From time to time, chilling stories are published in the media about people who suddenly went crazy and committed terrible crimes or committed suicide. Yes, and almost every person over 30 years old can recall a similar story heard from one of their acquaintances or happened directly to one of his friends or relatives. And watching another story on TV about a man who attacked passers-by on the street, or a woman who harmed her own child, each viewer involuntarily wonders why people go crazy and how to keep their minds so that one terrible day does not become a hero of such news?

What is madness?

A hundred years ago, when psychology and psychiatry were just beginning to develop as sciences, the terms “madness” or “madness” were used to refer to all possible mental disorders, from and ending with schizophrenia, bipolar mental disorder and suicidal tendencies. Now, in official practice, these terms are not used, since psychotherapists involved in the study, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders claim that inappropriate behavior, popularly called insanity, is a symptom of a particular mental illness.

In modern language madness is the loss of the ability to adequately assess the world around us and behave within the framework of socially accepted norms. However, this definition is incomplete, as there are a number of mental disorders that come in different forms and present with a wide variety of symptoms. But still according to the nature of the flow, modern psychiatrists distinguish the following three main forms of insanity:

Depending on the frequency and severity of attacks, all mental disorders are divided into three groups according to severity: mild, severe and acute. Mental disorders in a mild form, as a rule, are not too noticeable to others and are often attributed to the characteristics of a person’s character, but serious and acute insanity can cause a real tragedy.

According to statistics, In today's world, the most common mental disorders are depression, schizophrenia, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic attacks, bipolar disorder and neurasthenia. Therefore, with a probability of more than 95%, people who, according to others, have gone crazy, actually suffer from one of the above diseases.

Why do people go crazy?

Mental illnesses can be either congenital or acquired. A congenital disease should be spoken of when the diagnosis was made at an early age, and the child inherited the disease from one of the parents. As a rule, a tendency to schizophrenia and epilepsy is transmitted at the genetic level, and sometimes to alcohol and drug addictions. But still, more often people go crazy not because of the peculiarities of their DNA, but under the influence of external factors and life circumstances. And all the causes of insanity can be conditionally divided into three groups: physiological and psychological.

Physiological causes

The physiological causes of insanity include all factors that can cause brain damage, as a result of which the functionality of the central nervous system will be impaired and the human psyche will suffer. As a rule, the following reasons can lead to serious consequences for the psyche:

Traumatic brain injury. After an experienced trauma, certain areas of the brain may suffer, and nervous activity will be impaired. The consequences of TBI in different cases manifest themselves in different ways and depend on which part of the brain is affected: in some, coordination of movements is disturbed, hearing and vision deteriorate, in others memory deteriorates, and in others, schizophrenia develops, panic attacks occur, aggressiveness and tantrums, etc.
Effects on the brain of chemicals. , drugs and some drugs can cause the destruction of neural circuits and impaired brain function. Depending on which functions were impaired and how severe the damage to the brain, a person may develop a mild or severe form of depression, paranoia, mania, neurasthenia, or another mental disorder.
Age. In old age, few people can boast of a healthy heart and blood vessels, and vascular disease is one of the main causes of senile dementia. With atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases, the right amount of oxygen does not enter the brain and nerve cells die, as a result of which the brain ceases to cope with all functions. Similar changes in the brain occur in Alzheimer's disease, which is commonly called senile insanity.

Psychological reasons

According to psychologists and psychiatrists, up to 30% of residents of large cities are constantly in a state of chronic stress, which is also considered a borderline state of the psyche - that is, the mental state is no longer normal, but there is no serious disorder yet. Borderline states of the psyche are dangerous because, if present, even the most insignificant irritant can become the “last straw” and serve as a trigger for mental illness. And here The reasons why a person finds himself on the “threshold” of insanity are most often the following:

Constant failure
Emotional burnout at work (workaholism)
Psychological trauma caused by an event that significantly affected a person’s life (experienced violence, betrayal of a loved one, etc.)
The loss of what a person considered the meaning of his life (the bankruptcy of a business due to the financial crisis, the death of a child, dismissal from work, etc.)
Social isolation (loneliness and boredom)
Love addiction.

Whatever the causes of stress, the mechanism of development of mental disorders is similar in all cases. First, negative emotions accumulate, then at a certain stage sensitization develops (increased sensitivity to stimuli), and after a relatively short period of time, the human psyche loses stability and flexibility. If a person does not turn to a psychologist in time or does not restore the psyche on his own, sooner or later he will have a nervous breakdown, manifested either by constant tantrums, increased aggressiveness and mania (in choleric and sanguine people), or melancholy and depression (in phlegmatic and melancholic people).

How not to go crazy?

No one is immune from stress and psychological trauma, however, it is in the power of each person to make sure that the risk of going crazy is minimal. But for this, it is not enough to avoid conflict and stressful situations, because there are many factors that can cause insanity. Therefore, psychotherapists argue that the best prevention of mental disorders is to take care of the health and functionality of your nervous system. And in their opinion to maintain a stable healthy psyche for many years will help the following:

Food is a source of macro- and micro-elements necessary for the functioning of all body systems, including the brain. With a lack of certain substances, malfunctions of the organs occur: for example, with a lack of B vitamins, a person becomes irritable, distracted and gets tired quickly, and a deficiency of any macronutrients leads to a breakdown, loss of efficiency and the development of harmful processes in all organ systems, in including in the brain. Therefore, food rich in vitamins and minerals will be a guarantee that the brain will receive all the substances necessary for stable functioning.
Rejection of bad habits. Nicotine, alcohol and drugs are brain poisons that kill nerve cells and destroy neural connections. Therefore, those who want to stay sane and sober for a long time need to give up bad habits and not poison their body with their own hands.
. Diseases transferred “on the legs” can give complications to the nervous system, as a result of which brain functions will be impaired. It is especially important not to postpone a visit to the doctor if dizziness and migraine regularly occur, constant drowsiness and loss of strength are felt, coordination of movements and speech are disturbed - as a rule, this is how the first signs of the pathological process in the brain appear.
An optimistic outlook on life. Optimists are much less likely to go crazy than pessimists, as they are able to find positive aspects in almost any event and tend to believe in the best even when the situation is far from the best. Pessimists, on the other hand, live in constant stress and anxiety, so they run the risk of “earning” depression, phobia or other mental disorders sooner or later.
Expanding your circle of friends. Man is a social being, and even introverts need people with whom they can at least occasionally communicate. But not only for communication, but also as a support and support, because the very realization that in case of trouble there will be someone to turn to for help can give strength to survive a traumatic situation.
Constant self-development. Learning new information, looking for interesting activities and hobbies, self-improvement and mastering new useful skills - all this not only gives a feeling of happiness and fullness of life, but also allows you to train the brain and significantly slow down age-related deterioration of the central nervous system.
Self-confidence. A self-confident person with adequate self-esteem copes with difficulties and experiences stress much easier than people with low self-esteem. The reason for this is simple: those who believe in themselves know that they can eventually find a way out of any situation and survive temporary difficulties, therefore, in difficult periods of life, self-confident people mobilize and make every effort to solve the problem constructively. "Whiners", on the contrary, at the slightest difficulty experience severe stress, fall into melancholy and depression.