Lecture 23 Major problems with thought, feeling and behaviour Flashcards
What is mental health?
a state of emotional and social wellbeing
What is mental illness?
Not one symptom but a PATTERN(more than one) of THOUGHTS, FEELINGS or BEHAVIOURS that are
- causing DISTRESS or an important RISK and/or getting in the way of USUAL ACTIVITIES
- happening in MORE THAN ONE setting
- ONGOING
- OUTSIDE of positive cultural/age expectations
- DIFFICULT for the person to CONTROL
What is the response to the increase classifications of mental illnesses?
Critiques (medicalise and pathologist)
but calcification have lead to advances in recognition and treatment
What do psychological diagnosis rely on?
Psychological diagnosis relies on INTERPRETATIONS of a person’s actions, or reported experiences, cultural norms, change over time
What are 3x examples of differential diagnosis?
- Uncommon but not ‘mentally unhealthy’ behaviour (just strange)
- Physical illness (thyroid problem- the true thing that needs to be treated)
- Temporary intoxication or substance abuse
What are the two classes of risk factors?
- Predisposing risk factors
2. Perpetuating risk factors
What are the three types of risk factors?
- Within INDIVIDUAL (genetic, early patterns, drugs, therapy)
- Within ENVIRONMENT (IMMEDIATE environment, born into anxious household, supportive school environment)
- Within BROADER ENVIRONMENT (going to university and having to sit stressful exams)
+
+ Socioeconomic factors (Low income= anger, debt and hopelessness)
What is the trend for most people’s mood?
most people are around the mid range.
We fluctuate a little bit with positive activities
But even with all these positive activities we tend to Trend Back To The Midline
What is Dysthymia?
Low but LESS SEVERE symptoms over LONGER time periods (two years)
- no really significant lows, just consistently low
- green line
What is Bipolar disorder?
Alternating episodes of mania and depression
-experience horrendous Lows
Real highs, tend to be Exciting and RISKY, and can often become Out of control (Extremist) (Extreme risky behaviours)
What is bipolar 2/Psychlothymia?
Up and down MORE than normal,
but NOT as extreme as bipolar
What are the two compulsory symptoms of depression?
Mood Low
Loss of enjoyment (anhedonia)
-must be a for minimum of 2 weeks
-must be a clinically significant reduction of social/occupational functioning
What is Anhedonia?
Loss of enjoyment
What are some other symptoms of depression?
sleep (less or more than usual) loss or gain of weight concentration poor fatigue agitation/retardation (psychomotor) worthlessness/guilt suicidal reaction angry/agitated -Must have for minimum if 2 weeks -Must be a clinically significant reduction of social/occupational functioning
What is psychomotor?
Agitation/retardation
What are signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders?
Frequent
Intense (happens a lot of the time but when it becomes too overwhelming that is GETS IN THE WAY OF DOING THINGS) (anxious –> study more -> study so much you can’t sleep)
irrational anxiety or apprehension
(1. Thoughts and worries that are anxious + 2. Physical symptoms)
-sometimes anxiety can be performance enhancing
What is a panic disorder?
-often that patient just needs to calm down, breath slowly and reduce hyperventilation
What are the four types of anxiety disorders?
- Panic disorder
- Phobias
- OCD Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Post Traumatic Stress disorders
What are phobias?
an irrational fear of an object or situation
What are obsessive compulsive disorders?
recurrent obsessions and compulsions that cause severe distress and interfere with daily life
What are post-traumatic stress disorders?
PERSISTENT REEXPERIENCING of traumatic events via distressing recollections, dreams, flashbacks with impact on concentration hyper-vigilence
(to do with prior personal traumatic events)
What is psychosis?
umbrella term for number of disorders involving disturbances in:
1. Thought and content (loosing of associations and delusions) -disturbs how you think (runs off from one thing to another)
2. Perception- Particularly Hallucinations
3. Language- disconnected ideas (potentially ‘word salad’)
4. Affect: Emotion (often FLAT or absent)
Shortest: Brief Psychotic disorder
Longest: Schizophrenia
What is the shortest form of psychosis?
Brief psychotic disorder
What is the longest form of psychosis?
Schizophrenia
What is a positive symptom of psychosis?
Signal presence of something not usually there
- delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder
- most apparent in the ACUTE phase
What is a negative symptom of psychosis?
Reduces ability/lack of ability to function normally
-appears to LACK EMOTION (e.g. not changing facial expressions, speaking wiht inflection)
(schizophrenic patients say the do have feeling and want to connect, but it doesn’t seem like it as they’re so distracted)
-may have reduced ability to PLAN or CARRY OUT ACTIVITIES , such as decreased talking and neglect of personal hygiene (from this person’s perspective the task was really difficult to process as it was like there was a WHOLE LOT HAPPENING AT ONCE)
-may have LOSS OF INTEREST in everyday activities, social withdrawal, or a lack of ability to EXPENSE PLEASURE
What are hallucinations?
a perception experienced in external space in the absence of a normal stimuli
(bottles looking like they’re going to topple, feeling like the phones are ringing when they weren’t)
-seeing, feeling or hearing something that is not there
What are delusions?
fixed false belief, not amendable to reason, and not in keeping with that persons subculture
(if he leaves the room his insides will fall out. They’re the president, jesus , a cricket. (grand or scary ideas) Thinking people are constantly laughing at out-Paranoid schizophrenia)
What are the two categories of symptoms of psychosis?
- Mood symptoms
- depressed/elevated mood - Cognitive symptoms
- Poor memory, concentration
What key thing is affected in psychosis or schizophrenia?
Selective attention filter: your ATTENTION and ability to ATTEND to ONE thing is incredibly valuable part of human and their ability to ACHIEVE things in your MIND
- is very disturbed in psychotic disorders
- everything seems equally valuable or tunnel vision (can only focus on one small thing)
How can societies influence mental disorders?
societies with less fear of mental illness, the delusions and hallucinations of mental illness are not as nasty
-psychosis and schizophrenia are quite culturally specific (Western normally very scary)
How can you avoid having a disabling mental health issue?
- Have Genes with low vulnerability
- Avoid exposure to toxins or harms (especially early one)
- have people who care (esp. earlier in life- protective)
- have positive life experiences
- have good access to quality support and resources (decreased likelihood that a problem will become a mental health issue)
- make healthy choices (sleep, sun, exercise)
- have humility
- get help EARLY
- build WELLBEING
What are the 5 way to wellbeing?
- Give (being purposeful, sharing, caring)
- be Active (exercise)
- keep Learning (new experiences) - why unemployment is so hard for people with depression
- Connect (having the support of social relationships)
- take Notice (living in the moment, pausing, enjoying things even in times of difficulty)
- for all cases (normal, schizophrenic, anxiety disorder) ALL feel better with better wellbeing - important role in people’s wellbeing whether or not they have a mental health issue
