Psychology

According to medical-dictionary.com, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a categorical system of classification of mental disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association that explains objective criteria to be used in diagnosing patients. Further, the website explains that each classification contains a code which provides a reference to World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases which offers significant criteria as vital and associated features of the disorder, age at onset, course, impairment, complications, predisposing factors, prevalence, sex ratio, familiar patterns, and differential diagnoses.

MENTAL DISORDER DEFINED
Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation (CPR) defines mental illness or mental disorder as a broad range of mental and emotional conditions. However, it does not cover the broad term mental impairment as it is different from other illness such as mental retardation, organic brain damage, and learning disabilities. According to CPR, the word psychiatric disability is used when mental illness distorts the usual activities a person does everyday such as learning, working and communication among others.

MAJOR DISORDERS
The most common examples of mental disorders are anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and Somatoform Disorders. Central for Psychiatric Rehabilitation explains each disorder and the causes that contribute to having one. 

Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common group of mental disorders illustrating intense fear or anxiety associated with particular objects and situations. People with Anxiety disorder usually avoid exposure to the factors that triggers anxiety.

In an article written by Paul Maclver, Overcome Your Anxiety, he discusses the components of Anxiety disorder such as cognitive, emotional and behavioral. He also includes somatic components. According to him, cognitive components refer to the fear of uncertain danger. Emotional, on the other hand, causes a sense of panic, nausea and chills. Lastly, behavioral components would lead to both voluntary and involuntary behaviors, and sufferer could intentionally avoid the sources of anxiety, as what Maclver explained. Morever, about.com explained that although some researches suspect that anxiety disorder, still, the complete cause is still unclear. Environmental and cultural factors are still thought to be the major factors that contribute to the development of this disorder.

Several kinds of Anxiety disorder are Panic Disorder, Phobias, Obsessive-Compulsive disorder, and Post-Traumatic stress orders (PTDS).

CPR discusses Panic Disorder as the abrupt onset of paralyzing terror to impending doom. In addition, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website says that this disorder is characterized by unexpected and frequent episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal pain which resembles a heart attack. People with panic disorder may feel sweaty, weak, faint or dizzy. One may also have nausea, chest pain, a sense of unreality, or fear of impending fate or loss of control.

Phobia, on the other hand, is an illogical and constant fear of certain objects, activities or people (socialanxietydisorder.about.com). CPR distinguishes the different kinds of phobias such as fear of particular objects (Simple Phobias), events that expose a person to the possible judgment of others (Social Phobias), andor situations where escape might be difficult (agoraphobia).

The next kind of Anxiety disorder is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder which shows distressing thoughts or obsession on certain thing that would cause a person to perform actions that are unintentional and could cause harm to others. It is an illness that drives people to have unwanted thoughts and to repeat certain behaviors (Familydoctor.org). People with OCD are aware that their obsessions and behaviors are senseless but they cannot stop them.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the last kind of disorder that falls under Anxiety.
As the name connotes, the disorder happens after experiencing a traumatic or painful situation that was not able to surpass by a person. The factors which attribute to PTSD could be the result from exposure to terrifying, life-threatening trauma such as an act of violence, war, or natural disaster.

Mood Disorders
According to wrongdiagnosis.com, mood disorders or affectivedepressive disorder is characterized by a disturbance of mood. The disturbance could either be mild or sever, and may include depression, mania or hypomania or any combination of these.

According to Patrick Marinos Biological Rhythms as a Basis for Mood Disorders of Rochester Institute of Technology, certain factors influence the biological rhythms of our body. One of these factors is circadian clock which is responsible for controlling sleep pattern. However, depressed people experienced various types of sleep disorders. Henceforth, lack of sleep per night comes before the beginning of depression. Meanwhile, there is also what he calls as Seasonal Affect Disorder. Based on this article, patients with this kind of disorder experienced highly response to the total amount of light available in the environment. Cognitive symptoms include pessimistic views of the self and of the future ( HYPERLINK httpwww.uwmc.uwc.edupsychology309_unit_8.htm httpwww.uwmc.uwc.edupsychology309_unit_8.htm) which further leads to selective perception, and a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. Based on Anxiety and Depression Center website, behavioral symptoms include withdrawal, avoidance of other people, and not doing the usual activities in the past. Emotional aspects also contribute to the development of this disorder. Some events like death of loved ones may lead to a loss of identity or self-esteem.

The two major categories of mood disorders are bipolar and depressive disorders. Some signs of mood disorders include personality changed, depression, agitation, aggression, and anxiety.

Major Depression is an extreme or prolonged episodes of sadness in which a person loses interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities (CPR). Pyschology Information Online website added that this disorder can occur once, as a result of a significant psychological trauma, and if treated properly, will never occur again within ones lifetime. 

The second type is bipolar disorder. It is alternating episodes of mania (high) and depressions (lows). Hence, the other term manic-depressive illness. Common symptoms of bipolar disorder include mood swings like feeling on top of the world, inappropriate elevated
mood, distractibility, irritability, rebelliousness, and grandiosity.

The third type is Dysthymia which is the continuous low-grade symptoms of major depressions and anxiety. A sufferer usually feels restless, thus, losing the interest in life and feelings of fatigue. Common signs consist of persistent depressed mood, chronic prolonged depression, and lack enthusiasm for life.

Seasonal Affective disorder (SAD) is the last illness included in mood disorders. It is a form of major depression that happens in the fall or winter season, and maybe related to shortened periods of daylight. Based on Wrongdiagnosis (WD), it is a mental illness that follows climate changes. Sufferers experience intense depression during the long, dark, cold days of winter and resolution in spring. SAD is believed to be associated with the levels of melatonin which promotes sleep.

Somatoform Disorder
The usual characteristic of somatoform illness is the appearance of physical symptoms or complaints of such without any organic basic (Purgatory.com). Based on an article Dissociation and Disorders in a website, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explains that traumatic memories are stored at the implicit memory level which changes a persons biological stress response to those memories (Van der Kolk, 1987). In the same article, emotional response could cause the patient to keep himself from feeling the pain while defending himherself. Meanwhile, behavioral enactments consist of compulsive verbalizations, recurrent expressions of the traumatic experience and artistic production, to name few. Based on the discussion of Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders in a website, when anxiety is transmuted into a cognitive symptom like loss of memory, then it is already considered as dissociative disorder.
Four major somatoform disorders exist (1) Conversion disorder also known as hysteria (2) hypochondriasis (3) somatization disorder (4) somatoform pain disorder.

Conversion disorder is the primary symptom often lacking or changing in physical functioning. This may include serious ailments such as blindness, amnesia and paralysis which the person could use as a defense mechanism to escape from a stressful situation.

Hypochondriasis differs from conversion disorder in a way that it has no real illness, but is just overly obsessed with normal bodily functions. Symptoms may include afflicted small irregularities in bodily functions, real or imagined, and then express concerns over their general health (Purgatory.com).

Wrongdiagnosis.com explains somatization disorder as multiple somatic complaints.  Patients with this disorder usually undergo repeated medical examinations and diagnostics testing that can be dangerous. Factors like genes and environment contribute to the development of somatization disorder. Sufferers usually complain physical pain shown in a dramatic, vague, or exaggerated way. As how the website elaborates, patients are usually anxious and depressed because of physical complaints such as psychosexual problem (sexual indifference).