1. Psychological Disorders

2. Write down what you think…
Defines a psychological disorder
What causes a psychological disorder

3. What is a psychological disorder?
Psychological disorder – Ongoing pattern of thoughts, feelings, or actions that are deviant, distressful and dysfunctional

4. Deviant, Distressful…
Deviant – different from others who share your culture
For example, hearing voices may be a sign of a spiritual awakening in certain religions
What is defined as deviant behavior can also change…homosexuality was listed as a psychological disorder until 1973
Distressful – Causes discomfort for yourself or others
Being an Olympic gold medalist is definitely deviant from the norm, but does it distress anyone?

5. Dysfunctional
Dysfunctional – Behaviors that Interfere with normal day-to-day life
A fear of spiders may be deviant and distressful (to you), but unless you refuse to ever go into a room where you once saw a spider, you can pretty much function day to day with a fear of spiders/bugs
Very typical behavior can become dysfunctional as well
Example: An occasional sad mood is normal until the feelings persist and become disabling

6. Classifying Disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
DSM-IV-TR and now the DSM-V
DSM-IV-TR used to be broken down into 5 axes to narrow a diagnosis
The new DSM-V has only 3 sections
Section 1: How to use the manual
Section 2: Diagnostic categories
Section 3: Conditions that need additional research, glossary of terms, other info

8. Main Categories of Mental Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Dissociative and Personality Disorders
Substance-Related Disorders
Mood Disorders
Schizophrenia

9. Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorder – marked by a distressing, persistent anxiety OR maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety
Example: A man who is afraid of social settings (social anxiety) may avoid going out altogether
Maladaptive means not appropriate to the situation or environment
Example:
35 year old screaming in the waiting room of a doctor’s office waiting for his yearly physical.

10. 5 Main types of Anxiety Disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Panic Disorder
Phobias (fears)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

11. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Symptoms of the disorder are commonplace (feeling worried, anxious)
The symptoms are constantly present, however, causes long-term stress and anxiety
27 year old electrician Tom has been bothered by dizziness, sweating palms, irregular heartbeat, and ringing in his ears. He feels edgy and sometimes he finds himself shaking. He is fairly successful at hiding his symptoms, but sometimes he has to leave work. He allows himself very few social contacts, and a family doctor is unable to find any physical problem.

12. Panic Disorder
Anxiety suddenly escalates into terrifying panic attacks
Minutes-long feeling of intense fear that something horrible is about to happen
Irregular heartbeat, chest pains, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness
Many times, panic attack symptoms are misread to be heart attacks

13. Description of a Panic Attack
“My heart was racing and I started to sweat and tremble and I was sure I was going to faint. Then my fingers started to feel numb and tingly and things seemed unreal. It was so bad I asked my husband to bring me to the emergency room. By the time we got there (about 10 minutes) the worst was over and I felt washed out”

14. Phobias
Phobia – Persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of an object or situation
Common phobias: certain animals, insects, heights, blood, closed spaces
Phobias can trigger panic attacks, which in turn can lead to a fear of panic attacks or places that trigger panic attacks, called agoraphobia

15. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive thoughts combined with compulsive behaviors in response to those obsessive thoughts.
Example:
Thinking something bad is going to happen if your room is dirty and then cleaning your room over and over again
On a small scale, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors are a part of every day life, but when they interfere with every day life and become distressing

16. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD symptoms – recurring, haunting memories and nightmares, a numb feeling of social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, trouble sleeping following a traumatic event(s)
25% of 103,788 U.S. veterans surveyed were diagnosed with PTSD in 2005
The greater the emotional distress during the trauma, the higher the risk for PTSD

17. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The more frequent and severe the trauma, the worse the long-term outcomes tend to be…
As an army infantry scout during the Iraq war, Jesse, “saw the murder of children, and women. It was just horrible for anyone to experience.” After calling a helicopter strike on one house where he had seen ammunition crates carried in, he heard the screams of children from within. “I didn’t know there were kids in there.” He suffered, “real bad flashbacks”

18. Causes of Anxiety Disorders
Classical conditioning (remember, little Albert and the white rat)
Many times we generalize our fears to similar situations/objects
Observational Learning – We learn fear by observing others’ fears, namely our caretakers/parents
Genetic predisposition to reacting strongly to stress
Pairing a genetic predisposition with a traumatic event will pave ‘fear pathways’ in our brain that strengthen over time as more we experience more negative/fearful events…the end result can be an anxiety disorder

19. Assignment
With your partner, go over your psychological disorders case studies and identify the case studies that describe an anxiety disorder
Be sure to name the specific disorder (OCD, Generalized Anxiety, etc.)
We will go over your answers shortly.