Disorder

The term disorder refers to a disruption or disturbance of the normal functioning of the body. In medical terms a disorder is best thought of as a characteristic — a clinically significant disturbance in a person's physical, cognitive or emotional regulation, or in their behaviour. A familiar example is a stomach disorder: it disturbs normal functioning for a while, yet it is retractable — it can be put right. Beyond physical disorders, there are mental or cognitive ones such as an anxiety disorder, and others such as substance-abuse disorder, addiction disorder, attention disorder and eating disorder.

The key idea: disorders can be reversed

The most important thing to understand about a disorder is that the person experiencing it has the possibility of being treated and restored to the condition of fitness they were in before. In other words, disorders have a real chance of being reversed. Because of this flexible nature, a disorder may not even be evident in every situation, and what troubles one person may hardly affect another in the same situation. A disorder is therefore a very flexible and individual term.

Three features of a disorder

Looked at a little more closely — as characteristics tied to medical conditions that may bring painful symptoms, impairment, or a significantly increased risk to health — a disorder has three defining features:

• Associated: a disorder is associated with a disturbance of physical or mental functioning.
• Kinds: there are many kinds — mental disorders, attention disorder, eating disorder, anxiety disorder, substance-abuse and addiction disorder, and so on.
• Reversal: individuals experiencing a disorder can be treated and restored to how they were before.

When a disorder leads to a disability …