PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

The lines between “crazy” and “normal” are fuzzy

• Sometimes it’s a matter of degree.

• Sometimes unconventional people are labeled as crazy when they are creatively challenging conventional wisdom.

• There is still a strong social stigma attached to mental illness.

DSM-IV-TR

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision

• A book by the American Psychiatric Association that describes the specific symptoms and diagnostic guidelines for different psychological disorders

• DSM V due out May 2013• What is its value?

GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER (GAD)—an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, global and persistent symptoms of anxiety

• Intense anxiety that disrupts normal functioning—worrying about anything and everything

• Panic attacks—intense anxiety that quickly escalates—sufferers may go to emergency, sure they are having a heart attack or stroke

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)

• Originally service people diagnosed—now any traumatic experience can cause it

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)

• An anxiety disorder in which the symptoms of anxiety are triggered by intrusive, repetitive thoughts and urges to perform certain actions, e.g., checking, hand-washing, counting, symmetry and precision

MOOD DISORDERS

• Major Depression

• Bipolar Affective Disorder

• Eating Disorders

MAJOR DEPRESSION—More than Ordinary Sadness

As leader of the alternative rock bank Nirvana, Kurt Cobain seemed to have everything: fame, artistic recognition, wealth and adulation from both fans and music critics. But Cobain also had a history of troubling epsiodes of deep depression and had attempted suicide several times. Like other people gripped by deep depression, Cobain focused on the negative during the dark episodes. This negative outlook was sometimes reflected in his lyrics. Just before the release of his album, In Utero, the group’s last album, Cobain pulled a song he had written titled “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.” Not long after the release of that album, Cobain committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun. In his suicide note, Cobain described himself as a “miserable, self-destructive death rocker.”

BIPOLAR AFFECTIVE DISORDER

• Depression and mania• “An Unquiet Mind” by Kaye Redfield

Jamison• Sometimes rapidly alternates between

symptoms of mania and major depression—called rapid cycling

EATING DISORDERS• anorexia nervosa—extreme weight loss

due to– not eating– use of laxatives– excessive exercising

Unable to “see” thinness

PLEASE read p. 573 and love your friends….

SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought processes, speech and behavior

• Also characterized by absence of motivation, emotional expressiveness (flat affect) and speech

• When two or more symptoms are present for a month or longer, diagnosis is schizophrenia

THERAPIES

Therapies associated with four of the perspectives in psychology

• Psychodynamic/psychoanalytic—Freud, Jung, and neo-Freudians

• Behavioral—Skinner and Watson

• Cognitive—rational emotive therapy and positive psychology

• Humanistic—Carl Rogers and client-centered therapy

• Please seek help if you need it—it is an indication of strength, not weakness

• Don’t be afraid to shop for the right therapist—many options

• Read pp. 616 & 617—”What to Expect in Psychotherapy”