Histrionic Personality Disorder is a mental disorder in a group of conditions known as “Cluster B” or dramatic personality disorders. The literal definition of the word histrionic is dramatic or theatrical. Individuals with this disorder usually have intense, highly unstable emotions and self-image. Their self-esteem changes dramatically depending on theContinue Reading
Bipolar Disorder is a mood disorder in which an individual’s mood alternates between helplessness and lethargy or depression and the overexcited state of mania – formerly called manic-depressive disorder. Highs and Lows Episodes of major depression usually end, and people go back to previous behavior patterns – either permanently orContinue Reading
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) has received the most research to date of the new classiciation of obsessive-compulsive related disorders. People with body dysmorphic disorder are preoccupied with the belief that they have a particular body defect or flaw. In reality, the perceived flaw is usually imagined or greatly exaggerated inContinue Reading
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that literally means “fear of the marketplace.” It describes a person who is afraid of leaving ‘safe’ spaces (such as their homes) for fear of experiencing something embarrassing or even unmanageable. This is an anxiety attack. An Agoraphobic person might refuse to go outside becauseContinue Reading
Excoriation, also classified as an Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorder, is a disorder in which a person repeatedly picks at their skin, causing signficant sores or open wounds to appear. (APA 2013) Most people who pick at their skin do so by centering on a specific area, usually the arms, legs, scalp,Continue Reading
Recently, the need to save and accumulate items, known as hoarding, has been added to the American Psychiatric Association’s classification system: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). People diagnosed with hoarding disorder persistently feel they must save items and experience great distress if they attemptContinue Reading
Delusions are a serious mental illness whereby a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. There are a lot of different kinds of delusions: Depressed Delusions – a person believes they have committed horrible crimes or sinful deeds; Somatic Delusions – an individual believes their body isContinue Reading
The term Dementia has been with us for a very long time. It was used in 50 BCE (est) by the Roman poet and philosopher Leucretius – its meaning “being out of one’s mind.” During the late 19th century, a detailed classification of mental illnesses included “Dementia Praecox,” meaning earlyContinue Reading
Hallucinations are imaginary sensations that can involve one or more senses, such as seeing, hearing, or smelling things that don’t exist. Hearing voices is a common hallucination. Sometimes voices command people to hurt themselves. Sometimes they obey the command (Barron Cliff & Hadduck, 2006). Some psychotic people feel bugs crawlingContinue Reading
If depression is the common cold of psychological disorders, chronic schizophrenia is the cancer (D. Myers 2004). Nearly one percent of all adults will develop schizophrenia each year, joining the nearly 24 million people globally who suffer the world’s most dreaded disorder (WHO,2002). It affects both males and females, typicallyContinue Reading