Psychology - Life Experience
Introduction
People are faced and go through life experiencing an amount of stress and pressure one way or the other. A certain amount of anxiety is acceptable or considered normal especially when the contributor of these stressors are from real life situations that an individual can clearly identify. Losing a job or anything that is work related, death in the family or someone close to that individual, preparing for a competition, or as simple as studying for an exam are examples that can contribute or make a person feel pressured. However, the period of feeling pressured or anxious is only momentary. On the other hand, Abnormal psychology deals with how it feels to be different, the meanings that get attached to being different, and how society deals with people whom it considers to be different (Sarason, 11th ed.). Individuals who suffer from abnormal psychology or mental illness experience the same stress and anxiety that of a regular person, only their stress level is much more heightened and prolonged. In most cases these individuals cannot even pinpoint or identify the cause of their anxiety. According to Sarason, this field of psychology covers two related problems. First, the ability to think rationally and logically and second, is to cope effectively with stress and the challenges that arise in situations and throughout the life course, and third, demonstrate emotional stability and growth.
Understanding the person who is experiencing this kind of mental disability and illness is vital in his mental development and improvement. Making them feel that you care and respect them and their feelings and emotions will help build their self-esteem, confidence and trust towards their clinicians. Proper classification and assessment of the persons state of mind is requisite for medical professionals and clinicians to formulate or conclude the right diagnosis so that proper treatment may be recommended and met.
Anxiety
There are many symptoms of anxiety and the most common responses or signs that denote a person is anxious are nervousness, fear and worry according to Sarason. In abnormal psychology these three normal responses become abnormal when the reaction or manifestation of the emotions are heightened or intensified, that is because of these strong feelings, a person suffering from anxiety disorder turn out to be ineffective in almost all aspects of life. the five major types of anxiety disorders generalized anxiety disorder, in which tenseness and worry can almost incapacitate an individual panic disorder, in which there are recurring panic or anxiety attacks phobias, in which there is excessive and inappropriate fear obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which there are recurrent obsessions andor compulsions often accompanied by anxiety and depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, in which there are extreme psychological, behavioral, and physical continuing reactions to traumatic events long after the events occurrence (Sarason, 11th ed).
According to Sarason, anxiety is defined as a diffuse, vague, very unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension. Symptoms of this disorder are rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fainting, dizziness, sweating, sleeplessness, frequent urination, and tremors. These feelings or symptoms are associated with fear and those who suffer from this are not even aware or could not point a finger to what they fear of.
Anxiety Disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is described to be prolonged and unexplainable fear with no particular object, unlike normal individuals experiencing fear or worry because of a certain event or situation that has occurred or experienced. Individuals suffering from anxiety disorders worry about minor things that have happened they also feel worried and tense even when nothing mildly alarming has occurred. They seem to spend a lot of time anticipating alarms that probably will not sound (Sarason, 11th ed). Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder are Worry and apprehensive feelings about the future, these are people who think and worry about their future. Hypervigilance people, who cannot identify why they feel danger to them and are always on their feet on potential threats making them excessively scan their surroundings for peril causing them to deviate themselves from things or tasks that they have to do or accomplish. Motor tension most individuals who have this symptom find it hard or unable to relax and at most times shaky and tensed. Autonomic reactivity people suffering from this symptom often have high pulse and respiratory rates among others.
Panic Disorder may come with no warning, and is a chronic and debilitating condition. The indicators of panic disorder are similar to those of generalized anxiety disorder, except that they are greatly magnified and usually have a sudden onset (Sarason, 11th ed).
Panic attacks are unexpected rush of feeling anxiety that can be caused by thoughts about something that is of importance to a person, or a stimulus that is brought about, or sometimes that just comes out spontaneously without any warning.
Features of panic disorder are similar to generalized anxiety disorder, only panic disorder is almost always hereditary and could be passed on to the next generation. Panic attacks may occur in just a matter of seconds and could extend to hours or days.
Phobias were derived from a Greek god named Phobos, that means fear, panic, fright or dread. Phobic disorders, contrasting to generalized anxiety and panic disorders have an exact or specific object, situations or people. Phobic individuals may not manifest clinical features as individuals suffering from panic and generalized anxiety disorders their fears are out of proportion with reality, seem inexplicable, and are beyond their voluntary control (Sarason). Examples of what phobic individuals fear of are aquaphobia, when the one is afraid of water aracnaphobia, when the one is afraid of spiders, or arcophoobia, when the one is afraid of heights.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder shows the driven quality of the thoughts and rituals seen in people with this condition (Sarason). People who have this kind of disorder are those who spend an excessive amount of energy, attention and time on little things. Individuals who are considered obsessive are preoccupied with a particular thought. Compulsive people have the tendency to perform a specific action repeatedly.
A person suffering from this disorder has the compulsion to do things in a certain way. This can be in a form of a routine or ritual. Just like the example given in the book Abnormal Psychology The Problem of Maladaptive Behavior, a young lady would have special routines before starting to take a shower. Little things such as the shower curtains need to be fixed or hanged in a certain way. The faucets and tub had to be excessively clean and had to organize each and everything in the bathroom before proceeding to taking her bath or shower. Because of this kind of behaviour, she is most likely to miss a lot in life, like missing the bus to school, therefore having to go and find an alternate way to get there.
People who are experiencing this kind of affliction are hindered from opportunities in life because they focus too much on a specific thing, event or thought. They never notice that there could have been a great occasion that just passed them by.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is based on a trauma or traumatic experience that the person was involved in. Examples of posttraumatic experience are participating or going to war, natural calamities such as earthquakes and super typhoons or being threatened.
People experience trauma once in awhile. However, posttraumatic stress is the prolonged emotion of being traumatized by a specific event, situation or person. Though being traumatized or have the feeling of that is natural when one has experienced something that is severe, posttraumatic stress disorder is the inability to snap or get out of that trauma and move on. Individuals with this disorder have the tendency to relive or reenact a particular event that happened in their life. This can be an accident, a bad experience during ones school years or death of a loved one. Preoccupation with the traumatic event may also lead to decreased interest in social relationships, intimacy, and sexuality (Sarason).
Treating Anxiety Disorders
A number of misdiagnosis has happened in the past. There are a lot of environmental stress that can add up to the feelings and pressure of an ill individual that can cause further damage to the patient. These individuals go on their everyday lives being branded by most of the people surrounding them. This is the whole reason why proper assessment and classification is needed to be sure of what kind of treatment or help clinicians can recommend and prescribe to ensure the improvement of the person. To be able to classify and assess the person, professionals need to diagnose and understand what the patient is saying. It is in their words and body language that give out the signs for professionals to read and detect and eventually know what treatment to prescribe the patient.
Assessment and Classification
Diagnosis is an important step in the process of identifying and classifying a clinical condition (Sarason). Obtaining accurate and exact diagnosis is not only required and needed but useful as well as not just for clinicians and professionals. This is their foundation and basis to treating individuals with any kind of disorder.
The objective of assessing is to get to information and know the individuals problem and with doing so, they will be able to classify what kind of disorder the person has. Understanding the behavior and the characteristics will clarify which approach and path to take for treatment.
Getting to know the patient is pertinent to a clinician. Finding out things such as their religious beliefs and culture, even their ethnic differences are taken into account and incorporated in their assessment, notes and study. All this information and data gathered are very important. Human beings are unique and this is because of the culture that we are born into, values that our parents has instilled in us and the peers that we have or the influences that the person is exposed to. This is why clinicians must look at every angle and turn every stone just to know and understand the person that they are talking to and will be treating if found to have mental illness.
Basis of Classification
It was mentioned earlier that classification of mental disorder is important, so how do clinicians and professionals do it What are the things that they need to do and prepare in order for them to classify, assess and diagnose a person whether or not he is suffering from mental illness We can do sum up and classify by interviewing the patient.
Interview is the most commonly used tool in assessing the person which have two types assessment and therapeutic. Assessment interview is to gather up information and evaluate behavior. The interviewer aims to understand the reason why the patient is in search for help. Therapeutic interview is done after the assessment interview is made and the interviewer or clinician has already summed up information from the patient and fully understands what bothers and ails the patient. This session is made either one-on-one with a therapist or may also include loved ones and family members. It will be of great help if the family members are interviewed so the therapist may also have a clearer and wider view of what is happening and going on with the patients behavior. Deciding on what treatment to go with will be based greatly on the assessment part of the interview.
Interview content
The content of the interview is to be able to identify the problem and know the gravity or extent of maladaptive behavior. Normally, the therapist will start to ask how the patient views the problem, the history of the problem and how vulnerable he or she is at that point.
Interviewers Role
The role of the interviewer is to observe and take behavior samples for them to predict the patients future behavior. The interviewer has to come up with valid relationships with the patients behavior in present and future situations and his behavior during the interview.
During the interview, the interviewer makes actual and mental notes of how the patient behaves and responses. Making a good and objective evaluation of an interview must not be focused on the patient only. The evaluation must be based on the connection and relationship that the interviewer will have with the patient.
Conclusion
Anxiety is a Psychological disorder that is treatable whether hereditary or acquired because of a traumatic event in a persons life. But because anxiety has so many branches and fields, there are different kinds and approaches for treatment. It is really important and a must for a professional or a clinician to understand the different areas of mental disorder. Properly conducting assessments for them to be able to classify which disorder the patient or client has, correct diagnosis will be given, thus, the right treatment.
Although there are theories that came from many known contributors to this science, it is not enough in order to help individuals suffering from anxiety. Field experience joined with the theories formulated by psychologist will help you be an effective clinician or therapist. As therapists, paying attention to the patient and understanding where they are coming from, the pain that they are going through, the thoughts and past events of their lives will make it easy on helping and treating the individual.
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