Goals

• Define psychopathology and mental illness.
• Explain the role that the bio-psycho-socio-cultural model plays in our understanding of psychological disorders.
• Describe the stigma of psychological disorders.
• Be able to describe key characteristics of
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Trauma and stressor-related disorders
  • Mood disorders

Any of these apply to you?

• Have you been diagnosed with a psychological disorder?
• Has a family member been diagnosed with a psychological disorder?
• Has a friend been diagnosed with a psychological disorder? These next two chapters impact the people we know and love.

What is mental illness?

Psychopathology

Study of psychological disorders, including theory, research, diagnosis, and treatment.

Mental illness

Umbrella term for health conditions that involve changes of emotion, thinking, and behavior associated with distress and difficulty functioning in our social, work, and family roles

Psychological Disorders

Specific mental health diagnoses. Share many characteristics with other medical conditions. Can be hard to diagnose

What is mental illness?

• Emotional states, ways of thinking, and ways of acting exist on a continuum
• "normal"/expected <-> "abnormal"/unexpected
• Mental illness is not only at the extreme of this continuum, but also distressing to self/others and prevents people from living a life they value

Bio-psycho-socio-cultural model

Bio – from the body Psycho – from the mind Socio – relationships between people and systems Cultural – group beliefs and values

What is stigma?

Was this "abnormal?" Stigma – Tale of Two Crime Stoppers Stigma – Tale of Two Crime Stoppers

• Negative social attitude attached to a characteristic of an individual that may be regarded as a mental, physical, or social deficiency
• Affect the kinds of social services those who are diagnosed receive and how they are treated by a wide variety of community elements
• Can become internalized – people hear negative attitudes about themselves and believe them to be true

Where are you getting these diagnoses?

• Developed out of psychiatry
• Provides a common language and quick way to communicate someone's mental health condition
• Used by providers, insurance companies, and referenced in policy
• Not a "Bible" of mental health!
• Not how psychologists go about their work!
• Might be phased out in your lifetime!

Anxiety Disorders

• Anxiety
  • Feeling of nervousness or agitation that we sometimes experience, often about something that is going to happen
• Anxiety disorder
  • Marked by irrational fears, often of everyday objects and situations
  • Most "know" the fear is irrational, but the feeling is overwhelming
• Generalized
  • GAD: excessive worry more days than not
• Phobias
  • Specific, and out of proportion
  • Not wanting to go to the snake exhibit at the zoo vs. not wanting to leave home because there could be a snake in the lawn

Trauma and stressor-related disorders

• What is a potentially traumatic event?
  • DSM-5 criterion A: threat to life or physical integrity
• What happens then?
  • Intrusive memories
  • Avoidance
  • Negative changes to cognition and mood
  • Hypervigilance
• If life-interrupting distress continues for
  • 3 days to 1 month = acute stress disorder
  • Over 1 month = PTSD

Mood disorders

• Mood
  • positive or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences.
• Mood disorder
  • a long-lasting emotional disturbance that affects all areas of one’s life.
• Unhelpful highs and lows