THE BRAIN'S RELATIONSHIP TO MENTAL DISORDERS

Abstract

Mental disorder is a dysfunction of brain activity that can affect an individual's mood, behavior, reasoning, learning, and communication. It is a silent disease that can be present at any stage of life. Its reflexes occur at the psychological level and may have physical symptoms, depending on the stage of the illness. Commonly associated with suffering are anxiety disorders, depression, panic syndrome, chemical dependency, bipolar disorder, and others. Each individual manifests his or her pathology in a unique way, and the management must also be personalized. The disorder has multiple causes, such as genetic inheritance, environment, culture, emotional impacts, traumas, phases of the life cycle, among other aspects. Therefore, its treatment requires a multidisciplinary team, with professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists, and, in the school environment, when it comes to learning, a psychopedagogue, an extremely important professional for the student and his family. When the manifestation of the disorder happens in the school phase, teachers are key, since school is a very familiar environment and functions as the second home and family representation. Teachers have the possibility to observe and identify the student's problem; they spend many hours with the student daily, transfer knowledge, and identify the student's emotional state, attention focus maintenance, memory, engagement, motivation, mood and behavior changes. They are the first to notice learning difficulties or inability presented by some individuals when facing new situations, triggered by several factors