Psychological Disorders Essay

Submitted By mcataffo
Words: 1159
Pages: 5

Psychological Disorders

Anxiety Disorders: These type of disorders can emerge from experiencing severe anxiety due to minor or common problems, or if the anxiety doesn’t go away and interferes with problem solving. If a person continues to experience extreme fear and worry that doesn’t leave them, they could be suffering from a disorder. The major types of anxiety disorders are Panic, Post traumatic Stress, Social, Generalized Anxiety, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobias, and Obsessive Compulsive. In Generalized Anxiety Disorders the person tends to worry excessively about different life events over a period of at least six months and shows chronic anxiety. Suffering from this disorder may cause you to feel restless, tense, tired, trouble sleeping, finding it hard to concentrate, and more irritable than usual. The majority of people with this disorder describe themselves as chronic worriers, who most of the time become more upset by problems than the average person. People with this disorder also suffer from panic attacks due to the severe stress they bring on themselves. Instead of having the person go in for psychotherapy, prescribing anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines can be a treatment method. Taking this medication causes risks to the person like impairment to cognitive functioning which includes reaction time. A lot of individuals have stated they experience rebound anxiety if they suddenly stop the medication. Studies have also shown the medication can become addicting. Another form of treatment which is done by psychologists is a combination of behavioral and cognitive therapy. They teach the individual how to reduce their anxiety by performing relaxation exercises. This type of therapy has ended with positive results without the use of medications. Somatoform Disorders: In these types of disorders, people claim to have physical disabilities (when they really don’t have any). This could be caused from fear or concurrent with depression, and protracts the recovery from illness and injury. When a person exemplifies vague, multiple, or nonresolving physical complaints in the absence of diagnostic findings, they could have a disorder. The different types of Somatoform disorders are Somatization, Hypochondriasis, Pain disorder, Conversion, Body Dysmorphic, Neurodermatitis, Body Dysmorphic Disorder is where the person imagines there is a defect in their appearance or has excessive concern or preoccupation with a slight physical defect. The individual is distressed to the point where academic, social, and occupational functioning is interrupted. People with this disorder are constantly checking their appearance and spend a lot of their time closely examining themselves. Other patients become so distressed they avoid looking at themselves in the mirror trying to decrease their distress. This disorder was proven to have the highest amount of suicides over any other disorder. Treatment for this disorder can be Cognitive Behavior Therapy rather than taking medication. Another form of treatment can be taking SSRI drugs since they have low levels of serotonin in their brains. Not going in for treatment for this disorder, can cause it to last a lifetime. Dissociative Disorders: These types of disorders involve dissociation or interruption in consciousness, memory, identity, motor behavior, and environmental awareness. The major types of Dissociative disorders are Dissociative amnesia, Dissociative Identity disorder, Dissociative fugue, Depersonalization disorder, and Dissociative disorder. Dissociative Fugue Disorder is where an individual can be seen wandering around in a dazed or confused state, unable to recall their identity, or recognize their own relatives, or surroundings. In most cases, the people suffering from this disorder have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder before. Some people even take on a new identity or are just confused about their own identity. Patients often