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Anxiety

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Anxiety, Mood/Affective, Dissociative Paper
Christine Bernardo
Psych 410
January 21, 2012
Sarah Wyckoff

Anxiety, Mood/Affective, Dissociative Paper
This paper will analyze the biological, psychodynamic, cognitive and behavioral components of anxiety, mood/affective and dissociative disorders. This paper will define the major diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. These all have one thing in common, the inability for a normal life and daily functions unless they are treated.
Anxiety disorder is one of the more common types of upset. It is frequent worry and upset about activities and daily tasks. Some examples of anxiety disorders are posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD phobias and panic disorders. Biologically, anxiety affects the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, the limbic system, autoimmune processes and factors that are inherited that predispose an individual to anxiety. Emotionally anxiety disorders are due to underlying concerns or fears that have not been addressed and most of the time anxiety disorders are due to underlying sadness and upset. Anxiety can create negative views and pessimism in one's life and the person usually interprets situations incorrectly due to the haziness of the feelings they are having. There is a lack of self-esteem and emotional ability to do almost anything. The behavior that comes from anxiety happens very quickly and sometimes without reason but can feel larger-than-life and can leave you with unrelenting negative thoughts and a variety of symptoms that range from fast heartbeat, shakiness, dizziness, upset stomach, nausea, crying, and all around emotional upset and discomfort from the inability to perform everyday functions (Hansell & Damour, 2008).
Mood and affective disorders biologically include a genetic predisposition, deficiencies, hormonal excesses, and mood affecting regulation (Hansell & Damour, 2008). The endocrine system has the most influence on mood and the dysfunction leading to depression. Mood and affective disorders are often accompanied by low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness and self-efficacy based on negative experience and basic inabilities. Just like with anxiety there is belief that the sadness, depression and pain come from early childhood traumas or trouble with the child-parent relationships. Depression is the most common mood affective disorder and offers an irrational negative perspective of everything around them and distorted views of the world and themselves. People suffering from this usually have a lack of social skills and their environment is inappropriate and usually critical. Unfortunately behavioral factors contribute and perpetuate a vicious cycle of negative thoughts and behaviors that make it so much more difficult to get out of, but it can be done even when it feels like it can’t.
People with Dissociative disorders usually have family members with the same conditions and researchers think there is a genetic link but more research is being done. Dissociative disorders usually go hand in hand with anxiety, panic attacks, depression and bipolar disorders (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Usually individuals that have dissociative disorder have experienced severe trauma whether physical or sexual. There are also cases of this beginning early in life by experiencing inappropriate trauma. There can be a loss of memory and detachment from people in themselves with the distorted perception of their environment. Normal functioning is affected by this traumatized behavior and lifestyle.
In conclusion there is a pattern of genetic predispositions and also underlying upset and dramatic events. Hopefully by understanding the biological emotional cognitive and behavioral parts we can understand the disorders better and use that to better manage individuals that suffer from these disorders.

Reference
Hansell, J., & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal Psychology (2nd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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