Diagnosing Mental disorders

What is the proper steps to take if someone is suspected to have some type of mental instability? How are mental disorders diagnosed?

[mammo]

Find a good psychiatrist, and make an appt.  They can help you determine what is going on and why.  A diagnosis is made by what you are feeling (symptoms), and what you have to say.  Sometimes it can be a chemical imbalance which only medication can help.  A person may also need medication while going thru therapy (or longer) to ease their symptoms.  Most people don't know why they are feeling the way they are, usually suppressed pain and anger, sometimes from childhood.  A psychiatrist can figure out what it is and help the person come to terms with it.

[whodunnit]

Hi, I assume you are in the USA. Here, in Australia, you can't make an appointment with a psychiatrist without being referred by a basic doc. A GP, or MD depending on your country. So first step is to see the local doc.

It usually takes a number of appointments before a psychiatrist will make a diagnosis as they need to get the person's background, family history and so on as well as the person's recent experiences that make them think there's a problem.

Unless it's blindingly obvious a pdoc wouldn't prescribe meds immediately although GP's may if you say "I'm depressed". Risky, that. A pdoc may also refer a person for further specialist tests in order to rule in or out a variety of possibilities.

There's a divided opinion on this chemical imbalance issue for depression. Used to be about half and half in the medical profession. Since MRI's and the tools they use to observe the brain live it has become clear that all depressions are chemically based.

The brain changes with the issues that bring about depression you see. There are, of course, about 1/3rd too that are believed to be depressed from birth so their brains already show that change others develop.

Meds are used to try and return that chemical balance to what is considered normal but equallt talk therapy has proven to actually cure depression which in turn changes the brain chemistry. Not quickly, this is very slow and only noticeable by processes such as MRI's which show what's going on in the brain. Before and after pics if you like.

Meds do not cure depression and usually when a person with a deeper depression etc ceases taking a med the brain's chemistry returns to the depressed state, thus back to chemical imbalance.

My own guess is that all of us are prone to depression at birth and it depends on what negative life evenst we experience and how many as well as how good our parental training was as to how to deal with negative things. I liken it to the old Chinese water torture. First few drops? Who cares? A million drips? Scream!

[Jaquta]

Talk to your family doctor who will do a physical to exclude other causes.  Talk to a psychiatrist.  It is they who will do a complete history (social, medical, etc).
Doctors often diagnosis mental illnesses based on the dsm-iv.  It lists all the disorders with their diagnostic criteria, etc.