Mental health behavioral research

In many cases of moderate depression or anxiety (the most common mental health problems) the person may not even show symptoms or may want to hide them because they worry about what people will think or say about them. The signs can often be more noticeable to other people first e.g if your mood starts changing, it may take some time for you to become aware of it; other people may be much more aware of the difference.

Some common early signs of a mental health problem are:

• Losing interest in activities and tasks that were previously enjoyed.
• Poor performance at work.
• Mood swings that are very extreme or fast and out of character for you.
• Changes in eating habits and/or appetite: over-eating, bingeing, not eating.
• Loss of, or increase in, sexual desire.
• Sleep problems.
• Increased anxiety, looking or feeling ‘jumpy’ or agitated, sometimes including panic attacks.
• Feeling tired and lacking energy.
• Isolating yourself, socialising less; spending too much time in bed.
• Wanting to go out a lot more, needing very little sleep, feeling highly energetic, creative and sociable, making new friends rapidly, trusting strangers.
• Hearing and seeing things that others don't.
• Other differences in perception; for example, mistakenly believing that someone is trying to harm you, is laughing at you, or trying to take over your body.

These are all symptoms that our main actress can show to portray the changes that the main character is going through to make the character and the situation of the opening more realistic and captivating.