Comparison of Three Psychological Disorders - Essay Example

Comparison of three Psychological Disorders Everyone goes through tough times at different points in their livesand feels down or sad or overwhelmed and agitated or over stimulated. The human mind is a set of intricate chemical balance, which is sensitively attuned to the emotional and physical states of the human being. The three mental illnesses mentioned Non melancholic Depression, Anxiety, Trauma Post-traumatic Stress are physiological symptoms which are characterized by the changes in the cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning of the person. The three conditions mentioned above have their origin in the mental states which adversely impacts the functioning of the organism and the physiological performance of the individual. This also affects the cognitive and the behavioral aspect of the human activity and thus impacts his everyday life. These symptoms can be controlled through awareness, training and medication under the supervision and care of an experienced medical practitioner. There is tremendous role of counseling in the management and understanding of these symptoms which can have debilitating affect on the life of individual suffering from these mental diseases. Non-melancholic depression is the most 'common' type of depression seen by general practitioners. In this case the depression is not melancholic, or, put simply, not primarily biological. The term depression is sometimes used to describe the normal sadness orlow mood people feel if they've had to cope with a stressful event or problem, such as the death of a loved one or a relationship break-up. Depression is also the name for anillness that is more severe than normal sadness, lasts longer than two weeks, and interferes with other parts of your life, such as work, school or relationships. (Seligman, Walker, & Rosenhan) Instead, it has to do with psychological causes, and is very often linked to stressful events in a person's life, alone, or in conjunction with the individual's personality style. Non-melancholic depression is the most common of the three types of depression. People with non-melancholic depression experience: a depressed mood for more than two weeks Social impairment (for example, difficulty in dealing with work or relationships). It is also referred to as 'major depression', 'clinical depression', and 'mixed anxiety and depression' and is characterized by depressed mood for more than two weeks. Individuals with non-melancholic depression tend to exhibit key features such as a decline in self-esteem, self-criticism, a depressed mood, as well as non-specific features, such as a change in appetite, fatigue or sleep disturbance. People with non-melancholic depression do not have the marked psychomotor disturbance seen in melancholic depression and are less likely to report major problems with memory or concentration. Non-melancholic depression has a high rate of spontaneous remission because it is often linked to stressful events in a person's life. Non-melancholic depression responds well to different sorts of treatments (such as psychotherapies, antidepressants and counselling), but the treatment selected should respect the cause (e.g. stress, personality style). However, the challenge faced by general practitioners in treating this group, is the high rate of 'spontaneous remission'; hence, accurate assessment of treatment can be difficult (Wolfe,Erickson & Sharkansky ). Counseling can provide a platform for venting out the fears and overpowering memories related the disease and thus give a person a fresh perspective to deal with the issue which leads to depressive symptoms. The limitation in this approach is it is dependant upon the cooperation from the individual. Anxiety is normal reaction to stress and can have major or minor physiological impact on the person experiencing this symptom. In the state of anxiety the individual undergoes physiological changes which affect his cognitive, somatic emotional and behavioral aspects of life. These factors combined result in feelings of apprehension, fear and worry. This makes the person alert in the face of emerging and anticipated danger and leads to accelerated functioning of his organs like accelerated heart-rate, increased blood pressure, low performance of immune and digestive function and increased sweating. The body acknowledges this as an emergency fight or flight situation responding with high alertness and agile response. There are some external symptoms which are caused by anxiety like pale skin, sweating, trembling and papillary dilation. Emotionally a person may feel dread or panic leading to symptoms like vomiting, nausea and chills. Sigmund Freud acknowledges anxiety as "signal of danger" and cause of "defensive behavior". These symptoms are body's natural response to external situation and it helps one deal with a tense situation in the office, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it helps one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling disorder. There are five major types of anxiety: generalized anxiety disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder; panic disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder and social phobia or social anxiety disorder. (Narrow, Rae & Regier ) There are effective treatments for anxiety disorders and research is yielding new, improved therapies that can help most people with anxiety disorders lead productive, fulfilling lives. Treatment depends on the cause of the anxiety. When the cause of anxiety is a physical ailment, treatment is directed toward eliminating that ailment. When the cause is psychological, the underlying cause needs to be discovered and, if possible, eliminated or controlled. Sometimes, the cause cannot be identified. In such cases, the only treatment option is control of symptoms. Counseling does play a very important role in providing cognitive and behavior management strategies for controlling and treating the symptoms caused by anxiety. Helping the anxiety sufferer combat whatever unrealistic beliefs that may underlie the anxiety (cognitive therapy) or developing ways to manage worries (behavioral therapy) are psychotherapeutic approaches that are often used to combat the overpowering symptoms of anxiety. (Narrow, Rae & Regier ) Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD is a real illness. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. People may get PTSD after living through a disturbing or frightening experience. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. It can be treated with medicine and therapy. Among those who may experience PTSD are military troops who served in Vietnam and the Gulf Wars; rescue workers involved in the aftermath of disasters like the Oklahoma City bombing; survivors of accidents, rape, physical and sexual abuse, and other crimes; immigrants fleeing violence in their countries; survivors of the 1994 California earthquake, the 1997 South Dakota floods, and hurricanes Hugo and Andrew; and people who witness traumatic events. Family members of victims also can develop the disorder. PTSD can occur in people of any age, including children and adolescents. (Widom) Many people with PTSD repeatedly re-experience the ordeal in the form of flashback episodes, memories, nightmares, or frightening thoughts, especially when they are exposed to events or objects reminiscent of the trauma. Anniversaries of the event can also trigger symptoms. People with PTSD also experience emotional numbness and sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, and irritability or outbursts of anger. Feelings of intense guilt are also common. Most people with PTSD try to avoid any reminders or thoughts of the ordeal. PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms last more than 1 month. Physical symptoms such as headaches, gastrointestinal distress, immune system problems, dizziness, chest pain, or discomfort in other parts of the body are common in people with PTSD. Often, doctors treat these symptoms without being aware that they stem from an anxiety disorder. (Yehuda) If a person has PTSD, he/she often have nightmares or scary thoughts about the experience the person went through. The individual will try to stay away from anything that reminds him/her of that experience. The person may feel angry and unable to trust or care about other people. One may always be on the lookout for danger. One can feel very upset when something happens suddenly or without warning. For most people, PTSD starts within about three months of the event. For some people, signs of PTSD don't show up until years later. PTSD can happen to anyone at any age. Even children can have it. Some people get better within six months, while others may have the illness for much longer. (Widom) PTSD can be extremely debilitating. Fortunately, research-including studies supported by NIMH and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-has led to the development of treatments to help people with PTSD. Studies have demonstrated the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, and exposure therapy, in which the person repeatedly re-lives the frightening experience under controlled conditions to help him or her work through the trauma. Studies also have found that several types of medication, particularly the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and other antidepressants, can help relieve the symptoms of PTSD. Other research shows that debriefing people very soon after a catastrophic event may reduce some of the symptoms of PTSD. A study of 12,000 schoolchildren who lived through a hurricane in Hawaii found that those who got counseling early on were doing much better 2 years later than those who did not. (Breslau& Kessler) Many forms of psychotherapy have been advocated for trauma-related problems such as PTSD. Basic counseling for PTSD includes education about the condition and provision of safety and support. Cognitive therapy shows good results, and group therapy may be helpful in reducing isolation and social stigma. The psychotherapy programs with the strongest demonstrated efficacy are all cognitive behavioral programs and include variants of exposure therapy, stress inoculation training (SIT), variants of cognitive therapy (CT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and combinations of these procedures.(Cahill&Fao). Exposure involves assisting trauma survivors to therapeutically confront distressing trauma-related memories and reminders in order to facilitate habituation and successful emotional processing of the trauma memory. Most exposure therapy programs include both imaginable confrontation with the traumatic memories and real-life exposure to trauma reminders. The three symptoms discussed above are result of some form of acute stress in life, which impacts the normal neural and physiological functioning resulting in peaked mental states which emerge in the form of these symptoms or diseases. Stress is a commonly used term in both lay and professional language. Unfortunately, there often is not agreement about what stress actually means. Stress is any challenge or condition which forces our regulating physiological and neurophysiologic systems to move outside of their normal dynamic activity. Stress occurs when homeostasis is disrupted. Traumatic stress is an extreme form of stress. (Rosen & Schulkin). It is important to understand that stress during development in not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, the development of stress-response neural systems depends upon exposure to moderate, controllable levels of stress. 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