Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders

Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disorder that can effect anyone. It is the greatest

the greatest disorder that effects teenagers. When someone is effected by the

disorder it is not just that one person that has to learn to deal with it, the

families of the patients must also learn to deal with it.

There are many possible causes for the disorder with many doctors

believing that there is more than one cause. What has been thought as the main

cause for many years is a chemical imbalance in the brain. This could be an

imbalance in the number of neurotransmitters and/or an imbalance in the amount

of dopamine. Stress is not thought of as directly causing Schizophrenia, but

often makes already present symptoms worse. some doctors feel that

Schizophrenia might be the result of a slow acting virus since the symptoms can

be delayed many years after the first infection. Another possible cause for the

disorder is a genetic disposition. This has yet to be proven but it is thought

of as a likely cause since children who have a parent with the disorder have a

ten times greater chance of developing the illness than children who have

abnormal parents. If both parents have the disorder the chance of their off

spring having the disorder jumps to forty times that of of an off spring with

normal parents. Some times as equally as important as finding what causes

a disease is finding what does not cause a disease. It is said that

Schizophrenia is: not caused by a domineering mother and/or a passive father,

not caused by childhood experiences, poverty, or not caused by the feeling of

guilt or failure.

People who have schizophrenia can be divided up into three equal groups:

those who only have one episode in their entire life, those who have continual

episodes but live normal lives between them, and a third group who have never

ending symptoms. The symptoms that define an episode of schizophrenia can

generally be described as deterioration from a previous level of functioning.

The number one symptom of schizophrenia is the inability to separate the

real form the unreal. As stress starts to build and the symptoms get worse

there is often a decline in work achievements along with declining of relations

with others. Because the these symptoms might start off very minor, it is

mostly the fami...

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...a great emotional strain on those

with it, having many side effects of it¹s own.

The first thing that must be done to help a person wit a eating disorder

is to talk to them about it. It is not uncommon for them to get mad at first

because their secret is out, but they must be forced to seek professional help.

Though there are many different mental disorders and illnesses it seems

as though they all have a few things in common. The uncertainty of the cause

seems to be the case with many disorders. Some doctors feel strongly one way

while others think that there is a totally different cause. Over time what is

thought to be the causes of a disorders often change because of new research

that is being done everyday.

Until the causes of disorders are found it will always be a guess on how

to best treat patients suffering from any certain disorder. It even varies as

far as one doctor saying a certain kind of treatment helps and another doctor

saying that the exact same treatment is useless or even harmful, as the case is

with ECT. Until researchers better understand the brain the treatment for

disorders that are found in it will always be up for discussion.