somatic and dissociative disorders

IAD vs. SSD (verbatim)

illness anxiety disorder:

1. fear of disease

2. scientific in reporting data

3. limited complaints - often a fear of one disease

somatic symptom disorder:

1. fear of symptoms

2. describes symptoms vaguely

3. varied complaints - often fear of many symptoms

five patterns of dissociative amnesia

localized - all events from a certain time period are blocked out

selective - “spot erasures”, forgetting certain aspects/events during a specific time period

generalized - forgetting one’s entire past life

continuous - forgets events after a certain time period up to the present, including events occurring after onset of amnesia

systematized - forgets only certain categories of information, while other memories remain intact

types of memories as it relates to amnesia

episodic memory (memory of personal experience) is lost

semantic memory (general knowledge) is spared

procedural memory (skills) is intact

explicit memory (intentional recollection of info) may be lost

implicit memory (memories not consciously aware of) affects behavior

three scriptures

1. Psalm 42:5 - why are you downcast, oh my soul? why so disturbed within me? put your hope in God, for yet I will praise Him, my Savior and my God

2. 2 Timothy 1:7 - for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control

3. 1 Peter 5:7 - casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you

three coping skills

1. praying through it with others

2. breath prayers

3. going through the worst-case scenario, then speaking reminders of truth over it

somatic symptom disorder

presence of one or more medically unexplained somatic symptoms, accompanied by excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to symptoms

illness anxiety disorder

severe anxiety about the possibility of having or acquiring a serious disease, with actual symptoms being very mild or absent altogether

often have strong disease conviction and medical reassurance doesn’t seem to help

psychological factors affecting medical condition

indicates that psychological variables may be impacting a general medical issue (like anxiety worsening one’s asthma)

conversion disorder

altered motor or sensory function that is inconsistent with neural/medical conditions and not better explained by another disorder; functioning may be mostly normal

factitious disorder

purposely faking physical symptoms with no obvious external gains

factitious disorder imposed on another

inducing symptoms as another person for the purpose of receiving attention or sympathy

depersonalization vs. derealization

depersonalization is distortion in the sense of one’s body or experience, while derealization is losing a sense of the external world

depersonalization/derealization disorder

recurrent episodes in which a person has sensations of unreality of one’s own body or surroundings

can also have cognitive deficits in attention, short-term memory, spatial reasoning, and absorbing new information

dissociative amnesia

inability to recall important autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is inconsistent with ordinary forgetting

dissociative fugue

during an amnesitc episode, person travels or wanders, sometimes assuming a new identity in a different place, unable to remember how or why one has ended up in a new place

dissociative trance

replacement of customary sense of personal identity by a new identity, attributed to the influence of a spirit, power, deity, and associated with stereotyped involuntary movements or amnesia

DID

dissociation of personality leading to a development of multiple identities that display unique behaviors, voices, and postures