Psychological disorders are various disorders of the human psyche, caused by a number of biological, social, or psychological factors. Individuals prone to mental disorders cannot adapt to existing living conditions, independently solve their problems. It can be difficult for these people to recover from their setbacks. There are signs of inadequacy in their thinking, actions, and behavior.
What is a psychological disorder?
Mental disorder is a painful condition characterized by various destructive changes in the psyche of an individual. There are many mental disorders, but they all manifest in different ways. Individuals prone to psychological disorders develop absurd ideas, they think inadequately, behave, and react incorrectly to various events. Some types of mental illness cause somatic disorders.
Mental illnesses are more common in women than in men. This is due to a large number of provoking factors in the representatives of the weak half of humanity (pregnancy, childbirth, menopause).
In a state of mental disorder, an individual, unlike a healthy person, cannot cope with ordinary everyday problems, properly perform his professional tasks. Mental disorders affect the thinking, mental ability of the individual, and behavior.
Types of psychological disorders
Types and characteristics of mental disorders:
- Organic mental disorders. They are usually caused by organic brain diseases. Mental disorders are possible after a concussion, head injury, stroke, all sorts of systemic diseases. The individual has destructive changes that negatively affect memory, thinking, and hallucinations, delusional thoughts, and mood swings appear.
- Mental and behavioral dysfunctions associated with the use of alcoholic and psychotropic drugs. The disorders are caused by the use of psychoactive substances that are not drugs. These include sleeping pills, sedatives, hallucinogenic drugs.
- Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional states. Mental illnesses affecting the psycho-emotional state of the individual. The individual commits illogical acts, he is insane, does not understand what is happening around. The individual has reduced performance and social adaptation.
- Affective disorders. The disease can lead to poor moods. Manifestations of the disorder: bipolar affective disorder, mania, depression, cyclothymia, as well as dysthymia, and others.
- Mental disorders are provoked by a stressful situation. Neuroses, anxiety attacks, fears, phobias, constant stress, paranoia. The individual has fears of various objects or phenomena.
- Behavioral disorders are caused by physical and physiological factors. Various mental disorders are associated with eating and eating food (overeating, anorexia), as well as problems with sleep and sex.
- Behavioral and personality disorders of adulthood. Problems with gender identification, sexual disorders (pedophilia, sadomasochism), pathological addiction to gambling, bad habits.
- Mental retardation. A congenital condition manifested by a delay in personality development. The individual’s thought process, memory, adaptation in society deteriorate. The disorder develops as a result of a genetic predisposition or problems during pregnancy and childbirth.
- Disorders in psychological development. They manifest themselves in the form of problems with speech, a slowdown in the general development of an individual, a delay in motor functions, and a reduced ability to learn. Problems appear in early childhood and are associated with brain damage.
- Psychological disorders in children and adolescents. Disorders that are typical for childhood and adolescence. Disobedience, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, trouble concentrating.
In 20 percent of the earth’s population, disorders associated with various kinds of phobias develop during their lifetime. True, fear sometimes arises as a reaction to a threatening situation. Depression is another common mental disorder. It occurs in 7 percent of the female half of the world’s population and 3 percent of the male. At least once in a lifetime, every inhabitant of the planet suffers from depression.
Schizophrenia is a common disruption in human thinking and behavior. People susceptible to this disease are often depressed and try to isolate themselves from public life.
Mental disorders of adulthood are manifested in the form of alcohol addiction, sexual deviations, and irrational behavior. True, many of them are dictated by the psychological trauma of childhood and adolescence.
Symptoms of Mental Disorders
The main manifestations of all kinds of mental disorders are disorders of mental activity, psycho-emotional state, behavioral reactions, which significantly go beyond the existing orders and ethical norms. People who suffer from psychological disorders have various physical, cognitive, and emotional disorders. For example, a person may feel too happy or, conversely, deprived, which is not entirely consistent with the events taking place around him.
Various kinds of mental illnesses have their own characteristics. The clinical manifestations of the same disorder may differ from person to person. Depending on the severity of the individual’s condition and violations in his behavior, a certain tactic of therapy is chosen.
The main symptoms of mental disorders are:
1. Asthenic syndrome.
The individual has severe fatigue, exhaustion, and decreased performance. This condition is characterized by instability of mood, increased irritability, sentimentality, tearfulness. Asthenia is accompanied by constant headaches, sleep problems. An asthenic symptom is observed with a variety of mental disorders, as well as after infectious diseases or fatigue.
2. Obsession.
People, regardless of their will, have obsessive experiences, anxieties, fears, phobias. Unjustified doubts plague the individual. He torments himself with baseless suspicions. When faced with a frightening situation or phenomenon, a person experiences nervous tension. Obsessive fears cause the individual to act irrationally, for example, fearing germs to constantly wash their hands.
3. Affective syndrome.
It manifests itself in the form of persistent mood changes (depression, mania). This symptom usually occurs at the beginning of a mental illness. Subsequently, it remains predominant throughout the disease or is complicated by other mental disorders.
Depression is characterized by feelings of depression, decreased physical activity, and pain in the heart. In this state, the individual speaks slowly, thinks poorly, cannot understand the essence of what he has read or heard. The individual develops weakness, lethargy, lethargy. During the depression, a person experiences feelings of guilt, despair, hopelessness. Sometimes the individual has suicidal thoughts.
Mania, on the other hand, is characterized by heightened optimism, cheerfulness, and carelessness. A person has a huge number of plans and ideas. He is too lively, mobile, talkative. In a manic state, people experience an excess of energy, creativity, increased intellectual activity, and efficiency. However, subsequently, hyperactivity can lead to thoughtless, inappropriate actions, which affect the state of the individual. In place of a cheerful mood comes anger and irascibility.
4. Senestopathy.
Manifested in the form of discomfort throughout the body. A person feels tingling, pain, burning, constriction, but all these symptoms are not associated with internal diseases of the organs. It seems to the individual that some force is squeezing his throat or something rustles under the ribs.
5. Hypochondriac syndrome.
A person constantly thinks that he is sick with something. The individual feels unpleasant sensations, although, in fact, he does not have any pathologies. Hypochondria often develops against the background of a depressive state.
6. Illusion.
When an individual has illusions, he perceives real things erroneously. This visual disturbance can be caused by the peculiarities of lighting or other optical phenomena. For example, underwater, all things seem to be larger than in reality. In the dark, the silhouettes of objects can be mistaken for monsters.
7. Hallucination.
Mental disorders lead to the fact that the individual sees, hears, and feels something that does not happen in reality. Hallucinations can be visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile. Hearing aids are different in content: the individual hears someone’s voice or the conversation of non-existent people. Voices in your head can give orders, make you do something, for example, kill, be silent, go somewhere. Visual hallucinations lead to the fact that the individual for a moment sees objects that do not really exist. Smells make you smell rot, food, or cologne. Tactile ones cause discomfort.
8. Delusional disorders.
Delirium is the main symptom of psychosis. The individual builds his conclusions on facts divorced from reality. It is difficult to dissuade him from the incorrectness of his ideas. A person is held captive by his delusional fantasies and beliefs, constantly trying to prove his case.
9. Catatonic syndrome.
It manifests itself in the form of motor retardation, stupor, or, conversely, strong excitement. During the numbness, the individual is unable to move or speak. In contrast, catatonic arousal is characterized by chaotic and often repetitive movements. Such a disorder can occur normally in the event of severe stress or as a result of a severe mental disorder.
10. Clouding of consciousness.
The individual’s adequate perception of reality is disturbed. A person feels detached from reality and does not understand what is happening around. The individual loses the ability to think logically, does not orient himself in the situation, in time and space. It can be difficult for a person to remember new information, partial or complete amnesia is also observed.
11. Dementia.
The individual’s intellectual functions are reduced. He loses the ability to acquire various knowledge, does not understand how to act in a difficult situation, cannot find himself and adapt to the conditions of life. Dementia can occur during the progression of a mental illness or be congenital (mental retardation).
Why do they arise?
Unfortunately, the causes of many mental disorders have not been clarified to this day. True, depending on the type of violation, there are certain factors that provoke the development of diseases. There are biological, psychological, and social causes of mental disorders.
Mental disorders are known to be caused by changes in the structure or functions of the brain. It is generally accepted that exogenous or endogenous factors influence the onset of mental disorders. Exogenous drugs include poisonous drugs, alcohol, infections, psychological trauma, bruises, concussions, and cerebrovascular disease. These kinds of disorders are influenced by stressful situations triggered by family or social problems. Endogenous factors include chromosomal abnormalities, gene mutations, or hereditary gene diseases.
Psychological deviations, regardless of their causes, carry many problems. A sick person is characterized by inadequate thinking, incorrect response to some life situations, and often irrational behavior. Such individuals have an increased tendency to suicide, crime, and the formation of alcohol or drug addiction.
Psychological disorders in children
In the process of growing up, a child undergoes a number of physiological and psychological changes. Many factors, including the attitude of parents towards them, leave an imprint on the formation of children’s worldview. If adults raise a child correctly, he grows up to be a mentally healthy person who knows how to behave correctly in society and in any situation.
Children who have been abused on a daily basis at an early age perceive such parenting behavior as normal. As they mature, they will exhibit similar behavior in other people. All the negative aspects of raising young children make themselves felt in adulthood.
The famous psychiatrist D. MacDonald has identified the most dangerous signs in the mental state of a child, which must be paid attention to as early as possible. If adults ignore these factors and do not take their children to a psychiatrist, they will face a number of serious problems in the future.
Signs of psychological disorders in children:
- zoosadism – cruel treatment of animals (killing kittens, fish);
- inability to empathize with someone else’s pain;
- coldness in the manifestation of feelings;
- constant lies;
- enuresis;
- running away from home, love of vagrancy;
- theft of other people’s things;
- early addiction to smoking, drugs, alcohol ;
- desire to set arson;
- bullying weak peers.
If a child demonstrates deviant behavior, it means that the parents made some mistakes in his upbringing. Negative behaviors only indicate mental health symptoms when they are repeated regularly. Parents need to take deviant behavior seriously and not let the situation take its course.
How to treat it correctly?
Before treating a person for a psychological disorder, a specialist must correctly diagnose and identify the cause that influenced the development of the disease. First of all, you need to consult a psychologist. The specialist talks to the client in a relaxed atmosphere conducts tests, assigns tasks, and closely observes the reactions and behavior of the individual. After conducting psychological diagnostics, the psychologist identifies disorders in the client’s psyche and determines the method of corrective assistance.
If a person is faced with a number of life difficulties, as a result of which he has psychological disorders, he can turn to the psychologist-hypnologist Nikita Valerievich Baturin for help.
It is important to see a psychotherapist as soon as the first symptoms of inappropriate behavior appear. If the disease is started, you will have to resort to the help of a psychiatrist and even forcibly hospitalize a person in a psychiatric hospital. A mentally ill person requires urgent treatment in a hospital if she has an acute mental disorder or a person is in a state of intense excitement, is prone to violent actions, or shows suicidal intentions.
