Characteristics of disorders - Phobia, Depression and Schizophrenia

Anxiety disorders
An anxiety disorder is broadly described as a disorder which gives a continuous feeling of fear or anxiety, which is disabling and reduces daily functioning. Anxiety may be triggered by something that appears trivial to others, or may even be “non-existent” – but it feels very real and can have disastrous effects on the person with the disorder. Anxiety disorders encompass many different types of disorders, such as OCD and phobias.


Phobia
A phobia is defined as having a persistent fear of a particular phobic object or situation, for example of dogs or being in enclosed situations. It must be fairly severe to be classified as a dysfunctional behaviour, and the person must exhibit various symptoms such as avoiding the stimulus of the phobic reaction and feeling very apprehensive or becoming unwell when in the phobic situation. The DSM IV will classify a phobia on the basis that the phobic reaction is marked, persistent and excessive or unreasonable and recognised as so. Other characteristics a psychologist or psychiatrist would look for in order to diagnose someone with a phobia is if the situation is avoided, it disrupts the person’s normal life, and if exposure to the stimulus provokes an immediate anxiety response. Additionally, if the person is under 18, the phobia must have been in excess of six months of duration. These are the symptoms that most with phobias will exhibit; however one or two not shown in the patient is unlikely to hinder their diagnosis as individual differences means people react differently to phobias.
 
Affective (mood) disorders
An affective disorder is one which is affects someone’s mood and emotions. Whilst it is completely normal to have varied and sometimes irrational moods, sometimes such severe or debilitating moods are the result of an affective disorder. The most common affective disorder is depression, which is likely to affect most people directly either through an individual themselves having it or someone they are close to having it.


Depression
The DSM IV would require a patient or client to be exhibiting five or more of the listed symptoms in the manual in order to diagnose somebody with depression. These symptoms can be emotional, such as sadness and loss of pleasure in usual activities, behavioural and physiological such as insomnia and fatigue, or cognitive such as poor concentration and suicidal thoughts – or there can be a mixture of all three. There are many types of depression, but the two most common and most known are unipolar depression and bipolar depression. Unipolar is also known as major depression, and is associated with low mood, a sense of worthlessness, hopelessness and inability to experience pleasure, either in single episodes, periodic outbreaks or continually. Bipolar depression is when somebody’s mood fluctuates between depressive episodes (as described above) and manic episodes which are the extreme opposites. Symptoms are frequently split with episodes of perceived normality, and periods of mania and depression can last anywhere between days and years.


Psychotic disorders
Psychosis is the general term for disorders which involve loss of contact with “reality”, and those diagnosed with psychotic disorders frequently exhibit symptoms such as disordered thought and speech, delusions and withdrawal from the outside world. One psychotic disorder in which these symptoms are typical is schizophrenia.
 
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder which is characterized by various delusions such as auditory and visual hallucinations, disordered thought and speech and chaotic behaviour and actions. Schizophrenia is described as having positive symptoms, meaning something is gained, such as delusions and disordered behaviour, as well as negative symptoms, such as losing emotional responses and inability to feel pleasure. The DSM would require two or more of these symptoms in order for a diagnosis to be made, as well as social occupational dysfunction which is unexplained by medication or developmental disorders.