionals can also use an assessment to determine if a patient is suffering from depression.

The term depression describes a mood disorder that significantly influences how a person copes with everyday life. It impacts their ability to experience joy, sleep well, or eat healthily.

Beyond the general diagnosis, your doctor will then work to determine what kind of depression you have. Some of the common depression diagnoses are as follows:

Seasonal Affective Disorder:

This depression causes people to feel low during the shorter days of the winter months.

During the winter, people with this depression might gain weight, become socially withdrawn, or sleep more. Typically, this resolves itself during spring, summer, and early autumn.

Postpartum Depression:

New moms may suffer from severe bouts of depressive symptoms during the final weeks of pregnancy or directly after giving birth.

They experience such profound feelings of anxiety and sadness that they might even find it challenging to take care of their babies.

Major Depressive Disorder:

Also called Major Depression, major depressive disorder causes people to feel so low that they lose interest in many of life’s daily functions.

Everything feels like a challenge. Some people who have this diagnosis lose interest in their friends or loved ones, lose their appetite, feel sluggish or lethargic, and see changes in their sleep patterns.

Assessment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD

Mental health assessments can also indicate accurately if a person has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also called PTSD.

According to an article by the National Institute of Mental Health, PTSD develops in people who have been involved in an event that’s dangerous, violent, or shocking. This event is the trauma.

The article goes on to explain further that a certain level of fear, part of our natural “fight or flight response,” is typical. However, those with PTSD have difficulty in turning off that switch, even if they are not in danger.

While people often associate PTSD with soldiers or others who go through extreme danger or lay witness to violent acts.

However, it’s also relatively common for people living with PTSD to be those who experience an unexpected shock, such as the death of a loved one.

Here are a few of the symptoms of PTSD that will alert the treatment professional to administer a mental health assessment for PTSD:

• Nightmares
• Feeling as if you are in danger even when you are not
• Flashbacks to the event
• Avoiding coping with the feelings or emotions of the event
• Steering clear of places that remind you of the trauma
• Disruptions in sleep patterns
• Being jumpy or startling quickly
• Inappropriate outbursts of anger

Using the best standardized mental health assessment tool can help a mental health provider make a diagnosis so that you can start the healing process.

Do I Qualify for Free Mental Health Assessment Near Me?

Emerald Isle Health and Recovery offers free mental health assessment tests.

If you believe that you struggle with a mental health disorder, please call us at 855-613-0620 or contact us online. Rest assured, your communication with us is confidential.

Mental Health Assessment Tools – What is Next?

We want you to take advantage of our free mental health test. Here is why.

Once you have taken the test, we will know, first of all, if you have a mental health disorder.

Sometimes, you might feel overwhelmed with fear or sadness.

While those emotions are valid, they do not necessarily add up to a mental health diagnosis on their own.

Regardless, you will learn more about your feelings during the testing process and, thus, better equipped to manage them.

The second possibility is that we do diagnose you with a mental health disorder.

That diagnosis means that you will finally be able to explain why you feel, react, or behave in a particular way.

Furthermore, it empowers you to begin the process of healing.

The mental health treatment professionals at Emerald Isle Health and Recovery can help you feel better, emotionally, and mentally.

Call us today at 855-613-0620 to chat with us.

We will be glad to help you with the free mental health assessment tools—and we will assist you in allowing the healing to begin.