Mental Health Midterm 2

Vulnerability

anxiety proneness, trait anxiety; unable to tolerate the idea negative things may happen, so they worry about these uncertain events, leading to higher chance of GAD

Panic Disorder

Person has at least one panic attack & worries about having more attacks; concern over what panic attack may indicate (am i losing my mind? Am I developing a heart condition?); changes behavior to avoid situations associated with attack

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

frequent excessive worry and anxiety out of proportion of the actual situation; lasts at least 6 months; Worry about future events, past transgressions, financial status, and the health of oneself and loved ones

Separation Anxiety Disorder

Developmentally inappropriate and excessive anxiety concerning separation from someone to whom the child is emotionally attached; worry about being harmed/caregiver being harmed

Social Anxiety Disorder

severe, persistent, and irrational anxiety about social or performance situations in which they may face scrutiny by others and possibly feel embarrassment

Agoraphobia

marked by intense fear or anxiety that occurs upon exposure to or anticipation of a broad range of situations

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

repetitive thoughts and urges about personal appearance; exaggeration of perceived defects in physical appearance;

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Intense psychological + physiological reaction to events or situations that symbolize or represent a previously experienced traumatic event (involves actual/threatened death, serious injury, or threat to physical integrity); must last more than 1 month, any less and its acute stress disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

chronic severe disorder with obsessions and compulsions and rarely remits without treatment

Obsession

Intrusive, persistent, unwanted & uncontrollable thoughts images or urges; irrational; the more they’re resisted, the worse they get;

Compulsion

Repetitive observable behaviors or unobservable mental acts that the person feels compelled to perform to prevent distress or a dreaded event from becoming a reality; time-consuming, cause significant distress

Trichotillomania

pulling hair out

Excoriation

pulling skin out

Pyromania

desire in setting fires (impulse control)

Vicarious Learning

acquisition of fear by observing another person’s fear responses; learning through observation

Positive vs Negative Reinforcement

positive–adding pleasant stimulus to encourage behavior; negative–remove unpleasant stimulus to encourage behavior

Sympathetic vs Parasympathetic Nervous System

sympathetic activates fight or flight while parasympathetic calms the body afterwards

Systematic Desensitization

using classical conditioning to change behavior of patient to become desensitized to phobia or anxiety

What does Cortisol do in stress?

weakens connection between prefrontal cortex and amygdala during stress, resulting in individual entering child-like state since amygdala remembers childhood development

behavioral expressions of anxiety

avoidance, escape, thought pattern of imagining worst possible outcome, future-oriented

Inherited or genetic components of anxiety disorders

high heritability rates, general vulnerability factor; Concordance rate for anxiety disorders among monozygotic twins is twice as high as dizygotic twins

Brain areas active when emotionally stressed or under anxiety

amygdala, limbic system

Cognitive theory explanations of fear acquisition

vicarious learning

normal anxiety vs abnormal anxiety

abnormal would have functional impairment with it; cognitive developmental age; sociodemographic factors

Virtual reality use in the treatment of anxiety disorders and the main ingredient that is seen in other anxiety treatments

useful in treating phobias or social anxiety

The most common obsession themes of OCD

germs, dirt, aggression, failing to perform adequately, sex, religion

Behavioral treatments of OCD

exposure therapy, CBT

Gender differences in the symptoms of people with body dysmorphic disorder

Women

Acute stress Disorder vs Chronic stress disorder (diagnosis criteria)

acute stress–lasts 3 days to 1 month; chronic stress–lasts at least 1 month

Treatment Interventions for PTSD

CBT, group therapy, medication, exposure therapy (including VR)

DSM-5 symptom clusters for PTSD (5)

trauma exposure, intrusion symptoms, avoidance, negative alterations in mood, hyperarousal

The most common emotion people with PTSD experience

fear

The comorbidities of PTSD (4) and the frequency of comorbid disorders with PTSD

92% of people with PTSD have comorbid disorders; acute stress disorder, substance use disorders, depression, anxiety

How do people end up developing PTSD, the factors related to it

must undergo a traumatic event; childhood experiences, genetic predisposition, those with poor memory & anxiety are more likely to develop PTSD

Risks of taking Benzodiazepines

dependence & withdrawal

Hormones involved in the stress reactions

adrenaline, cortisol

How do SSRIs work to correct serotonin imbalances?

they inhibit the reuptake of serotonin when transferred from one neuron to another, keeping it in the synapse,

Risks of taking SSRIs, especially for young people

typically leads to need for MORE therapy; typically therapy is attempted first before medication use

How common is sexual assault for women?

1 in 5 women are raped – 20% of women; ⅓ of victims develop PTSD

Types of Exposure Treatment

OCD–have client touch something dirty and don’t let them wash their hands for a bit, telling themselves it's just a thought and not reality

The way Mate sees ‘normal’; the meaning of normal to Gabor Mate

normal actually means very abnormal; normal behavior is normalized pathology (chronic stress, disconnection); normal does not mean healthy

What is normal in modern society; what does the modern society do to distort the meaning of normal

we prioritize productivity, winning, consumption, competition over connection, empathy and community; causes divide between mind and body

According to Mate what is the role of stress in illness

directly affects the body, psychological and biological; emotions and stress responses are inseparable from physical health

According to Mate, the key disconnection in modern life

disconnection from our authentic selves and from one another; he calls modern society a culture facing away from the essence of what it means to be human

The description of trauma according to Mate

trauma is not the event itself, but the wound and disconnection that result from it; what took place inside of us as the result of what happened = trauma; multigenerational (can be passed on)

The meaning of 'myth’ in ‘The Myth of Normal’

false cultural narrative that the conditions of modern society (stress, isolation) are normal and healthy

The way Mate sees physical illness

expresses a whole life lived (psycho, social, emotional history); disease represents the body’s attempt to communicate suppressed emotional truths/unmet needs

The major cultural factor that contributes to poor health outcomes

dominance of individualism, disconnection, and materialism in a capitalist society; this system glorifies busyness, discourages vulnerability, creating chronic stress & emotional isolation; gendered norms also worsen health outcomes

According to Mate, how is healing possible?

reconnection, awareness, authenticity, restoring body-mind unity; healing is possible when we face trauma without denial or overidentification; psychotherapy, psychedelic-assisted healing

What criticism does Mate bring to modern medicine?

traumatic system, doctors themselves are so stressed and terrorized; lacks mind-body unity; treats symptoms rather than causes