Psychological Disorders
words of the author: before you read this, can i just say that, just because you feel like you have those symptoms, that doesn't mean that you also have this particular disorder. I'm not saying that it is not possible for you to have it but, as the text below says, anxiety is part of everybody's life. Everybody experiences these feelings from time to time, but please beware the definition of disorder before jumping to conclusions and running to a psychiatrist or get even more depressed as you might already are because you feel like you have an actual disorder. Disorders are not something to joke about and if you have never thought about yourself with any of these disorders, you probably wont get it now just because there are symptoms here and there that could refer to your life. I'm saying this because I want you to read this with a sense of critical thinking and observation for learning and not for a bunch of self-references that will just lead to depression and disrespect for people who actually suffer.
Rejoice your mind instead of destroying it.
-Suntka Rost
Perspectives on Psychological Disorders
Psychologists and psychiatrists consider behavior disordered when it is deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional. The definition of deviant varies with the context and culture. It also varies with time; for example, some children who might have been judged rambunctious a few decades ago are now being diagnosed with attention-deficient hyperactivity disorder.
The medical model assumes that psychological disorders are mental illnesses that can be diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and cured through therapy, sometimes in a hospital. The biopsychosocial approach assumes that disordered behavior, like other behavior, arises from genetic predisposition and physiological states; inner psychological dynamics; and social-cultural circumstances.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM – IV), currently describes 400 disorders and their prevalence. The manual defines a structured interview technique that clinicians can use to reach a diagnosis. They answer objective questions, posed at five different levels, or axes, about the individual's observable behaviors. The reliability of the classification is sufficiently high. DSM diagnoses are developed in coordination with International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
Critics of the DSM-IV argue that diagnostic label can stigmatize a person by biasing other's interpretations and perceptions of past and present behaviors and by affecting the ways people react to the labeled person. The benefits of diagnostic labels are that they help mental health professionals communicate with one another about care and therapy, and they establish a common vocabulary for the exchange of ideas among researchers working on causes and treatments of disorders. Most health insurance policies in North America require an ICD diagnosis before they will pay for therapy. One label, “insanity” - used in some legal defenses – raised moral and ethical questions about how a society should treat people who have disorders and have committed crimes.
Anxiety Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
Anxiety is part of our everyday experience. It is classified as a psychological disorder only when it becomes distressing or persistent or is characterized by maladaptive behaviors intended to reduce it.
People with generalized anxiety disorder (two-thirds of whom are women) feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and apprehensive and are in a state of automatic nervous system arousal. They are unable to identify, or avoid, the cause of these feelings. People with panic disorder experience periodic minutes-long episodes of intense dread, which may include feelings of terror, chest pains, choking, or other frightening sensations in panic disorder are more extreme and may cause people to avoid situations where they have had panic attacks.
Phobias differ form normal fears in their extremity and their potential effect on behavior. People with a phobia experience such persistent and irrational fears that they may be incapacitated by their attempts to avoid a specific object, animal, or situation.
Persistent and repetitive thoughts and actions that characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder interfere with everyday living and cause the person distress. The obsession (the repetitive thought) may, for example, be a concern with dirt, germs, or toxin, be excessive hand washing, bathing, or some other form of grooming.
Four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems are symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The symptoms appear following some traumatic event or events the individual witnessed or experienced but could not control. Some people are more resilient than other. On average, only about 10 percent of women and 20 percent of men react to trauma by developing PTSD at some pint in their lifetime. For those who survive the trauma, the experience can lead to a period of growth.
Those working from the learning perspective view anxiety disorders as a product of fear conditioning, stimulus generalization, reinforcement of fearful behaviors, and observational learning of others' fear. Those working from the biological perspective consider the role that fears of life-threatening animals, objects, or situations played in natural selection and evolution; the genetic inheritance of a high level of emotional reactivity; and abnormal responses in the brain's fear circuits.
Dissociative disorders are conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feeling. The most famous dissociative disorder is dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. Critics note that this diagnosis increased dramatically in the late twentieth century, that it is not found in many countries and is very rare in other, and that it may reflect role-playing by people who are very open to therapists' suggestions. Some view this disorder as a manifestation of feelings of anxiety, or as a response learned when behaviors are reinforced by reductions in feelings of anxiety.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders are characterized by emotional extremes. A person with major depressive disorder experiences two or more weeks of seriously depressed moods and feelings of worthlessness, takes little interest in most activities, and derives little pleasure from them. These feelings are not cause by drugs or a medical condition. Although less disabling, dysthymic disorder is marked by two years of chronic low energy and poor self-esteem. People with bipolar disorder alternate between depression and mania, a hyperactive and wildly optimistic impulsive state. Major depressive disorder is much more common than is bipolar disorder.
An acceptable theory of depression must account for the many behavioral and cognitive changes that accompany depression; its widespread occurrence; women's greater susceptibility to the disorder; the tendency of depressive episodes to self-terminate; the link between stressful events and the onset of depression; and the increasing rates and earlier onset of depression.
The biological perspective on depression focuses on genetic influence, in part though linkage analysis and association studies. Researchers working from this perspective also study abnormalities in brain structure and function, including those found in neurotransmitter systems. Their work has shown that as predisposition to depression does run in some families, that activity in the left frontal lobes is slowed during depression, and that stress-related damage to the hippocampus increases the risk of depression. Despair drives some people to suicide, and the risk is greatest when their energy returns as the depression begins to lift.
The social-cognitive perspective has drawn attention to the power of self-defeating beliefs (arising in part from learned helplessness), and negative explanatory styles that view bad events as stable, global, and internally cause. Critics note that these characteristics may coincide with depression but not caused it. The cycle of depression consists of (1) negative stressful events (2) interpretation through a pessimistic explanatory style, creating a (3) hopeless depressed state, which (4) hampers the way the person thinks and acts, fueling more negative stressful events, such as rejection.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a group of disorders that typically strike during late adolescence, affect men very slightly more than women, and seem to occur in all cultures. Symptoms of schizophrenia are disorganized and delusional thinking (which may stem from a breakdown of selective attention), disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. Delusions are false beliefs; hallucinations are sensory experiences without sensory stimulation.
The subtypes of schizophrenia are paranoid (preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often of persecution or grandiosity), disorganized (disorganized speech or behavior, or flat affect or inappropriate emotions), catatonic (immobility, extreme negativism, and/or parrotlike repetition of another's speech or movements), undifferentiated (varies symptoms), and residual (withdrawal following hallucinations and delusions). Chronic (or process) schizophrenia emerges gradually, is often associated with negative symptom (absence of appropriate behaviors), and carries a low chance of recovery. Acute (or reactive) schizophrenia develops rapidly (often in response to stress) in a previously well-adjusted person, may be associated with positive symptoms (presence of inappropriate behaviors), and carries a greater chance of recovery.
People with schizophrenia have increased receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine, which may intensify the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Research is under way on a possible link between negative symptoms and impaired glutamate activity. Brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia include enlarged, fluid-filled cerebral cavities and corresponding decreases in the cortex. Brain scans reveal abnormal activities in the frontal lobes, thalamus, and amygdala. Malfunctions in multiple brain regions and their connections apparently interact to produce the symptoms of schizophrenia. Research support is mounting for the causal effects of a virus suffered in mid-pregnancy.
The odds of developing schizophrenia are approximately 1 in 100 in the general population; 1 in 10 if a family member has it; and 1 in 2 if an identical twin has the disorder. Adoption studies show that an adopted child's chances of developing the disorder are greater if the biological parents have schizophrenia, but not if the adopted parents have it. But 50 percent of those whose identical twin has schizophrenia do not develop the condition themselves, demonstrating that genetics is not the sole cause of this disorder.
No environmental event can by itself trigger schizophrenia, though some things may trigger the disorder in those genetically predisposed to it. Research has identified some early warning signs of schizophrenia, including a mother whose schizophrenia was severe and long-lasting; birth complications; separation from parents; short attention span and poor muscle coordination; disruptive or withdrawn behavior; emotional unpredictability; and poor peer relations and solo play.
Personality Disorder
Personality Disorders are inflexible and enduring patterns of behaviors that impair social functioning. The main component of the first cluster is anxiety; of the second cluster, eccentric behaviors; of the third cluster, dramatic or impulsive behaviors. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of conscience and, sometimes, aggressive and ruthless behavior. Brain scans of some murderers with this disorder have shown reduced activity in the frontal lobes, an area of control for impulsive, aggressive behavior. There is no gene for antisocial personality disorder, though genetic predisposition may interact with environmental influences to produce it.
Rates of Psychological Disorders
Research indicates that about 1 in 6 people has, or has had, a psychological disorder, usually by early adulthood. Poverty is a predictor of mental illness. Conditions and experiences associated with poverty contribute to the development of mental disorders, but the converse is also true. Some mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, can drive people into poverty.
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