1. Persons with mental disorders

There is a wide range of various mental disorders and illnesses which affect communication. Simply thay can be sorted into the following groups:

  • mood disorders (such as depression or bipolar disorder)
  • anxiety disorders.
  • personality disorders.
  • psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia)
  • eating disorders.
  • trauma-related disorders (such as post-traumatic stress disorder)
  • substance abuse disorders.


(Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas from Pexels)

People with a mental disorder might exhibit a variety of unusual behaviour and communication peculiarities. Typically, they can use:

  • mannered speech (very emotional, extremely loud or quiet, extremely fast or slow, sometimes accompanied by excessive gestures and facial expressions),
  • exaggeration (hard to believe stories and tales),
  • illogical argumentation (as a result of delusional thinking, which is impossible to refute),
  • stereotypes in conversation or persistent adhering to certain topics (they refuse to give up on it; keep coming back to it; do not accept attempts to divert the course of conversation),
  • unusual speech tempo (especially with the depressed patients, the communication could be very short and curt; with other disorders, it could be excessive).

Watch the video and write down some examples how you might recognize symptoms of a mental disorders in communication with a person: