Interview by Samaa Elsaadany 20061078
Dr. Doaa Abdel Hafez is a specialist in psychiatry and addiction treatment at Ain Shams University, and holds a doctorate in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine Ain Shams University, a specialist in psychiatry at the psychiatric hospital Dr. Adel Sadek, worked as a deputy of Neurology, neurology and psychiatry at Ain Shams University Hospitals from 2016 to 2018, worked as a specialist in psychiatry Edraak clinics from 2019 to 2020, specializing in the treatment of addiction and toxicology, adolescent and adult psychology, Therefor Dr. Doaa can help us greatly in finding out the most common mental illnesses that young people are exposed to, their causes, and how we can help them.
Doctor, could you explain more about your specialty?
In addition to my private clinic, I work as a psychiatric specialist at the psychiatric hospital, Dr. Adel Sadek, and I specialize in addiction treatment and psychiatry for adolescents and adults.
What are the most frequent age groups that visit your private clinic?
In our field, there are two types of doctors: elderly doctors (stuff) and young doctors, most of the age groups that visit younger doctors are young people, not only adults and teenagers, but also young people up to the age of thirty and forty as well, and this is with the aim of finding someone who hears them or cares about them and receives what is called therapy more than their desire to take medicine for their health condition.
Are there people who turn to you because they have minor or life problems, or are they all mentally ill?
Of course, many people who suffer from ordinary problems such as problems with parents, friends, work, or even self turn to me and in this type of problem they are just in need of a psychiatric opinion to help them behave correctly or they need to talk to someone who does not know them and not from their surroundings.
What are the most famous mental illnesses that you notice young people suffer from?
First, anxiety, that is accompanied most of the time by depression, stress, addiction of all kinds and personality problems such as narcissism, dependence, obsession and some problems that lead to disorders.
What are the most common causes of diseases, disorders and psychological syndromes to which they are exposed?
All mental illnesses can be divided into three main causes:
1-the cause of the gene: it isn’t required to be a first-degree relative only, but extends to the seventh grandfather.
2-the surrounding environment for him.
3 – something bad, stressful or traumatic that the patient has experienced.
Sometimes the nature of the personality or the way of upbringing has a strong influence and the disease can be the result of more than one cause, not a condition that can be caused by one.
Is social media one of the causes of mental illness or does it have any negative impact?
Social media is one of the worst things that have happened to us. There are people all the time who have strong suicidal tendencies, it does not have to be because of depression, it could be because of borderline personality disorder, for example, and social media helps them greatly in strengthening these tendencies by transmitting news about suicidal people, for example, social media increases depression, stress and anxiety as it all the time puts us in comparisons and that there is someone who is more successful, beautiful and superior.. etc., it always puts us under the pressure of the idea that we should be perfect, FOMO and the pressure it causes, almost only sad news that we see on social media and the negative energy it emits, the crazy rise in divorce rates due to groups of the problems of social media and other negative effects that are almost incalculable.
Do mental illnesses and syndromes have a cure?
There are some cases that require immediate intervention from the patient’s relatives to save him and take him to a hospital, and this happens in cases of Sudden attack to which he is exposed, but there are other less severe cases when a person is able to control himself, he can go to the doctor, follow up and take medication that helps him alleviate the severity of the disease and disorder, live with it and reduce the time between attacks or their occurrence, but it does not help him to fully recover from the disease or disorder, as a mental illness such as schizophrenia, for example, is a chronic disease such as diabetes has no cure and we cannot eliminate it.
Can we detect the disease since childhood?
Some of the most famous diseases or mental disorders such as autism and hyperactivity disorder can be detected from childhood by continuous follow-up of the child and then I can help them behaviorally, but I can’t say that the disease will disappear, I can only help him overcome or avoid some difficulties and make life easier for him somehow.
What are the most common types of addiction?
Drug addiction, porn addiction, and gaming addiction are the most common types of addiction that most patients develop.
Is addiction possibly related to mental illnesses that have already been mentioned as anxiety and depression?
We can classify mental illnesses as primary diseases and secondary diseases, the patient may have a certain mental illness such as anxiety, depression or some kind of disorder and resort to any kind of addiction in order to get rid of his mental illness.
So addiction can be a secondary disease that is related to other mental illnesses.
Can a psychopath form successful relationships or not? Are they harmful to their partners?
Patients can enter into relationships and form successful relationships naturally without problems and even be the greatest supporter of his partner and the source of his happiness and comfort.
The idea is, ‘ what’s the pathological problem? ‘ Can the partner cope with it or not.
I can’t say that psychopaths who receive treatment are harmful to their partners as long as they are honest about their illness and their current situation.
The most harmful type of illness for a partner in relationships is narcissism, a narcissistic person is a very harmful person as he does not admit from the very beginning that he is sick either to himself or to the partner from the very beginning in order to be able to choose and follow up his condition where it negatively and cruelly affects his life partner.
The schizophrenic patient is also a harmful person to his life partner, as he can make up misinformation about his life partner and deal on the basis of it and turn the life of the other party in Hell .In fact, these misinformation is unfounded.
Dr. Doaa stressed at the end of the interview that there is no medicine without side effects and psychiatric medications as well, the idea is that the stigma of mental illness is what makes people look only at its side effects and magnify them and make up rumors about them.
She completely denied that it leads to addiction and also stressed that there is no deterrent treatment for mental illness, as it is a chronic disease such as diabetes, stress and other chronic diseases, and medication only helps to alleviate the severity of the disease and its attacks and help to live with it.
Written by: Samaa Elsaadany
A Healthier You 
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