VARIOUS DISORDERS INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY ANXIETY DISORDERS Psychological

VARIOUS DISORDERS INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

ANXIETY DISORDERS • Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors

ANXIETY DISORDERS • Generalized Anxiety Disorder • When a person is unexplainably and continually tense and uneasy • Panic Disorder • When a person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread • Phobias • When a person feels irrationally and intensely afraid of a specific subject or situation • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder • When a person is troubled by repetitive thoughts or actions • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder • When a person has lingering memories, nightmares, and other symptoms for weeks after a severely threatening, uncontrollable event

GENERAL ANXIETY DISORDER • An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal • People with this condition worry continually, and they are often jittery, agitated and sleep-deprived • Concentration is difficult and switches from worry to worry, and their tension and apprehension may leak out through furrowed brows, twitching eyelids, trembling, perspiration, or fidgeting. • One of the worst characteristics of this disorder is that the person cannot identify, and therefore cannot deal with or identify its cause.

PANIC DISORDER • An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. • 1 in 75 people have this disorder • Smokers have double the risk of this disorder because nicotine is a stimulant.

PHOBIAS • An anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation • ie: animals, insects, heights, blood, or close spaces.

PHOBIAS

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER • An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions compulsions) • OCD is more common among teens and young adults

OCD

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER • An anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdraw, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. • Initially called ”shellshock” or “battle fatigue” for war veterans • However PTSD symptoms have also been reported by survivors of accidents, disasters, and violent assaults

PTSD • What determines if a person develops PTSD after a traumatic event? • The greater one’s emotional distress during the trauma, the higher the risk for PTSD symptoms • A sensitive limbic system – floods the body with stress hormones again and again as images of the traumatic experience erupt into consciousness. • Some think genes may play a role • Those who experience trauma, but do not develop PTSD are said to have a survivor resiliency

DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS • Disorders of the consciousness, in which a person appears to experience a sudden loss of memory or change in identity, often in response to an overwhelmingly stressful situation. • One’s conscious awareness is said to dissociate (become separated) from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings.

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER • A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities (formerly called multiple personality disorder)

PERSONALITY DISORDERS • Personality disorders are disruptive, inflexible, and enduring behavior patterns that impair people’s social functioning. • There are three clusters of thee disorders • Cluster A expresses eccentric behaviors, such as the emotionless disengagement of schizoid personality disorder • Cluster B exhibits dramatic or impulsive behaviors, such as the attention getting histrionic personality disorder and the self-focused and self-inflating narcissistic personality disorder • Cluster C expresses anxiety, such as a fearful sensitivity to rejection that predisposes the withdrawn avoidant personality disorder.

ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER • A personality disorder in which the person exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist (formerly called a sociopath or a psychopath) • Typically a male whose lack of conscience becomes clear before age 15, as he begins to lie, steal, fight, or display unrestrained sexual behavior. • About half of children become antisocial adults – unable to keep a job, irresponsible as a spouse or parent, and assaultive or otherwise criminal • When antisocial behavior is combined with high intelligence with amorality, the result may be a charming and clever con artist or even worse.

SCHIZOPHRENIA • A group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. • Schizophrenia is the chief example of a psychotic disorder, a disorder marked by irrationality and lost contact with reality • Typically strikes both young men and women heading into adulthood

SYMPTOMS (+/-)

SUBTYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

CAUSES • Brain Abnormalities • Dopamine Over Activity • Abnormal Brain Activity and Anatomy • Genes