P - Mental disorders Flashcards
What are the most common mental disorders we need to know about?
Phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
What category of mental disorders are phobias in?
Anxiety disorders.
What are phobias/phobic disorders?
Instances of irrational fears that produce a conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation.
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
Fear that is marked and persistent, and is likely to be excessive and unreasonable.
Feelings of anxiety and panic.
What do we mean by emotional characteristics?
How you feel
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias cued by?
The presence of anticipation of a specific object or situation - they are out of proportion to the actual danger exposed.
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Avoidance (immediate response).
Freeze or faint.
What impact does avoidance of a phobia have on functioning?
It interferes significantly with the person’s normal routine, occupation, social activities or relationships, and there is marked distress about having the phobia.
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Irrational nature of the person’s thinking and the resistance to rational arguments.
The person recognises that their fear is excessive or unreasonable - although this feature may be absent in children.
What do we mean by behavioural characteristics?
What you do
What do we mean by cognitive characteristics?
How/what we think
What do cognitive characteristics of phobias relate to?
Thought processes.
What characteristic can we use to distinguish between a phobia and a delusional mental illness (such as schizophrenia)?
In phobias, the person recognises that their fear is excessive or unreasonable whereas for delusional mental illnesses, the individual is not aware of the unreasonableness of their behaviour.
What are phobias?
A group of mental disorders characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living.
What is depression?
A mood disorder where an individual feels sad and/or lacks interest in their usual activities. Further characteristics include irrational negative thoughts, raised or lowered activity levels and difficulties with concentration, sleep and eating.