neurosis

/nəˈroʊsɪs/

/nəˈrʌʊsɪs/

Other forms: neuroses

If you feel overly anxious and worried, that is a sign of neurosis: a mental illness with no particular cause.

Depression, tension, irritability, and nervousness are all symptoms of a mental or emotional disorder called neurosis. When you have a neurosis, you worry so much that it makes life difficult. The difficult thing about neurosis is there’s not something specifically wrong, like with a broken leg or type of cancer. Neurosis is a mental-health issue that can be minor or very serious. It's also very common, and many comedians have made fun of their own neurosis in their work.

Definitions of neurosis

1. noun

   a mental or personality disturbance not attributable to any known neurological or organic dysfunction
   synonyms: neuroticism, psychoneurosis

   types:

   hysteria, hysterical neurosis

   neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions

   anxiety neurosis

   characterized by diffuse anxiety and often somatic manifestations of fear

   anxiety hysteria

   a form of hysteria having features of both conversion disorder and anxiety neurosis

   hysterocatalepsy

   hysteria with cataleptic symptoms

   type of:

   disturbance, folie, mental disorder, mental disturbance, psychological disorder

   (psychiatry) a psychological disorder of thought or emotion; a more neutral term than mental illness