All mental disorders are linked

Norway science news:

Neuroticism is one of the five higher-order personality traits and pretty much everyone has it to some extent.

People who score high on neuroticism are easily worried and are more likely to experience negative feelings such as fear, anger, frustration, jealousy, guilt, and loneliness. They tend to interpret common situations as threatening, or to feel that small challenges are hopelessly difficult.

Now Eivind Ystrøm, a professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo and his colleagues say that this trait best defines the risk of developing psychiatric problems.

Research also shows that it is mainly your genes that determine your personality, and thus the risk of mental illness.

And for better or worse, your upbringing probably has minimal effect.

All mental disorders are linked

"Previously we thought that mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse, were completely separate diseases," Ystrøm says.

But research has now shown that these illnesses are often linked. If you suffer from one mental illness, you are more likely to develop another. And if someone in your immediate family has a psychiatric illness, your risk increases not only for this disorder, but for all other disorders.

The article does not mention it, but women consistently score much higher levels of neuroticism. They also show much higher rates of psychiatric illnesses, and are much more commonly medicated for them.