chapterten1


 * __Abnormal Behavior__**


 * __Anxiety disorders__**
 * Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps motivate people to study for an exam by giving them a sense of urgency. However, when anxiety becomes an excessive dread of everyday situations, it becomes a disabling disorder.
 * In short there are 5 types of Anxiety disorders. They are:
 * **Generalized anxiety disorder**: People who suffer from this have chronic anxiety and are constantly tense, even if there is little to nothing that is provoking it. Those who have this cannot share their concerns with others. they also suffer from headaches, fatigue, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, and hot flashes. There is treatment for this disorder and everyday new therapies are being developed that will help those to deal with this disorder.
 * **Obsessive-compulsive disorder** (OCD): OCD is characterized by unwanted thoughts and recurring behaviors. these behaviors are interruptions in the person's everyday life, preventing the person from living a normal life. These rituals fluctuate from excessive washing of the hands, cleaning, or even having a number in mind, and counting that number with wherever you go or whatever you do. These rituals are nothing but a temporary relief, and not performing them habitually increases anxiety. One tell tale way to diagnose a person with OCD is if they are a so called "germ-a-phobe" and are constantly checking or cleaning things. There are treatments coming out for OCD all the time, but right now the most effective one is having the person stop their rituals. When the person stops their rituals they are removing them from their life, and hopefully overtime will see that they can live their lives without the constant need to fulfill their rituals.
 * **Panic Disorder**: Those who suffer from this disorder have repeated and intense feelings of fear. These episodes are accompanied with chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. These people have sudden, unexpected feelings of terror that overcome them with no warning whatsoever. When an attack happens your heart will pound, along with loss of feeling in the fingers, to chills, and even a sense of impending doom. A common complication of panic disorder is [|agoraphobia], anxiety about being in a place or situation where escape is difficult or embarrassing.
 * **Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder** (PTSD): This is an anxiety disorder that occurs after an individual undergoes an extremely traumatic event. These events could include a physical attack, to the sudden and unexpected loss of a family member/members, to seeing horrific events in the military. One way people deal with PTSD is to completely push everything that reminds them of the event out of their lives. That includes family members, pictures, and basically all things that remind them of the event. The person therefore becomes emotionally numb and feel detached. Treatment for this disorder can
 * **Social Phobia** (or Social Anxiety Disorder): Those who suffer from this particular anxiety disorder have extreme self-consciousness in everyday social issues. This can include a fear of speaking in front of others, to a fear of eating in front of others, to even in most extreme cases a constant fear of being around people. People with this have a chronic fear of being judged by people or making mistakes in front of people. Their fear of being humiliated in front of other people can interfere with their everyday life. Symptoms may include blushing, profuse sweating, trembling, nausea, and even difficulty talking. Those who suffer this should seek the help of a therapist immediately.
 * **Phobias:** a [|//Phobia//] is a strong, irrational fear and avoidance of an object or situation. The person realizes that fear is dumb and irrational, yet still suffers anxiety. when the person is subject to their fear or even thinks about it intently they experience severe anxiety. People who suffer from phobies generally have a vivid imagination so that they may imagine their fear very realistically.
 * **Treatment:** There are treatments for anxiety disorders such as [|cognitive behavioral therapy], extreme lifestyle changes, or medication. There are a numerous medications people are perscribed ranging from [|anxiolytic] agents to [|antidepressants]. The patient may also be referred to a [|cognitive-behavioral] therapist.


 * __Somataform Disorders__**
 * **Somatoform disorders** are a group of mental problems characterized by physical complaints that are not caused by a physical disease or condition.
 * These disorders are extremely hard to treat because patients usually have extensive medical history and have many different doctors. Also patients might not consciously know that they have the disorders.
 * Somatoform disorders can be broken down into the following subcatagories:
 * Conversion disorder (Hysteria)
 * Hypochondriasis
 * Body dysmorphic disorder

__Conversion Disorder__ >> >>
 * This is when a person experiences a traumatic or stressful event and converts his or her psychological problems into the inability to move body parts or use senses normally.
 * "In the 19th century, physicians such as [|Silas Weir Mitchell] in the US and [|Paul Briquet] and [|Jean-Martin Charcot] in France developed ideas about patients sharing unexplained neurological symptoms." (//Conversion Disorder//, Wikipedia)

Basically, a person who suffers from Conversion disorder has emotional problems that "convert" themselves into physical inabilities. For Example: Bob gets in a car crash, his wife and son die, but he is perfectly fine after the crash, no physical injuries whatsoever. A week later, Bob cannot move anything below his waist, he cannot move is legs or feet. He thinks he is paralyzed. Is he really? Answer: No Bob is not really paralyzed, but until he seeks help he could stay in this state for the rest of his life. He actually has converted the emotional traumans associated with his wife's and son's death into physical inabilities, which in this case is paralysis.

__Hypochondriasis__
 * Hypochondriasis is a mental disorder that is characterized by extreme fear towards acquiring a serious illness or becoming insane.
 * Hypochondriacs have an increased awareness to their normal bodily functions such as the beating of their heart, breathing, or stomach noises. Because they have an extereme fear of becoming sick, they tend to misinterpret these normal bodily functions for symptoms of a disease or illness.
 * "As of 2001, rough estimates from reports of primary care physicians state that **hypochondriasis** shows up in about 4 to 20% of their U.S. patients… About $20 billion a year is spent on unnecessary medical procedures and tests due to **hypochondriasis**.” ([|Hypochondriasis, World of Health])

__Body Dysmorphic Disorder__ - Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a somatoform disorder where the patient has an obsessive preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated physical defect. Usually the patient has a preoccupation with a defect on his or her face or head, but can be other body parts as well. Sometimes patients worry about defects that affect their sexual attractiveness like genitals or breasts, and many resort to plastic surgery to “fix” their defect even if it is imaginary. - BDD, once believed to be an obscure and rare disorder, is now being reported more frequently than Conversion disorders. Psychologists believe that America’s obsession about physical perfection is directly proportional to the increase in BDD, especially in the teenage years. BDD used to be most common in late teens to early adulthood, but now this disorder is affecting more and more teenagers in early adolescence. All people who have had plastic surgery, do they suffer from BDD?



1. "Anxiety Disorders." __National Institutes of Mental Health__. 10 Jan. 2008. 15 Jan. 2008 <[|http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml>.] 2. "Anxiety Disorders." __Anxiety Disorders Association of America__. Anxiety Disorders Association of America. 16 Jan. 2008 <[|http://www.adaa.org/>.] 3. "Anxiety Disorders." __National Mental Health Information Center__. United States Department of Health and Human Services. 16 Jan. 2008 <[|http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/ken98-0045/default.asp>.] 4. "Anxiety Disorder." __Wikipedia__. 16 Jan. 2008. 16 Jan. 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety_disorder>.] 5."Somatoform disorders." //World of Health//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 2007. //Student Resource Center - Health Module//. Thomson Gale. Eastern HMS-Forest Hills. 14 Jan. 2008 .
 * Sources:**

6.Locke, Steven E. "Treating Somatization: An Update." //Behavioral Health Management.// 17. 4 (July 1997): 22. //Student Resource Center - Health Module//. Thomson Gale. Eastern HMS-Forest Hills. 14 Jan. 2008 <[[http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IACDocuments&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=SRCHlth&docId=A55905814&source gale&srcprodSRCH&userGroupName=ada51237&version=1.0.

7."Hypochondriasis." //World of Health//. Online ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 2007. //Student Resource Center - Health Module//. Thomson Gale. Eastern HMS-Forest Hills. 15 Jan. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=SRCHlth&docId=EJ2191200489&source=gale&srcprod=SRCH&userGroupName=ada51237&version=1.0.