mood, substance, and personality disorders

Mood, Substance, and Personality Disorders

Do you know a person that has sudden mood swings? Do you wonder why they act like they do? Their actions could be a result of a type of mood disorder. Mood disorders are part of the Axis One disorders that are found in the DSM IV. Axis One is all categories of disorders except for personality disorders. People who have mood disorders are diagnosed to have a pattern of severe depressive and manic episodes.

One major mood disorder that will be discussed is bipolar disorder. People who are bipolar tend to have episodes of both mania and depression, sometime by themselves or sometimes mixed. Some of the symptoms are a very active social life, rapid speech, racing thoughts, lack of sleep and no concern about losing sleep, false belief of having special talents, and the inability to keep one’s attention focused. Bipolar is equally as common in men and in women. However, depressive episodes are more common for women with the disorder than for men. Because of the seriousness of this disorder it is important that it is professionally treated. If the disorder is not treated or if treatment is discontinued, a person can become impaired or extremely symptomatic.

Richard Gere plays the main character in the movie Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is a character that has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or as a manic-depressive. The movie begins in one of Jones’ highs or manic episode. He is a child in an adult’s body; he feels invincible, like he can do anything. The first episode that sends him into the mental hospital is when he walks out on a high beam at a construction site thinking that he can fly. His second episode is at a symphony concert; he jumps on stage and tries to lead the orchestra, feeling he could do a better job then the conductor. His doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Brown, diagnosed Jones with bipolar disorder because he has impaired judgment, he is highly agitated, he has rapid speech, and audio hallucinations. He is unable to fell pleasure, and he has major mood swings. When he was in the hospital he was depressed most of the time; he missed his highs because they were fun. When he had his downs they tended to be destructive; he overreacted when he did not get his way.

The movie seemed to be very accurate to what we learned in class an...

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The movie Girl Interrupted is a true story about a young woman who was put into a mental institute and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Winona Ryder plays Susanna, who was just a girl who had a hard time telling the difference between dreams and reality. She was put into the hospital because she tried to commit suicide by taking a bottle of aspirin and drinking a bottle of vodka at the same time. When Susanna first got to the hospital, she did not feel that she needed to be there. However, she did agree that she was depressed and needed to rest. She also had a hard time developing healthy relationships and could not distinguish an identity for herself. During the time before she realized she had a problem she had flashbacks of the moments that may have led to her disorder. Because she wanted to get out of the hospital, she began to tell her doctors every thought she had. By doing this she cured herself. Susanna finally knew what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be. Overall this movie did an awesome job of depicting all the disorders in the movie as well as borderline personality disorder. This movie is one of my favorites; I would recommend it to anyone.