Holi Befiwi

Julio Sandoval Flores 10C #21
18 Psychological Disorders
Section 1
Psychological disorders are behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal suffering or interfere with person’s ability to cope with everyday life. Many people believe that psychological disorders are uncommon, affecting relatively few inidividuals.
The importance of culture is demonstrated byculture-bound sindromes, clusters of symptoms that define or describe an illness. Also it is important to classify psychological disorders so that individuals can be correctly diagnosed and treated.
DSM Diagnostic and Statical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. Many psychologists criticized early versions of the DSM because very diverse psychological disorderswere grouped togheter under the labels “neuroses” and “psychoses”.
The normality of a behavor or mental processes are often determined by the negree to which it is average, or typical, of the the behavior or mental processes of the majority of people.
Clusters of symptoms that define or describe an illness. Many behaviors associated with culture-bound syndromes would be considered abnormal bypeople who are unawere of syndrome’s cultural context.
Section 2
Anxiety refers to a general state of dread or uneasiness that occurs in response to a vague or imagined danger. Anxiety is typically characterizd by nervousness, inability to relax, and concern about losing control.
In such situations, feeling anxious or worried is an aprópiate response that does not indicate a psychologicaldisorder. When this problems occur, anxiety is considered a sign of psychological disorder.
Simple phobia, which is the most common of all the anxiety disorders, refers to a persistent excessive or irracional fear of a particular. Almost any object or situation may lead to a phobic reaction. Several phobias, however, are especially common. The most common include:
Zoophobia: a fear of animals.Claustrophobia: a fear to enclosed places.
Acrophobia: a fear of heights.
Arachnophobia: a fear of spiders.
Social phobia is characterized by persistent fear of social situations in which one might be exposed to the close scrutiny of others and thus be observed doing something embarrasing or humiliating.
A panic attack is a relativity short periodo f intense fear or discomfort, characterized byshortness of breath, dizziness, rapid heart rate, trembling or shaking, sweating choking, nausea, and other distressing physical symptoms.
Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to iintense, persistent feelings of anxiety that are caused by an experience so traumatic that it would produce stress in almost anyone. People who suffer from PTSD may exhibit any or all of the following symptoms:
Flashbacks,which are reexperiences of the actual trauma.
Nightmares or other unwelcome thoughts about the trauma.
Numbness of feelings.
Avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma.
Increased tension, which may lead to sleep disturbances, irritability, poor concentration, and similar problems.
Section 3
Dissociation refers to the separation of certain personality components or mental processesfrom conscious thought. However, when dissociation occurs as a way to avoid stressful envents or feelings, it is considered to be a sign of a psychological disorder.
Formerly called psychogenic amnesia, dissociative amnesia is characterized by a sudden loss of memory, usually followinf a particularly stressful or traumatic event.
When individuals with dissociative fugue travel away from theirhome or workplace, they may take on a new name, residence, and occupation. When the fugue comes to an end, they no longer remember what happened during the fugue state.
Desperzonalization is a common symptom of other psychological disorders in addition to being a disorder in its own right. Like the other dissociative disorders, despersonalization disorder is likely to be preceded by a stressful...