Viva Forever

Today I finished my last exam (Psychopathology) for the semester. Before I pack my notes away till forever (since it’s a stand-alone subject basically), here are a few facts that might be of interest. I picked one or two for all the disorders we’ve covered. We didn’t learn anything about treatment, only of the prognosis and possible causes.

DISCLAIMER: While I try to avoid any diagnostic information, nonetheless do NOT use any of this information out of context in any sort of diagnostic way for yourself or anyone else. For a full criteria of what is considered necessary for a certain disorder consult the DSM-IV.

Definition of Abnormality
The underlying problem with the whole idea of mental illness is how to define “abnormal”. There are four ways, and different disorders focus on one or a mix of ways to address “abnormality. However, each one has their own problems. The ways are:

1. Statistical model - Abnormality defined as infrequent occurence; the rule of thumb being the top and bottom 5% of the population. While it’s the most “objective” way to categorise people, some disorders (e.g. depression, some sexual dysfunctions like premature ejaculation) is quite common in the population and so it doesn’t really fit with the statistical model
2. Cultural model - Abnormality defined as breaking implicit rules of society. While this allows for cultural variation, it can be very pejorative and difficult to measure. For example, homosexuality and nymphomania was considered a disorder before but is no longer.
3. Danger model - Abnormality defined if posed as a risk to danger to self or others. However this only works for certain disorders (e.g. anorexia and bulimia), and is difficult to define, and may be abused
4. Distress model - Abnormality defined if behaviours cause personal suffering or distress. While many disorders do cause suffering (e.g. depression, phobias), others like mania, where the person subjectively feel very high and good about themselves, isn’t actually under any distress.

Historical Context
In the middle ages, many mental illnesses were thought to be the person being possessed by the devil or demons. If exorcism didn’t work, the person would be confined, beaten and tortured to make the body uninhabitable by evil spirits.

In the 19th century, John P. Grey, the most influential American psychiatrist, deemed that if mental illness the brain patholody was unknown, therefore mental illness is uncurable. This thought became widespread so mental illness patients were just institutionalised and cared for and there psychiatrist focused on diagnosis rather than treatment.

Mood Disorders
Suicide rates are higher in the elderly than in any other group. However, there’s been relatively little media attention and psychological research on that, perhaps because suicide rates in the young are seen as more tragic than the old.

One theory put forth about depression is called Learned Helplessness (proposed by Seligman). Baiscally is that those who are depress develop the idea that they have no control over their lives. Problems they confront are intpreted to be internal, stable and global. For example, if someone with learned helplessess fails a maths test, they would think that it’s all their fault (internal, as opposed to e.g. it was a hard test), that they will always fail (stable, as opposed to thinking that it was just a one-off bad test) and that they are a failure at everything (global, as opposed to thinking that one is just bad at maths). However, this theory is not perfect as it doesn’t explain why depression goes away (major depression occur in episodes, and even if left untreated, the person would eventually stop getting depressed though it may take years with much suffering and another cycle may begin again).

Anxiety Disorders
EEG beta activity in people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder show intense left hemisphere of the brain. This suggest that these people engage in frantic, intense thought process/worry without images; they are so preoccupied with thinking about upcoming problems, they don’t go through the process of creating images of potential threat in their head. While they may avoid unpleasant imagery, they are never able to work through their problems to arrive at a solution.

A phobia to blood, injections and/or injuries is shown to run in families more strongly than any other phobic disorder.

Schizophrenia
Using brain-imaging technique (SPECT) on those who experience hallucinations, it was found that it is the Broca’s area (involved in speech production) rather than the Wernicke’s rea (involved in language comprehension) that lit up. This supports the theory htat people who are hallucinating are not hearing the voices of others but are listening to their own voices and thoughts but cannot recognise the difference.

A study by Brown showed that former patients who had limited contact with their relatives did better. Schizophrenics living with a family with high expression emotion (too much involvement in their lives, “overprotection”, intrusiveness) are 3.7x more likely to relapse than living with a low expressed emotions family.

Development Disorders
The type of medication given to children with Attention Deficit Disorder is usually some kind of stimulant (like Ritalin). It’s counter-intuitive to give overly implusive, restless, hyperactive children a stimulant drug, but the theory is that ADD children have understimulated brains that cause them to be overly active to try to compensate and find a balance. Hence, a stimulant that perks up the brain actually does reduce the hyperactive behaviours.

Substance-Related Disorders
While some people feel perked up and less inhibited after consuming alcohol, it is nonetheless a depressant. But what happens is, it first depresses the inhibitory centres of the brain, which gives the relaxed but “I can say whatever, whee!!” feeling. But the more drunk, the more other parts of the brain would get depressed, and one wouldl soon feel woozy and eventually pass out as more parts of the brain are depressed.

Opiates like methadone and heroine induces a state of euphoria, drowsiness and slows your breathing. However, at too high a dosage, it can completely depress the respiratory system and death from suffocation can result.

Sexual Disorders
In one interview with 100 random married couples, 40% of men reported occasional erectile or ejaculatory diffficulties and 64% of women reported occasional dysfunctions of arousal/orgasm. However, these dysfunctions didn’t detract from the respondents’ overall sexual satisfaction. The best predictor of sexual distress among women were deficits in general emotional well-being or relationship with the partner during sexual relations. Sex definitely isn’t everything!

Interviews with exhibitionists (in terms of those who flash at people) is that their mentality isn’t to scare or shock people. Apparently, the aim of their behaviour is hopefully to arouse the person whom they flash at. Unfortunately, a study found that 28% of “targets” of flashers are 5-13 year olds. =/

Dissociative and Somatoform Disorders
While most people know what Deja vu is, there is also a collorary called “Jamais vu” which is where everything around you seems unfamiliar but you know you’ve seen/been there before.

Aaaaand now I’m sick of typing. :P We’ve learnt MUCH more than that, that’s just a very small slice of the miscellaneous data we’ve come across. For ethical reasons I don’t want to post an incomplete picture of diagnosis of any disorder but it is interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this course, there are many more applicable theories to everyday life than one would think. For example, stay away from drugs, people! :P

One of life’s most exhilirating moments: Finishing an assignment. WOOOOOOOT!

I FEEL GOOD, DUN NER NER NER NER NER NER! Man, I’ve been spending the past three days on a law essay. I’m happy that I’m trying hard at doing well at Uni this year, but still, the essay is still not QUITE as well as I liked it. Maybe because I’ve been spending too much time reading the materials and compiling an argument, but it just seems all over the place.

I DON’T CARE! :D

I have a great idea for a new blog layout! I’m thinking of tweaking this one and using it for an LJ layout instead.

Happy Easter!

Yesterday after our psychopathology exam, we had a guest speaker from the Schizophrenia Fellowship. She herself battled with decades of mental illness and talked about her psychosis, the frustrating mental health system and how she eventually got proper treatment.

It was an eye-opener hearing about her experiences battling schizophrenia. She had come from a well-to-do family and studying law at USyd. She started hearing messages from the radio informing her of this new “world order” set to overthrow the government. Everywhere she’d go, she’d see billboards, TV shows, newspaper ads, even bits of advertisement in the gutter as messages deliberately put there to tell only her of what’s going on. She became paranoid of her own family, and interpreted every gesture, every word spoken as some secret threat they are plotting against her.

It just got worse and she dropped out of Uni. It affected her life so drastically that a simple ride on the train would be heart-stopping terror to her as everyone she sees on the train is construed to be out to get her. The old man with the cane was imagined to have the cane in order to beat her to death when she’s not looking. When eventually she sought help, she was misdiagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and thrown out of the psych ward. She had psychotherapy which did nothing except make her feel even more paranoid and depressed. She attempted suicide many times.

Eventually, through the Catholic Church, she was able to get admission into a private psych hospital where she was properly diagnosed with schizophrenia and given proper medication. Thanks to her strong personality and her educated background, she went on to spread awareness through the media and now sits on the Schizophrenia Fellowship board.

Her schizophrenic symptoms might sound quite outlandish, but it was very real to her. Can you imagine how terrifying it would be, to be so convinced that you’re sensing something and knowing something when everyone else tells you you’re crazy? She’s not simply imagining the delusions and hallucinations, but it’s as concrete to you as say being able to see the trees outside and believing that 1+1=2. The worst part is KNOWING that something is horribly wrong… and yet don’t get the help that you want.

I believe that disease of the mind is much more traumatising than physical illness. You might fall down the stairs and sprain an ankle and while there are unpleasant physical symptoms, you and the rest of the world agree on what happened and how it should be dealt with. But when it’s all in your head, no one else can experience what you can. You’re fighting an uphill battle in convincing people that there IS something wrong, to have them believe you, and to have the appropriate treatment for it. People can empathise with bodily problems, but something as abstract as an ill mind… many people just don’t know how to react. It can be so terribly lonely for those with mental illnesses, which is why depression is such a common other disorder people with mental illnesses have.

P.S. Many might know this, many might not, but while schizophrenia means “split mind” it does NOT mean split personality. It’s more a split from reality. An example of split personality is well portrayed in Fight Club, whereas schizophrenia is more correctly shown in A Beautiful Mind.

Okay, so I was with my boyfriend and we were walking towards class today. Ahead of us was this old man carrying a briefcase. He had white, curly hair, balding at the top, and a slightly rotund figure, probably from the age. He wore a plain white shirt, collar neatly pressed. He had a confident stride about him, with shoulders back and walking a brisk pace, with his briefcase held firmly by his side. He looked looked like either a postgraduate student, professor or lecturer of some kind.

And he was wearing a skirt.

It was definitely not kilt-like, as the skirt was unpatterned black, conservatively a little below his knees, and I think slightly pleated with a small white pattern at the base. His hairy legs were bare, but he was wearing plain leather shoes and grey, thin socks that went halfway up his calves.

No doubt he could hear the muffled sounds of shock and giggling of those who can’t believe their eyes, and yet he walked on in a no-nonsense manner, his briefcase by his side and his skirt swishing gently as he moved surely towards his destination.

Well University has started. Been a busy week, with Uni on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and work experience on Tuesdays and Friday. Though it’s relieving that I only have 12 hours of University this semester. The subjects I’m taking are:
- Constitutation Law
- Property Law
- Psychopathology

Yes, ironically, it would hopefully be the interestingness of the latter subject to help me keep my sanity.

So yes, not much work on this place I’m afraid, but I’m working on it. The very static page containing the age old posts of yore (repetitive much?) is up. Guess I can’t put off the ACTUAL content for much longer eh? :P