Consideration of Mental Disabilities Including Eating, Mood, Anxiety and Other Disorders - Research Paper Example

Introduction: Mental disability or disorders are often thought of as abnormal behavior attributed to individuals that fail to perceive reality as their peers and are subject to, or participants in, abnormal activities. The concept of mental disorder is at the center of several biological and psychological fields of research, specifically psychiatry. Forming an adequate definition for the term is often considered challenging and having implications that are far reaching for psychiatric research, diagnosis and socio-political interventions (Varga). It is however, agreed upon that mental disorders involve patterns of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact several areas of the human brain and body and create extreme discomfort and distress for the victim. The definition of mental disorders encompasses several psychic disorders that can be different with respect to severity or level of damage. There is considerable debate over there whether there is an involvement of value judgments when diagnosing or identifying mental disorders. This is a highly controversial issue in the field of psychiatry. The assertion is that if mental disorders could be diagnosed by relying on pure facts rather than judgments then psychology would no longer be vulnerable to anti-psychiatric attacks (Varga). Mental disorders are illnesses that impact the brain or are manifested within in. They often end up significantly impairing the way someone thinks, acts and interacts with other normal human beings. Impact on the victim: Mental disabilities can take several shapes and can have severe impact on a person’s well being. They often interact with the daily functioning of humans and impacts life at work, home and social gatherings negatively. The causes of mental disorders are spread across various factors and several considerations have been put in place by researchers to identify all the possible sources of such disorders. These disorders are often caused by a complex interaction of genetics, learned behaviors, type of personality, past experiences and any possible horrific experiences that may have a strong base in human memory, physical fitness and health, the current situation of the individual with respect to financial, social and psychological stability and the amount of coping skills possessed by the individual. Mental disorders also have physiological basis and can result from a malfunctioning of the chemical system of the brain (American Psychiatric Association). Mental disorders can lead to actions that are otherwise unimaginable and consequences that not only the patient, but the people around him would have to suffer. Stephen Morgan, an accused killer was said to have a ‘severe mental disorder’ as testified by a psychologist (DEMPSEY). Diagnosis and current practices: Mental disorders are identified by observers when they see patterns of behavior that is not common or unacceptable in the social circle the victim is a part of. They can also be diagnosed by running tests that enable doctors and practitioners to identify movements in the nervous system that is not characterized as normal. Today, however, victims of mental disorders can be treated effectively and lead normal lives (US Dept. of Health and Human services). Mental disabilities can be divided into various classes: Psychotic disabilities: Psychotic disorders are characterized by loss of insight, sharpness and reality testing. People who suffer from psychotic disorders often experience delusions or hallucinations and fail to distinguish myth from reality. Some of the most common and influential psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, delusional disorders and schizoaffective disorder. Schizophrenia is an extremely serious mental illness that is often considered the most dangerous of psychic disorders. It is characterized by delusions, agitation, hallucinations, social withdrawal, lack of care, anhedonia, lack of thought or cognitive skills and lack of proper content of speech, or stuttering. Delusional disorders lead victims to experience persistent delusions and imaginations that no one else can observe. Schizophrenic disorder is characterized by schizophrenic symptoms and affective illness. There is a sudden onset of illness after a specific stressor. The prognosis of patients with this disorder, however, is often better than that of patients with schizophrenia (Kay, Flszbein and Opfer). Eating Disorders: Eating disorders are marked by a stark difference in eating behavior. Eating behavior is not normal and victims often exhibit eccentric behavior while eating. The two types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa leads people to lose more weight than that is appropriate for their age and height. People suffering from this disorder exhibit extreme fear for gain of weight or a negative change in their figure or outlook. Bulimia nervosa is quite the opposite to anorexia nervosa. Patients exhibit a strange tendency to binge on food and have regular episodes of overeating. They often report a loss of control and often end up using several ways, such as vomiting or laxative abuse to avoid gaining extra weight. Mood Disorders: Mood disorders are characterized by a clinical condition of persistent disturbance of mood that heavily affects how a person acts, thinks of or perceives his social realities. People with mood disorders are often subject to extreme feeling of sadness, while others suffer from a bipolar feeling of mania and depression. Somatoform disorders: Somatoform disorders refer to behavior exhibited by patients after they have done the due diligence over their mental and physical condition. Patients who feel they are not perfectly fine often persist that they do not feel right or they are suffering from some sort of illness despite assurances from doctors and medics that such thoughts are illusions and that they are in a perfectly fine state. Anxiety disorders: These disorders consist of several combinations of mental and physical illustrations of anxiety that is not attributable to real threats or danger. They occur either in inconsistent ways, in the form of attacks such as panic attacks, or as a persistent state of anxiety such as the generalized anxiety disorder. Symptoms of these disorders involve the emotional, cognitive and physical aspects of the human body. The emotional symptoms include fear; the cognitive symptoms encompass anxious thoughts whereas the physical symptoms include increased heart rate. Increase heart rate is a result of the stimulation of the nervous system. Anxiety disorders also include phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Social phobia refers to the persistent and irrational terror of situations that can involve criticism or judgments by others (US National Library of Medicine). This kind of a situation is comparable to the feelings of a child going on to the stage for the very first time, however patients may have had similar experiences of the lack of ability to distinguish the situation from one where people would be judging. Obsessive-compulsive disorder refers to the situation in which people have unwanted or repeated thoughts, obsessions and sensations that drives them to do something that they would not do under the normal course of circumstances. Post traumatic stress disorder refers to the condition that patients go through after they have experienced a traumatic event that involved a serious threat of injury or death to the patient. Dissociative disorders: Patients are often unable to recall personal information when asked, and these incidents of forgetfulness are often far more than what would be considered normal forgetfulness. Impulse control disorders: These disorders often lead patients to fail to refuse impulses and compulsion. The patient fails to control his impulses and drives to perform some act that is harmful either to himself or to someone else. This can be particularly dangerous for people who have impulses of violence or unstable behavior. Some of the key forms this disorder takes include Kleptomania, Pathological gambling, trichotillomania, intermittent explosive disorder, pyromania, and compulsive buying. Kleptomania refers to the inability to control impulses of stealing. Often the objects stolen are tertiary and not needed by the patient however his failure to control his impulses leads to stealing. Pathological gambling refers to the patients lack of ability to resist placing bets. Patients often end up losing all of their savings, yet they continue to gamble due to their lack of control more than the hope of winning. Trichotillomania is the impulse to pull one’s own hair. This is not a result of frustration, anger, anxiety or tension, rather it is a consequence of the inability to control such weird instincts and impulses. Pyromania is one of the impulse disorders that can have serious consequences, not only for the patient but for the people around him. It refers to the failure to control the impulse of setting fires deliberately. The result of this lack of control is often burnt houses, loss of lots of property and even loss of human life at times. Compulsive buying refers to the uncontrollable urge to buy things that are neither necessary, nor value adding to the patient, at a very high cost. Substance use disorders: Substance use disorders involve the appearance of clinical syndromes that occur as a result of using substances that have an impact on the functioning of the central nervous system. They often are a cause of decreased work or school performance, intoxication, accidents, absenteeism and a severe drop in social interaction and severe social consequences that often involve crime and violence. The most vulnerable group to such disorders are adolescents because they are exposed to substances that can cause this disorder on a consistent basis. Men are said to be at a greater risk of substance abuse than women. This broad category encompasses disorders related to use of substances such as alcohol, cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis, and abuse of caffeine and dependency. The most commonly abused substance is alcohol. Alcohol is known to be a suppressor of the central nervous system and having intoxicating affects. Alcoholism is a term used to describe the excessive usage of ethanol containing substances and the impact of such excessive usage ranges from alcohol intoxication to withdrawal to withdrawal delirium and hallucinosis. This situation can lead to several behavioral problems and other issues due to chronic use including issues such as persistent amnestic disorder, wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome. Patients with the Korsakoff syndrome are known to have difficulties in learning new information and usually have a retrograde amnesia that can last from three to twenty years prior to the start of the amnesia. Patients often remain amnesic for one to three months after the offset of the amnesia and then begin to recuperate over a period that can stretch from one month to ten months. This syndrome often leads to a personality change usually emotional indifference (Cummings and Mega). The wernicke’s encephalopathy is a condition that is characterized by confusion, loss of muscle coordination, leg tremors, vision changes including abnormal eye movements, double vision, eyelid dropping and back and forth movements called nystagmus (Aasheim). Sexual and Gender disorders: These disorders impact aspects of social behavior such as sexual desire, performance and behavior, gender identity problems and sexual dysfunction. While all of the above mentioned disorders impact functioning in differing ways, all of them have some common influences on human behavior. The sort of impact these illnesses have depends on different factors including the irregular nature of the illness, the amount of stress associated with non disclosure of the illness, the side effects of the medication aimed at curbing the illness and the level of interruption in education or training of victims that helps them cope with the problems. The irregular nature of mental illness can create issues in establishing and specifying consistent work or school patterns. Anxiety also often accompanies the need to hide an illness and its symptoms, often for social acceptability. Many individuals do not disclose illnesses out of fear of discrimination of stigma. Medications can have harmful results along with the therapeutic use they provide. Every individual has an adjustment time after starting medication and side effects can include drowsiness, dizziness, nervousness, etc. Initial symptoms of mental illnesses are first developed between ages 15 and 25. This can result in serious consequences for patients because this the prime age of them going to universities or seeking jobs. Works Cited Aasheim, Erlend Tesuth. "Wernicke encephalopathy after bariatric surgery: a systematic review." Annals of Surgery (2008). American Psychiatric Association. "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders." American psychiatric association (1994). Cummings, JL and MS Mega. "Neuropsyciatry and behavioral neuroscience." oxford university press (2003). DEMPSEY, CHRISTINE. Testimony: Stephen Morgan Has "Severe Mental Disorder". 7 12 2011. . Kay, Stanley R, Abraham Flszbein and Lewis A Opfer. "The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for Schizophrenia." Schizophrenia Bulletin (n.d.): 1987. US Dept. of Health and Human services. "A report of the surgeon general." US Department of health and human services, substance abuse and mental health administration. (1999). US National Library of Medicine. Social phobia. 14 2 2010. . Varga, Somogy. "Defining mental disorder. Exploring the ‘natural function approach." Varga Philosophy, ethics and humanities in medicine (2011). Read More