Clinical depression is more than feeling unhappy or fed up for a few days.

Most people go through periods of feeling down. When you have clinical depression you feel sad for weeks or months, not just a few days.

Clinical depression can be a serious condition. It is not a sign of weakness. It is not something you can ‘snap out of’ by ‘pulling yourself together’.

With the right treatment and support, most people with clinical depression can make a full recovery.

More information on clinical depression is available from the HSE website here.

It’s normal for young people to feel worried or anxious from time to time. For example, when starting a new school, or moving to a new area.

But for some young people, anxiety affects their behaviour and thoughts every day. It can interfere with their school, home and social life and this is when you may need professional help to tackle it.

More information on anxiety is available from the HSE website here.

Psychosis is a rare but very serious mental health condition.  In general, there are 4 main symptoms associated with a psychotic episode:

• hallucinations
• delusions
• confused and disturbed thoughts
• lack of insight and self-awareness.

More information on psychosis is available from the HSE website here.

An eating disorder is when you have an unhealthy attitude towards food.

It can involve:

• eating too much
• eating too little
• becoming obsessed with your weight and body shape.

There are treatments that can help. You can recover from an eating disorder.

Men and women of any age can get an eating disorder. It usually develops first in the teenage years.

More information on eating disorders, and the different types of eating disorders is available on the HSE website here. 

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can affect you in different ways. It usually causes a particular pattern of thoughts and behaviours.

This pattern has 4 main steps:

• Obsession – an unwanted and distressing thought, image or urge repeatedly enters your mind.
• Anxiety – the obsession provokes a feeling of intense anxiety or distress.
• Compulsion – repetitive behaviours or mental acts that you feel driven to perform. These can be a response to the obsessive thought pattern.
• Temporary relief – the compulsive behaviour relieves the anxiety for a short while. But the obsession and anxiety soon return, and the cycle begins again.

It’s possible to have obsessive thoughts, with or without the compulsion or urge to act. You may experience both.

More information on OCD is available from the HSE website here.

ADHD is the acronym used for the diagnostic label Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is neurodevelopmental, meaning that the brain develops differently from the start of life. Being ADHD means you are neurodivergent, that your brain processes information differently and your experience of the world differs from the majority. Research suggests that it is genetically determined.

There are three types of ADHD: 

• ADHD inattentive type (formerly referred to as attention deficit disorder or ADD)
• ADHD hyperactive/impulsive type
• combined type (when an individual meets criteria for both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive type.

Inattentiveness can look like difficulty following instructions with multiple steps, reading a book through from beginning to end, and organising your belongingness. Hyperactive/Impulsiveness can look like increased movement to expend extra energy from the body and acting without thinking.

We use the latest medical criteria to assess for ADHD. A minimum number of features of each type of ADHD must be present to reach diagnostic threshold for ADHD. There also needs to be no other reason to account for the differences reported. Common reasons to explain ADHD features which may need to be explored in advance of an ADHD assessment include sleep difficulties, mental health concerns, autism, dyslexia, sensory processing differences, language differences, and processing speed.

For more information on ADHD please visit ADHDIreland.ie