Mental Or Psychological Disorders: Characteristics And Differences

We must consider that mental disorders or psychological disorders are the mental condition in which they are shown. altered cognitive and affective processes of development, this is considered abnormal in relation to the social group where the individual develops, these are related to the change in character and emotions, but they can also be Congenital, they have a specific pathology with signs and symptoms, Genetic and hereditary.

• congenital : They are those produced by disorders in embryonic development during pregnancy due to various causes (rubella, syphilis, herpes, toxoplasmosis, alcohol, tobacco), due to environmental factors (radiation) or during childbirth.
• Genetics : They are those produced by damage to the genes or chromosomes. The nervous (Down syndrome), respiratory (asthma), digestive (type 1 diabetes, cancer), visual (color blindness) and blood (hemophilia, lymphoid leukemia) systems are affected. On the other hand, they can lead to the appearance of cancer in various organs. Genetic diseases may or may not be heritable. When they are inherited they are called hereditary diseases.
• hereditary : It is a set of genetic diseases that are transmitted to offspring, although they are not necessarily observed at birth. Furthermore, these diseases may or may not manifest throughout the individual’s life (diabetes, breast cancer).

There are several ways to refer to mental illnesses, among which are the so-called Mental Disorders, among which are psychological, psychiatric, mental problems, etc.

There are numerous ways to classify mental illnesses, which can be more or less serious both individually and socially; A classic classification is: Neurotic Disorders and Psychotic Disorders.

• Neurotic disorders : depressive, anxiety, dissociative (multiple personality), sexual (fetishism, masochism) and sleep (insomnia) disorders, without a demonstrable organic alteration (according to the WHO)
• Psychotic disorders: It includes states of schizophrenia, delusions and hallucinations, as well as states produced by certain diseases or substances that enter the body.

As previously stated, some diseases such as those that produce psychotic states have some similarities, but they meet different criteria, and in no way should terms such as psychopathy be mistaken for psychotic states.

It’s all that mental disorder arising from anxiety and whose symptoms interfere with normal activity but do not block it (Freud)

In clinical psychology it is used to refer to mental disorders or illnesses which distort the rational thinking and adequate functioning of people at the family, social and work level, without evidence of organic injury and an adequate level of connection with reality, this type of Diseases do not require hospitalization, and their treatment is done in an outpatient clinic, with the exception of personality disorders that sometimes require it.

Etilogy

The term was proposed by the Scottish doctor Willian Cullen in 1769 and refers to diseases or disorders of the nervous system, which did not show organic damage that could be demonstrated, but capable of altering the emotional and physical state of the individual.

Between 1892 and 1899, S. Freud called it Psychoneurosis, which was applied to nervous diseases whose symptoms represented a repressed conflict; I used psychoanalysis to refer to almost any mental disorder, and I exemplified it with cases of hysteria in women, which allowed Freud to develop psychoanalytic theory.

In 1909 Pierre Janet published Neurosis. He works in which he establishes the concept of “functional disease”, which does not have a physical alteration of the organ but rather its function, which causes a state of neurastasthenia (nervousness).

The term Neurosis has been abandoned by scientific psychology and psychiatry, the WHO (ICD 10) and the APA (DSMIV TR) have changed the nomenclature to refer to these clinical conditions and call them Disorders.

Psychosis is a term widely used in psychology to refer to a mental illness where its main characteristic is the loss of contact with reality, People who suffer from this condition are called psychotic, and they present hallucinations, delusions, personality changes and disorganized thinking, they have the inability to adapt to daily life and difficulty interacting socially; with or without organic damage.

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as “a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by personality disorder, loss of contact with reality and causing worsening of normal social functioning.”

At the moment Only the DSM IV nosological classification is accepted, as descriptive the German school of Bleuler, Kraepelin and Kleist, and as for the description of delusions the French school influencing Gaetán de Clerembault as an exponent.

The hallucinations of this type of disease are mostly auditory, although they also tend to present visually, as well as false beliefs about what one is or what is happening.

Some people mistakenly call it psychopathies, which is why their characteristics and symptoms are confused.

The confusion that occurs when the terms are used incorrectly has been mentioned previously, as some people use the term psychopathic to refer to a psychotic person.

When we refer to psychopathic we are faced with an individual with antisocial personality, that treats people as if they were objects and uses them for their own benefit, they lack empathy and if they have it, they only use it to capture the needs and weaknesses of others and use them to manipulate them, it never provides anything and when it does He hopes to recover it later.

However, a psychopath is not always a serial killer as society knows him today, he is a person who is capable of being nice and adapting to society but does not hesitate to commit a crime, without feeling remorse or guilt. some. These individuals follow their own code and rules and can feel bad when they break them, they lack a Superego which represents the ethical and moral thoughts received from the culture. And they are not amenable to psychotherapy.

Instead the psychotic person it is inable to interact socially and does not have will regarding feelings, they have strange behaviors, in addition to this disorder can be functional or organic, and it can be controlled with psychotherapy and antipsychotic or neuroleptic medications, allowing the individual to function socially. It should be noted that the Treatment of this type of disorder will depend on its cause.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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