Psychology · Ch 4 — Psychological Disorders
Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
People who have lived through a natural disaster like a tsunami, survived a terrorist bomb blast, been in a serious accident, or faced war-related situations often develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) . The symptoms of PTSD vary widely but commonly include recurrent, distressing dreams about the event, flashbacks where the person feels as if the trauma is happening again, impaired concentration, and emotional numbing — a kind of detachment from feelings.
Two other disorders fall under this same category: Adjustment Disorders and Acute Stress Disorder. Adjustment disorder involves a strong emotional or behavioural reaction to an identifiable stressor, while acute stress disorder is similar to PTSD but occurs immediately after the trauma and lasts for a shorter duration.
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
These are conditions in which a person experiences physical symptoms even though no physical disease is present. The individual has genuine psychological difficulties but complains of physical problems for which there is no biological cause. This category includes Somatic Symptom Disorder, Illness Anxiety Disorder, and Conversion Disorders, among others.
Somatic Symptom Disorder involves a person having persistent body-related symptoms. These symptoms may or may not be linked to any serious medical condition. The key feature is that the person is overly preoccupied with their symptoms, constantly worries about their health, and makes frequent visits to doctors. This preoccupation causes significant distress and disrupts daily life.
Illness Anxiety Disorder involves a persistent preoccupation with the possibility of developing a serious illness. The person constantly worries about this possibility and experiences anxiety about their health. Individuals with this disorder are overly concerned about undiagnosed disease, do not feel reassured even by negative diagnostic results, and are easily alarmed — for example, by hearing about someone else's illness.
Both somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder are concerned with medical illness, but the difference lies in how that concern is expressed. In somatic symptom disorder, the expression is through physical complaints. In illness anxiety disorder, as the name suggests, anxiety itself is the main concern.
Conversion Disorders involve the reported loss of part or all of some basic body function. Common symptoms include paralysis, blindness, deafness, and difficulty walking. These symptoms often appear suddenly after a stressful experience.
Dissociative Disorders
Dissociation can be understood as a severance of the connections between ideas and emotions. It involves feelings of unreality, estrangement, depersonalisation, and sometimes a loss or shift of identity. A defining characteristic of dissociative disorders is sudden, temporary alterations of consciousness that blot out painful experiences. …