The Construct Of Alexithymi An Effective Treatment Factor For Diseases Essay

At the age of 14, Alex was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. He was hospitalized for months, growing restless as the doctors tried to find the right combination of pills to make him back to “normal.” However, pills and therapy weren’t the treatment Alex needed. To keep himself busy

Most of these symptoms are apparent in Alex’s psychological and emotional functioning. It can be argued that id dominates her functioning, with the Thanatos being the main drive - Alex displays many destructive and auto destructive behaviors like self injurious behavior and verbal and physical aggression towards Dan and his wife. Also apparent is the lack of impulse control which can also be explained by id’s dominance. Furthermore, object relation is arguably another expression of Alex’s poor ego function, as she tends to perceive relationships a lot closer than they are in

This is consistent with cognitive theories that suggest the use in this disorder of attempts to reduce the involvement of emotions with compensatory cognitive strategies.[11]

Our parents raise us hoping for us to develop certain character traits, but there comes to a point when we start to become our own person based on the experiences we go through, any situation, good or bad, can influence our personality mentally and emotionally. Emotion is what makes us human, it's how we cope and how we manage our crazy lives’. When our feelings get damaged or even nourished, it will change how we react

If you’re not paying attention, the mind can be a tricky labyrinth. The less you know about it, the more inexplicable and frightening it becomes. For example, why do seemingly benign elephants wreak havoc upon villages? In “An Elephant Crackup,” Charles Siebert explores the aberrant nature of these elephants and correlates them to their traumatizing upbringing, deprived of community and kinship. The biochemistry of the human mind, analyzed in “Love2.0” by Barbara Frederickson, serves as a worthy addendum to Siebert’s conjecture. “Love2.0” explains that the brain, hormones, and nerves work in unison to build emotional fortitude, stimulate oneself, and express positivity resonance. Siebert’s ideas of elephant culture and trans-species psyche can put Frederickson’s theory of emotions into practice. The absence of certain hormones within elephants, provided their fragmented community, can explain their volatile outbreaks. Alternatively, the reinstitution of human parental roles into elephant culture can help reconstruct their broken emotional states of elephants and rebuild their resilience; this healing process can also extend to humans.

After reviewing the behaviors of Alex Forrest, I have decided that a borderline personality disorder is most appropriate for her. It also seems like Alex may have a mild form of histrionic personality disorder, but does not actually meet all of the criteria to be fully diagnosed and therefore is not a comorbid diagnosis. A list of the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder and a description for how they are met is following, Alex meets six of the criterion and the DSM-IV-TR requires at least five criterion be present.

A component of the alexithymia construct, emotion differentiation is the ability to identify and label emotional experiences into discrete categories (Boden et al., 2013). (Note: Emotion differentiation has also been referred to as emotion granularity; Barrett, 2006; Tugade, Fredrickson, & Barrett, 2004). Individuals high in emotion differentiation can make subtle distinctions between their emotions; for example, they can distinguish between feelings of anger, frustration, or annoyance. Individuals with low emotion differentiation, however, may interpret all emotions in a broad, more general manner, such as simply claiming they feel “upset” or “bad” (Barrett, Gross, Christensen, & Benvenuto, 2001; Boden et al., 2013). Although it may only represent a portion of

Before starting the discussion of emotion-focused therapy, it is very important to have an understanding of what emotion is. Historically, emotions were seen as nonspecific and disruptive; however more recent analyses have emphasized the functions that emotions serve (Hebb, 1949). Although emotions address different adaptive problems, they generally facilitate decision making, prepare the individual for rapid motor responses and provide information regarding the ongoing match between organism and environment (Schwarz & Clore, 1983). In addition to this, emotion also serves as a social function for they inform us about others’ behavioral intentions, give us clues as to whether something is good or bad and control our social behavior (Greenberg & Safran, 1987). From an emotion-focused perspective, according to Greenberg (2004), emotion disorder is seen as a result of more failures in the dyadic regulation of affect, avoidance of affect, traumatic

Abstract: According to the article “Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett explains how emotions are made” our brain would have to work hard to construct an emotion. You would take a long time to describe it. Hence sometimes people find difficulties to figure out what they are feeling or sometimes they think that they are not feeling anything.

“That thoughts can lead to emotions and behaviour; and that emotional disorders arise from negatively biased thinking (which lead to unhelpful emotions and behaviours); and that emotional disorders can be helped by changing such thinking” (Curwen.B, 2000).

Alex was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 24. Alex’s life was normal until a recently when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia after an episode when he described feeling like others was out to get him. Alex reports that he remembers hearing voices that told him that his family members were plotting to kill him, or hurt him in some manner. Alex also insists that he possesses divine powers and can interact with God. He even insists that some holy spirits have come in him. Alex acted out in anger to the point that his family was scared to be around him at times. When asked Alex reports that he felt as if he was an outcast when in school, and in society.

Children are very complex, unique and varied individuals whose genetics, connections and backgrounds all perform significant roles in their emotional development (Wilson, 2003). The genetic blueprint a child inherits from its parents may plot a course for development but the environment and the influences within can affect how the child is shaped, how they connect with and are perceived by others and how their emotions are or are not expressed. Wilson (2003) points out emotions as an experience that is linked to cognitive interpretation, context, subjective feeling, physical reaction and behavioural expression. Campos, Campos, and Barrett (1989) suggest emotions are processes of establishing, maintaining, or disrupting the relations between the person and the internal or external environment, when such relations are significant to the individual.

Levant, EdD, coined the term "normative male alexithymia” to describe the phenomenon of men not realising what they are feeling or what emotions they are experiencing. (8) He suggests that many males learn from their parents and other influences that they are not supposed to express emotion, therefore instead of dealing with and learning about their emotions they repress them so much so that when they enter adulthood they don’t understand their own emotions or know how to express them. It is therefore hypothesised that if males aren’t able to express their emotions or understand their emotions even if they present signs and symptoms of a mental illness they themselves can’t recognise it. This is an especially big issue when faced with male depression, as it is believed many males are so cut off from their emotions that they don’t realise what they are dealing with is depression and are therefore unable to seek

Chapter 1 explains the work of a Harvard psychologist named William James. William published the article “What is an Emotion?” in a philosophical journal entitled Mind in 1884. His paper is an argument for the primacy and necessity of bodily systems in producing emotional feelings. James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. A Harvard physiologist, Walter Cannon, roundly criticized James’ theory, claiming that, according to the Cannon Bard theory, physiological changes follow emotional expression.

Reflecting feelings and content is hugely important in a clinical setting in order to make implicit and