Chapter 15 Psychological Disorders

I don’t think I’ve ever been so depressed reading a textbook- Chapter 15 is all about mental illnesses and nope, I wasn’t very enthusiastic to read about them. I’m the sort of guy who, previous to this class, believed depression to be a state of mind, something that would come and go on a whim, something that could be controlled—manipulated by the individual. That was my precognition, but there’s a lot more illnesses than just depression, I realized.

Here’s a little history quick: The people of the Middle Ages saw mental illnesses as evidence of Satan corroding away at their society and the Malleus Malleficarum, a detailed manual to identify witches, was used to detect earth-born demons. Thousands died of conspiracy, but the Renaissance period was not much better. It was widely believed that an excess of blood was associated with mental illness, so “bloodletting” was the answer—by splitting a vein and letting the blood drip out to as much as 40% of the body’s contents (I’m officially disgusted). Eventually, humanity gathered its wits in the industrial era and the mental ill were cared for within hospitals.

Skipping ahead, something less depressing—did you know that the media likes to associate mental illness with violence? I know, right, the opposite is actually true. I can think of a few, that brother from The Village, or Joker from Batman. That’s kind of interesting- TANGENT. So I’m thinking the reason for this is because, let’s admit it, the whole mental illness thing is pretty clouded, everyone has a different diagnosis and their actions are different because of it, however overall, people who do not understand fear their unpredictable behavior which makes for perfect screen interpretation. Bam- Millions of dollars later, everyone’s a psycho.

Fears, Phobias, and PTSD!
Anxiety is the main drive for every single phobia.  There are lots, and it’s even said that 29% of the entire race will experience an anxiety disorder/phobia at one point in our lives. I’m not willing to doubt that because I cannot stand reading, watching anything medical. Just reading about the bloodletting made me queasy—Phobia defined as a fear of an object or situation that’s greatly out of proportion to its actual threat.  But a phobia is nothing compared to a diagnosed Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).  Those with GAD are constantly living in worry and spend 60% of their day worrying (not sure how you’d measure that). 3% supposedly have GAD but what’s weird about this is that I cannot go to school and pick out who these 3% are. GAD occurs evidently in the late teens, early twenties so maybe my peers have a few years to go. Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is difficult or embarrassing, or in which help is unavailable in the event of a panic attack. A lot of these people have symptoms similar to GAD and will avoid leaving their house for any reason at all.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is especially unique because it is attained from emotionally disturbing experiences witnessed first-person. Anywhere from 12-20% of returning soldiers claim to suffer from PTSD.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder of conditioned rehearsals of repeated actions that must be done unnecessarily. Some signs and symptoms of OCD are:

·         checking and locking doors and windows, appliances, and electronic controls

·         Creating patterns of objects or rearranging them- dishes, clothes, shoes, etc…

·         Washing and Cleaning things that don’t need to be cleaned more than once

·         Counting

·         Hoarding objects that contain little worldly value