Chapter 4.2: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders & Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Disorders

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

• These disorders are serious psychological reactions that develop in some individuals following exposure to a traumatic or stressful event such as childhood neglect, childhood physical/sexual abuse, combat, physical assault, sexual assault, natural disaster, an accident or torture.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• is a prevalent and complex psychological disorder that arises in response to exposure to traumatic events, significantly impacting an individual’s mental well-being.

• The duration of psychological distress last more than one month.

Trauma

• It is defined by APA as an emotional response to a terrible event like accident, crime, or natural disorder. Reactions such as shock and denial are typical.

Acute Stress Disorder

• is similar to PTSD but the duration of the psychological distress last only three

  days to one month following exposure to a traumatic or stressful event.

Reactive Attachment Disorder

• is characterized by serious problems in emotional attachment to others. These

  children rarely seek comfort when distressed and are minimally emotionally

  responsive to others. It results from a pattern of insufficient caregiving or emotional neglect that limits an infant’s opportunities to form stable attachments.

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder

is characterized by a pattern of behavior that involves culturally inappropriate, overly familiar behavior with unfamiliar adults and strangers.

Adjustment Disorders

• are characterized by the development of emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable stressor (e.g problems at work, going off to college

• Symptoms must occur within three months of the stressful event. Symptoms do not persist more than six months

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts and/or behaviors that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.

• Can't control his or her thoughts or behaviors, even when those thoughts or behaviors are recognized as excessive

• Spends at least 1 hour a day on these thoughts or behaviors

• Doesn’t get pleasure when performing the behaviors or rituals, but may feel brief relief from the anxiety the thoughts cause

• Experiences significant problems in their daily life due to these thoughts or behaviors

Obsessions

are intrusive and mostly nonsensical thoughts, images, or urges that individual tries to resist or eliminate. (persistently and repeatedly comes into a person’s mind and causes distress)

• Fear of germs or contamination

• Unwanted forbidden or taboo thoughts involving sex, religion, or harm

• Aggressive thoughts towards others or self

• Having things symmetrical or in a perfect order

Compulsions

are a repetitive behaviors performed in response to uncontrollable urges or to a ritualistic set or rules.

• Excessive cleaning and/or handwashing

• Ordering and arranging things in a particular, precise way

• Repeatedly checking on things, such as repeatedly checking to see if the door is locked or that the oven is off

• Compulsive counting

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

• Preoccupation with some imagined defects in appearance by someone who actually looks reasonably normal.

• Imagined ugliness

Hoarding Disorder

• People with this disorder excessively save items that others may view as worthless. They have persistent difficulty getting rid of or parting with possessions, leading to clutter that disrupts their ability to use their living or work spaces.

• Excessive acquisition

• Difficulty discarding

• Living with excessive clutter (gross organization)

Trichotillomania

• also referred to as “hair-pulling disorder,” is a mental disorder classified under Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

• involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull hair from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelids, and other areas of the body, despite repeated attempts to stop or decrease hair pulling.

Excoriation

• (also referred to as chronic skin-picking or dermatillomania) is a mental illness related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

• It is characterized by repeated picking at one’s own skin which results in skin lesions and causes significant disruption in one’s life.