StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Mental Health and Mental Disorder - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The writer of the paper “Mental Health and Mental Disorder” provides detailed information about more prevalent eating disorders and their types. Also, the paper discusses the question of how useful is it to view 'Personality Disorders' in terms of a medical model…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.6% of users find it useful
Mental Health and Mental Disorder
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Mental Health and Mental Disorder"

Examination Questions Why might eating disorders becoming more prevalent The prevalence of eating disorders has become a of much controversy and debate in recent years. Before considering whether eating disorders might become more prevalent in the future it is useful to consider both the types of eating disorders that occur and also their probable causes. A knowledge of these will aid in identifying possible catalysts for an increase in eating disorders in the coming years. There are a number of misconceptions about eating disorders. While many of them do indeed begin with preoccupations with food and weight, they normal stem from many more issues that just food. Eating disorders "are complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal and social factors" (Costin, 1999). Many people with eating disorders use food and, more importantly, the control of food in an attempt to compensate for feelings, emotions and perhaps circumstances that are beyond their control. The control their eating because other parts of their life are uncontrollable and perhaps even overwhelming. Two main types of eating disorder exist: anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Goodman, 2001). A more recent type of eating disorder, called "binge eating" has recently been recognized, although not in a universal manner by health authorities. Anorexia is characterized by a refusal to keep body weight at or near a minimum healthy level, the feeling that a person is "fat" even though they are very underweight and obsessive concern with body image and food. Anorexia normally shows itself through a person essentially slowly starving themselves over a long period of time. In bulimia excessive calories are taken in the form of food binges, often without relation to feelings of hunger. Soon afterwards this food is purged from the body, often through self-induced vomiting. Binge eating involves the massive intake of calories, but without the subsequent purging. Essentially binge eating can be defined as overeating habits over a long period of time, characterized by a feeling of "loss of control" while doing so. While psychological, emotional, interpersonal and social factors are well known to produce some eating disorders, recent research has suggested that there may be some biochemical imbalances within the brain that may also lead to them. Thus the chemicals that control hunger, appetite and digestion have been found to be unbalanced in individuals with eating disorders (Costin, 1999). Whether these imbalances are the cause of the eating disorder or the result of it has yet to be determined. So with the causes and characteristics of eating disorders in mind, the question remains as to whether they will become more prevalent. This dimension seems to rely upon the social factors that can contribute to eating disorders. Thus if popular culture - in film, advertising, the Internet - continues to glorify "thinness" as a health need, as a necessity in order to be considered attractive and also as a sign of virtue through the person showing signs of self-control, then the present levels of eating disorders may stay the same. The increased prevalence of mass media within people's lives may suggest that such disorders may increase in number because the sheer intensity and amount of such messages being aimed at people, mainly young women will increase. One reason that eating disorders may increase is the apparently ever-lowering age at which pre-teens become conscious of their bodies in an adult manner. Thus the "tween" culture of 10-12 year-olds are increasingly showing signs of acting like 13-15 year-olds did several decades ago (Mitchell, 2005). Girls at a much younger age may well start to show signs of eating disorders and thus the overall prevalence of them will go up. This age group is particularly vulnerable for a number of reasons. First, the relatively immature emotional development make them easy targets for the sophisticated advertising campaigns that seek to suggest that "thin is beautiful". Second, for the same reasons that may be even less able to handle the emotional strains of such advertising and thus avoid descending into an eating disorder. Third, their parents may not be looking out for the signs of such disorders believing, as would have been correct a few decades ago, that their daughters would need to be older to be vulnerable to them. An area of eating disorders that may well become more prevalent, at least partially because they will now be recognized as such, are those affecting males. While most disorders are associated with girls and women, there are a number of different pressures that boys feel. As Bryant-Waugh (2004 ) suggests "if GI Joe were a life size male, he would have a 48 inch chest, 32 inch waist with cuts and impossible 32 inch biceps". Such images which are often repeated in "real-life" role models such as wrestlers and action movie stars, and this leads to a startling fact. The adolescent male eating disorder is called muscle dysmorphia, and that is when a man feels that his body is not muscular and lean, as he would like it to be. Bryant-Waugh states that "studies suggest that hundreds of thousands of boys are experiencing these disorders. It is found that 1 in 4 preadolescent cases of anorexia have been found to occur in boys". Such pressures are increasing with the greater prevalence of such figures within the entertainment, sports and even video-gaming world. Thus it seems likely that the prevalence of eating disorders will indeed increase over the coming years. Education of educators, doctors, parents and young people themselves to recognize the early signs of such disorders and how to counteract them before them become fully-developed needs to occur. 2)How useful is it to view 'Personality Disorders' in terms of a medical model The attempt to define human behavior that is regarded as departing from the norm in medical, moral, sociological or criminal terms has haunted human beings in general for centuries. It has also been a central dilemma within the "science" of psychology which has often attempted to define what are now termed as "personality disorders" in a medical sense. The attempt to define a disorder often depends upon the degree to which it can (or cannot) be distinguished from other disorders in terms of etiology. First, how can a personality disorder be defined One useful and comprehensive definition is the following: personality disorder is identifiedby a pervasive pattern of experience and behaviorthat is abnormal with respect to any two of the following: thinking, mood, personal relations,and the control of impulses. (everyday, 2006) The America Psychiatric Association has a more formal, but remarkably similar definition. It defines a personality disorder as an, enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectation of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment. (American, 2006) This is as near as can be possible to "medical model" for personality disorders, but its very generalities and uncertainty point to the quandaries that exist within a consideration of the whole condition. Unlike clearly defined mental illnesses or conditions such as chronic depression, some types of schizophrenia and manic-depression, personality disorders do not have a clearly defined series of symptoms. It might be argued that those individuals who have contributed most to human culture, history, art and science have exhibited an "enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectation of the individual's culture". Plato, Mozart, Gandhi, Einstein, Marie Curie, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Edison, Shakespeare . . . the list of "great" people could be continued ad nauseam to show that this "deviation" from the norm is in fact often a positive rather than a negative characteristic within individual human beings. The medical model assumes that the "deviation" from the norm is something resoundingly negative that needs to be "cured". The idea that the individuals mentioned above should have been "cured" of their ability is of course absurd, and that absurdity reveals the difficult raised within personality orders in particular, and psychology in general. An examination of the specific types of disorder that have been identified shows the generalized and overlapping nature of many of them: Antisocial Personality Disorder: Lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture, marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths. Avoidant Personality Disorder: Marked social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extremely sensitive to criticism. Borderline Personality Disorder: Lack of one's own identity, with rapid changes in mood, intense unstable interpersonal relationships, marked impulsively, instability in affect and in self image. Dependent Personality Disorder: Extreme need of other people, to a point where the person is unable to make any decisions or take an independent stand on his or her own. Fear of separation and submissive behavior. Marked lack of decisiveness and self-confidence. Histrionic Personality Disorder: Exaggerated and often inappropriate displays of emotional reactions, approaching theatricality, in everyday behavior. Sudden and rapidly shifting emotion expressions. Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Behavior or a fantasy of grandiosity, a lack of empathy, a need to be admired by others, an inability to see the viewpoints of others, and hypersensitive to the opinions of others. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Characterized by perfectionism and inflexibility; preoccupation with uncontrollable patterns of thought and action. Paranoid Personality Disorder: Marked distrust of others, including the belief, without reason, that others are exploiting, harming, or trying to deceive him or her; lack of trust; belief of others' betrayal; belief in hidden meanings; unforgiving and grudge holding. Schizoid Personality Disorder: Primarily characterized by a very limited range of emotion, both in expression of and experiencing; indifferent to social relationships. Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Peculiarities of thinking, odd beliefs, and eccentricities of appearance, behavior, interpersonal style, and thought (e.g., belief in psychic phenomena and having magical powers). Most human beings at various times in their life exhibit at least one of these supposed disorders, and many people exhibit several at the same time. But they can function perfectly well within society and often use some of these characteristics for certain occupations. For example, the police often display a "marked distrust of others", indeed, it is perhaps essential to have such a distrust when investigating crime. Is the ideal police officer thus suffering from "paranoid personality disorder" The description of histrionic personality disorder could be applied to many people who from what Northwestern European type races would regard as "excitable" countries. Thus some culture do tend to be more emotional than other, for example the Italians and the Spanish. How could their behavior be defined according to a medical diagnosis What would be the bench-mark To conclude, there is an obvious imprecision to the definition and diagnosis of personality disorders. This makes them unsuitable for the normal medical model which is based upon the scientific method, and thus requires that a disease or condition be definable within clearly measured criteria. Personality disorders simply are not precise enough in their definition to accurately determine such criteria. Their "diagnosis" is essentially subjective rather than objective in nature. While a certain amount of subjectivity inevitably exists within all medicine, the amount of it within a diagnosis of personality disorders moves them out of the normal medical model. __________________________________________ Works Cited American Medical Association Mental Disorders: SM-IV-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 2006. Bryant-Waugh, Raymond. Eating Disorders. Routledge, New York: 2004. Costin, Carolyn. The Eating Disorder Sourcebook : A Comprehensive Guide to the Causes, Treatments, and Prevention of Eating Disorders. McGraw-Hill, New York: 1999. www.EverydayHealth.com& Goodman, Laura. Eating Disorders. Routledge, New York: 2001. Mitchell, Claudia. Seven Going On Seventeen: Tween Studies In The Culture Of Girlhood. Peter Lang Publishing, New York: 2005. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Human Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words”, n.d.)
Human Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/psychology/1503787-human-behavior
(Human Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 Words)
Human Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 Words. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1503787-human-behavior.
“Human Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1503787-human-behavior.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Mental Health and Mental Disorder

Mental Disorders in the Workplace

While many are inordinately occupied with market trends, the 2007 ABS National Survey of mental health and Wellbeing report depict a situation that may compel leaders in these sectors to relook at their approach towards mental health, in their quest to attain performance target.... Introduction According to the report that the 2007 ABS National Survey of mental health and Wellbeing released, there is a great extent to which several common mental disorders impact a person's performance at work....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Mental Health and Mental Disorders

In case the person takes antidepressants and this brings no results, a visit to professional in mental health may be more effective.... hellip; Cognitive theory did much for understanding the mechanisms and nature of mental disorders in general and anxiety in particular. The essence idea of cognitive therapy is to make a persons change their attitude to the things.... According to the concepts of cognitive theory, specialists counseling in mental disorders, should focus on mental condition of the client and investigate his identity, rather than treat his physical body with the help of medicines that may have side effects....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Is Stigmatization of the Mentally Ill Justified

Similarly, the state should not be able to interfere in mental health practices between consenting adults.... Similarly, the state should not be able to interfere in mental health practices between consenting adults.... Hysteria, for example, is a psychological disorder that manifests itself as a physical illness.... Hysteria, for example, is a psychological disorder that manifests itself as a physical illness.... They believe such a mental patient has the right to freedom if he is not convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

The Axis I and Axis II Disorders of Mental Health in Movie Bastard out of Carolina

  This review discusses the Axis I and Axis II disorders of mental health one of the main characters (Bone, Anney or Daddy Glenn) from Bastard out of Carolina (Allison, 1993) that this individual might meet the criteria for, either at the time of the “case” or in the future.... nbsp; … : It is a mixed state of bipolar disorder that Bone is in a condition that she is unable to escape her past history and her social illegitimacy, during which symptoms of mania and clinical depression occur simultaneously, for example, agitation, anxiety, aggressiveness or belligerence, confusion, fatigue, impulsiveness, insomnia, irritability, panic, paranoia....
5 Pages (1250 words) Movie Review

Health Promotion in Mental Health Care

Although mental health has already been proven to be the key to overall physical health, many people still lack adequate understanding of its importance mental health and are not... The huge health, social, and economic effects associated with the increasing number of people that in some or other way need mental health services… Vast reformation of health care systems that has been recently launched by many developed countries is a distinct characteristic of modern globalized world....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Mental Health & Illness: Anxiety & Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is normally experienced when one is faced with threat, danger or stressful situations (National Mental… No matter how uncomfortable anxiety is, it is part of one's ‘fight or flight' response which actually helps one to be alert for potentially dangerous or scary situations in order to survive (mental health Association, NSW, 2005).... These are not just one illness but a group of illnesses characterized by nagging feelings of high anxiety, severe discomfort and tension that it actually interferes with an individual's daily life in a significant manner rendering him unable to do what he normally does and wants to do (National mental health Strategy, n....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Sociological Theories in Mental Health

The inequities that may be generated by race and class and the lack of an effective support structure for individuals in society could additionally be causal factors leading to stress and mental disorders.... "Sociological Theories in mental health" paper argues that an examination of sociological theories could greatly contribute to the understanding of mental health disorders – not only in terms of what the causal factors are but also in terms of how best they can be addressed....
5 Pages (1250 words) Term Paper

Post-structuralism, Critical Realism and Materialism in Relation to Mental Health Disorders

"Post-structuralism, Critical Realism and Materialism in Relation to mental health Disorders" paper states that social and health inequalities are a persistent feature in the world today.... nbsp; Critical realism and post-structuralism are increasingly being viewed as one of the methods of addressing mental health disorders.... Post-structural theorists indicate that mental health disorders are not fixed.... Post-structural analysts indicate that mental health disorders must take into account theoretical strands generated from health context (Marmot & Wilkinson 1999)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Article
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us