Introduction to Psychological Diseases
Psychological Diseases: Mental illness isn’t only a thief, but a violent thief who kidnaps and enslaves people and sometimes kills them, but still keeps them breathing so that others must live their lives keeping watch and in fear. Throughout history, mankind has suffered from a variety of mental and psychological diseases. From as far back as ancient Rome and Greece, depression, phobias, and mania have been common in some cases. Correcting the cause of these diseases and finding a treatment for them has always been one’s main goal and effort. Psychological diseases are different from other diseases and have some characteristics and specific reasons for them. Individual psychological disease due to family history, environmental situations, all physical and eventual traumatic experiences or social reasons brought about.
Classification of Psychological Diseases
Psychological diseases can differ widely in their symptoms and their consequences, which serves as the impetus behind our need to classify them. This means, in particular, that we must families symptoms and treat them together with all of the similarities to our arsenal. For example, by knowing that we have a viral infection rather than a bacterial infection, we may know that a certain antibiotic will be of no use to us in the fight against the illness; antibiotics are prescribed only for bacterial infections. Before we can classify mental disorders, however, we must first define the terms “mental disorder” and “abnormal psychology”; these have not yet been properly defined in our earlier discussions. We must remember that the inability to function normally does not imply the presence of a mental disorder, and the converse is also true.
What is abnormal psychology? In general, abnormal psychology includes all problems of the mind and of the individual. In more technical terms, abnormal psychology is the study of those potential clues given to us by an individual that prepares us for what to come, and what to avoid, in terms of the person’s behavior and health. Since the term “abnormal” refers to a rarity in the population when applied in reference to the general activities of the person, could it also refer to rarer mental states, such as the paranoid-schizophrenic condition? Only in a limited sense. It could also refer to idiosyncratic differences in thought and behavior which do not necessarily signal the presence of a problem, and it is still applied to many nonpathological events.
Mood Disorders
One of the major mood disorders is major depressive disorder, which involves several mood and cognitive disturbances that come in episodes. During these episodes, the person experiences a depressed mood and a much diminished taste for almost all activities that are pleasurable or interesting. Often, they experience an increase or decrease in appetite, insomnia or excessive sleeping, lethargy and fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or excessive and inappropriate guilt, and difficulty concentrating or thinking.
There is some evidence that although major depressive disorder exists across cultures, its symptoms may manifest themselves differently in different cultures. It has been argued that this may be due to the fact that different cultures shape people to think and behave differently, and that the expression of depression is a social skill that is part of that training.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent class of psychiatric disorders. Anxiety arises when the possibility of a future bad event cannot be ruled out and the potential harm available to the individual or their loved ones is overwhelming or disproportionate to their available coping strategies. Anxiety helps the individual consider all possible outcomes and contemplate the use of various strategies to deal with them while keeping the fear within manageable limits.
Anxiety disorders are defined more by their symptoms than by their etiology and can be divided into generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The distinction between fear and anxiety is clinically useful. Fear is an immediate and adaptive response triggered by danger. Fear is circumscribed around specific events or objects and coincides with an intense sympathetic response. Anxiety, on the other hand, arises in situations in which real immediate, specific, or actual danger is absent. Anxiety is more prolonged and diffuse, and is not clearly discriminable from normal states of apprehension, worry, or nervousness. The lifetime prevalence rate of any anxiety disorder is as high as 30% and this prevalence remains high until late life.
Psychotic Disorders
Psychotic disorders represent the most severe psychological illnesses displayed by humans. In such illnesses, the individual’s mental health deteriorates until the patient loses total contact with reality. People with psychotic illnesses have delusions – fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. They also have hallucinations – which are primarily disturbances in perception of thought. These involve any of the five senses and include the perception of hearing voices or an image that is not real. Additionally, people with psychotic illnesses suffer from disorders of thinking often scored by symptoms of disorganized thinking and/or speech leading to clear speech derailment. And they exhibit negative symptoms such as blunted emotion, reduced speaking, and difficulty initiating purposeful activity. Schizophrenia is the classical psychotic
Personality Disorders
There are nine diagnosable personality disorders, which are divided into three clusters. Cluster A disorders are characterized by odd or eccentric behavior. Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by pervasive suspiciousness and distrust of others. The person is constantly on the lookout for signs that someone is trying to degrade, prank, or take unfair advantage of him or her. When people with schizoid personality disorder become overwhelmed by anxiety and fear of being criticized, they sometimes have breakaway experiences and become noticeably disoriented. The delusion, if it is held to be organized thinking, is often illogical or bizarre. Borderline personality disorder is diagnosed when a pattern of unstable and intense relationships and emotions is present. This includes a history of sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, eating disorders, and suicidal gestures.
Cluster B disorders are characterized by dramatic and emotional behavior. Antisocial personality disorder, previously called sociopath, is the most serious of the personality disorders. The antisocial lives outside the law, shows a lack of respect for the rights and well-being of others, and tends to be violent and aggressive. Histrionic personality disorder describes individuals who are constantly seeking attention and often become very upset when they do not get it. These people are very dramatic and have a tendency to overreact to things that happen. Narcissistic personality disorder is diagnosed when someone has an exaggerated sense of his or her importance and is absorbed by fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, or beauty. It is believed that this is in part due to the fact that the people who now have this disorder were not given the amount of attention they needed as infants.
Cluster C disorders are characterized by intense feelings of anxiety or fear. Avoidant personality disorder represents an extreme form of introversion. The individual with this disorder is excessively anxious and full of fear of criticism, making him or her reluctant to take risks or make new friends. The schizotypal personality is almost identical to schizophrenia, but the definition is broader. Schizotypal individuals can have some of the same cognitive distortions or deficits, but usually not to the overwhelming and illogical degree characteristic of schizophrenia. It usually starts to develop in late adolescence and persists over a long period of time. Fortunately, symptoms are usually less severe and schizophrenics can often work and perform daily living tasks. Borderline personality disorder, often called “borderline” or referred to as “BP”, is a disorder of character marked by disturbances in impulse control and difficulties in social relationships. They often include excessive fighting and long periods of emotional contrast. Emotional identity and self-worth are extremely unstable and reactive. Their interpersonal relationships can sometimes be superficial. Such personality disorders are very difficult to treat.
Diagnosis and Assessment of Psychological Diseases
As we have seen, determining that a particular individual is suffering from a psychological disorder (and what kind of disorder is operative) is a much more complex task than making such determinations about physiological diseases. Because psychological diseases must be classified according to their symptoms and must also be distinguished from normality, practitioners routinely use many different techniques, variously described as assessment, diagnosis, secular examination, and inference. Some of the major means used in diagnosis and assessment are interviews, questionnaires, and psychological testing. Diagnosis refers to the process of determining that a particular problem is a previously named psychological disorder. Assessment refers to the broader process of examining the nature of a psychological problem in a particular case.
Conclusion
Understanding these disorders, including their causes, symptoms, and treatment methods, is vital for improving the quality of life for affected individuals and enhancing their psychological well-being. Addressing mental illnesses requires a multidimensional approach that includes advanced scientific research, social support, and integrated therapeutic interventions. Therefore, it is essential to raise community awareness, provide necessary resources, and foster collaboration among mental health professionals to deliver effective and sustainable care. Through these efforts, we can make significant strides toward achieving tangible improvements in the treatment and alleviation of mental health conditions.
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE ORGANIZATION IHMO
