Psychological Disorders

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5): The manual used for diagnosing psychological disorders.

Key Components:
- Atypical behavior
- Causes distress
- Causes dysfunction
- Need to understand each disorder individually.

Not Supernatural: Disorders are not due to possession or supernatural causes.
Medical/Neuroscience: Can the person inherit the disorder?
Neurotransmitters/Psychoanalytic: Freud's ideas; can that be a factor?
Learning/Experience: Did something happen in their life to develop the disorder?
Humanistic: Is the person in a situation where they're not who they want to be?
Treatment: Not covered in detail in this course; addressed more in abnormal psychology.

Beneficial Aspects: Future-oriented mood state that can motivate action.
- Example: Worrying about getting into nursing school motivates studying.
Detrimental Aspects: Can cause distress and impair functioning.
Most Common Class of Disorders: Anxiety-related disorders are very common.

Focus: Phobias, Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Definition: Irrational fears of specific objects or situations.
- Examples: Fear of flying, roaches, buttons, openings.
Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia): Fear of embarrassment.
Specific Phobias: Fear of specific objects like planes, buttons, spiders.
Agoraphobia: Fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable.
Avoidance Behavior: Social phobia and agoraphobia can result in similar avoidance behaviors.
- Example: Avoiding Walmart or Rouses due to fear of embarrassment or inability to escape if a panic attack occurs.
- The cause behind the behavior must be determined with specific questions.

Panic Attacks: Characterized by heart palpitations, difficulty swallowing, and sympathetic division activation.
Diagnosis: Recurrent panic attacks with no known cause, leading to fear of future attacks.

Generalized Worry: Worrying about multiple areas of life, even when things work out.

Obsessions: Intrusive, recurring thoughts that cause anxiety.
Compulsions: Repetitive behaviors performed to reduce anxiety associated with obsessions.
- Examples: Hand washing, straightening pillows.
Cause: Cognitive factors play a significant role, such as thinking people are constantly watching them, especially in disorders like social anxiety.

Identity Disorder: Not a personality disorder; formerly known as split or multiple personality disorder.
Symptoms: Blackouts, memory lapses.
Cause: Trauma during identity formation leads to a fractured identity, where different alters help cope with the trauma.

Focus: Disorders related to a person's physical body and symptoms.
- Types: Somatic Symptom Disorder, Conversion Disorder, Illness Anxiety Disorder, and Factitious Disorders

Definition: Experiencing physical symptoms that become a central part of the person's identity.
Focus: Symptoms cause significant distress and are the primary focus of attention.

Definition: Mental health symptoms or stress converted into physical symptoms.

Faking Symptoms: Pretending to have symptoms for a desired outcome.
Malingering: Faking symptoms to get something (e.g., medication).
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: Inducing illness in another person to gain attention.
- Example: Didi Blanchard and Gypsy Rose.
Cause: Highly comorbid with other disorders, possibly learned behavior, secondary gain of feeling needed.

Symptoms: Low mood, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating.
Causes: Genetics, neurotransmitter activity, cognitive theories (e.g., negative thought patterns), behavioral factors, learned helplessness.

Suicide Contagion: Concern that media portrayals and personal stories may contribute to increased suicide rates.
Prevention: Openly discuss suicide, look for red flags, and directly ask if someone is considering suicide.
Red Flags: Sudden mood changes, giving away belongings, talking about life without them

Symptoms: Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized behavior.
Disorganized Behavior: Inappropriate clothing or affect, difficulty managing emotions
Causes: Genetics, overactive dopamine, substance use, stress.

Cluster A: Odd or eccentric.
Cluster B: Dramatic or emotional.
Cluster C: Anxious or fearful.
- A person can have disorders across multiple clusters, making treatment difficult.

Symptoms: Mistrust and suspicion of others.
Causes: Experiences in life, behavioral factors, potentially genetics; often linked to life events.

*Criterion for PTSD is caused by learning that something happened to someone or witnessing something disturbing.