A Catalog Of Mental Disorders

According the fourth edition diagnostic manual of mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), the category psychotic disorders (Psychosis) include Schizophrenia, paranoid (Delusional), disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, residual type. Other clinical types include Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Affective Disorder/Manic depression, mania, Psychotic depression, delusional (paranoid) disorders. These are mental disorders in which the thoughts, affective response or ability to recognize reality, and ability to communicate and relate to others are sufficiently impaired to interfere grossly with the capacity to deal with reality; the classical and general characteristics of psychosis are impaired reality testing,

Today, mental disorders are ubiquitous and can be highly detrimental to a person’s physical and emotional well-being. Many individuals who struggle with mental disorders share a background of traumatic events as well as a genetic transfer from another relative. For instance, victims of sexual assault can become very ill in terms of their mental stability. Likewise, environmental causes play a vital role in a person’s psychological patterns. According to the American Psychological Association, too much emphasis is put on the study of mental illness rather than the brain itself.

The typical description of a disease would be something that causes unwanted effects on the body; however, mental illnesses show few physical symptoms and cause problems that outsiders can rarely see. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), to be specific, is a complex disorder that occurs when a person has five of the following symptoms: a depressed mood, diminished pleasure, weight loss or gain, insomnia, lethargy, problems with concentrating, fatigue, feeling worthless, or having thoughts of suicide (Myers 3). While MDD is chronic, depression is the infrequent counterpart. The official etiology of depression is important because it is widespread and is becoming increasingly more common. Knowing why an illness occurs, in theory, can help physicians

The disturbance is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder (e.g., excessive worries, as in generalized anxiety disorder; preoccupation with appearance, as in body dysmorphic disorder; difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, as in hoarding disorder; hair pulling, as in trichotillomania [hair-pulling disorder]; skin picking, as in excoriation [skin-picking] disorder; stereotypies, as in stereotypic movement disorder ritualized eating behavior, as in eating disorders; preoccupation with substances or gambling, as in substance-related and addictive disorders; preoccupation with having an illness, as in illness anxiety disorder; sexual urges or fantasies, as in paraphilic disorders; impulses, as in disruptive, impulse control, and conduct disorders guilty; guilty ruminations, as in major depressive disorder; thought insertion or delusional preoccupations, as in schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders; or repetitive patterns of behavior, as in autism spectrum disorder).

The book is organized well for the reader to transition between topics and phrases, and it does not contain language that is specific to clinical providers. The author explains definitions and interprets his meanings of topics or words to the reader. The book provides references for historical mental health information and diagnoses, and insight into the author’s perceptions by describing observations and experiences. The author’s tone is elevated, as if in a personal dialectal debatable conversation, and can be perceived as a negative opinion towards the Diagnostic Statistical Manuel 5.

Another disorder in the Dissociative Disorder category is Depersonalization Disorder, which should be differentiated from Acute Intoxication or Withdrawal. Dissociative Disorder should not be diagnosed in conjunction with Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or Acute Stress Disorder when the depersonalization symptomology occurs exclusively during the presence of a Panic Attack. Furthermore, Depersonalization Disorder is distinguished from Schizophrenia because people with Depersonalization Disorder have an intact reality. A person with Depersonalization Disorder may complain of a feeling of numbness which might appear to be

cause an ongoing loss of contact with reality. Other mental health conditions that may sometimes

Chapter Thirteen of the textbook discussed psychological disorders (Licht, 2014). Depression and anxiety are just a few common ones. A subsection in the chapter analyzed the psychological roots of depression - one, of which, was the intriguing concept of ‘learned helplessness.’ “According to researcher Martin Seligman, people often became depressed because they believe they have no control over the consequences of their behaviors” (Licht, 2014).

For awhile Depression was found to be diagnosed in a lot of people.From modern day diagnosis there is a fine line between

The last disorder to discuss is dissociative disorder. A dissociative disorder is similar to a conversion disorder in that there are no physical reasons for the symptoms but the symptoms are real. Even though clinicians cannot find physical causes, there must be something that happens with patients of this disorder because most of the time the disorder appears more than once in patients. Whether there is a small biological defective or a mental mishap, there is something that happens to patients that makes them adopt the symptoms of this

The assessment process of PDD is complex and consists of multiple steps. The first step is a medical records review in terms of history of motor symptoms, age of onset, any cognitive changes and their progression, available brain scan results, timing, and reactions to antiparkinsonian and other medications, especially ones with anticholinergic effects. To be able to time neuropsychological testing appropriately is helpful to know about any fluctuations in movement impairments, attention, daytime sleepiness, and overall sleep patterns. The presence of psychiatric symptoms, medical conditions, and surgical procedures related as well as unrelated to PDD presence important information (Trosten & Brower, 2013).

“Detailed descriptions of mental disorders such as mania, melancholia, dementia, delirium and hysteria have been

You enter the vortex, a spinning tunnel in the carnival fun house, the neon lights rotating around you, the music creating an outer space like ambience. You try to take a step, but it feels as if you are wearing heavy winter boots, the weight making it hard to lift your foot off of the ground. When you finally take a step, the ground begins to sway and you grab the railing to support yourself from falling over. As you step out of the tunnel, you realize it was all an optical illusion, and if you had just closed your eyes, you could’ve walked straight through the tunnel. I step into this tunnel on a daily basis; in fact, all POTS patients do.

Other disorders that delusions are known to appear include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, psychotic disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder. The mentioned schizophrenic disorders are devastating and categorized by the inability to differentiate between what is real and what isn’t real. Individuals with these types of disorders may experience hallucinations, unable to thin rationally, trouble communicating, inability to make decisions, and their behaviors might seem odd or outrageous. Fortunately, these disorders can be treated with a combination of medications and therapy, which is why it is imperative to diagnose the disorder accurately and as soon as possible (Hoeksema,

Chapter 3 During the Middle Ages some “authorities” classified abnormal behaviors into two groups, those that resulted from demonic possession and those due to natural causes. The 19th-century German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first modern theorist to develop a comprehensive model of classification based on the distinctive features, or symptoms, associated with abnormal behavior patterns (see Chapter 1). The most commonly used classification system today is largely an outgrowth and extension of Kraepelin’s work: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association. Why is it important to classify abnormal behavior? For one thing, classification is the core of science. Without labeling and organizing patterns of abnormal behavior, researchers could not communicate their findings to one another, and progress toward understanding these disorders would come to a halt. Moreover, important decisions are made on the basis of classification. Certain psychological disorders respond better to one therapy than another or to one drug than another.