Category: Psychological Disorders

Delusional disorder antecedently referred to as paranoid disorder, maybe a style of serious mental state and customarily rare mental state during which the patient presents delusions, however with no concomitant distinguished hallucinations, thought disorder, mood disorder, or vital flattening of having an effect on. Delusions may be ‘bizarre’ or ‘non-bizarre’, for a “non-bizarre” example having to try and do with things that might happen in the real world, like being followed, poisoned, deceived, conspired against or favoured from a distance. For a bizarre delusional example something that could never happen in real life, such as being cloned by aliens or having your thoughts broadcast on television. A person who has such thoughts might be considered delusional with bizarre-type delusions. Individuals with the mental disorder might still socialize and perform in an exceedingly traditional manner and their behaviour doesn’t essentially typically appear odd. although delusions may be proof of additional common disorders, like psychosis. The mental disorder, the delusional disorder itself is sort of rare. For the diagnosis to be made, auditory and visual hallucinations cannot be prominent, tactile hallucinations related to the content of the delusion may be present. Delusional disorders happen all the more regularly in late life and more frequently in ladies as opposed to men. The delusions can not be because of the results of medication, or general medical condition, and delusional disorder cannot be diagnosed in an individual previously properly diagnosed with schizophrenia. Delusions additionally occur as symptoms of many different mental disorders. Just to clarify the diagnosis of a specific type of delusional disorder can sometimes be made based on the content of the delusions. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) enumerates seven types:

1. Erotomanic type (erotomania): the delusion that any other person, regularly a prominent figure, is in love with the individual. The man or woman can also breach the regulation as he/she tries to obsessively make contact with the preferred person.
2. Grandiose type (megalomania): delusion of inflated worth, power, knowledge, identification or believes themselves to be a famous person, claiming the actual character is an impostor or an impersonator.
3. Jealous type: delusion that the individual’s sexual partner is unfaithful when it is untrue. The patient may also observe the partner, check text messages, emails, phone calls etc. in an strive to discover ‘evidence’ of the infidelity.
4. Persecutory type: This delusion is a frequent subtype. It includes the belief that the person (or someone to whom the person is close) is being malevolently treated in some way. The patient may believe that he/she has been drugged, spied upon, harmed, harassed and so on and may seek ‘justice’ by making reports, taking action or even acting violently.
5. Somatic type: delusions that the man or woman has some physical defect or regularly occurring medical condition
6. Mixed type: delusions with characteristics of more than one of the above types but with no one theme predominating.
7. Unspecified type: delusions that can’t be without a doubt determined or characterised in any of the classes in the unique types.

There are risks for this disorder, and as of right now researchers are researching them. They are genetic. this is often the very fact that psychological disorder or in this case delusional disorder is more common in folks that have members of the family with a psychological disorder or schizophrenic psychosis suggests genes is also concerned. it’s believed that, like alternative mental disorders, an inclination to possess psychological disorders can be passed on from oldsters to their kids. Another is Biological, Researchers are studying how psychoneurotic disorders would possibly happen once components of the brain aren’t traditional. Abnormal brain regions that control perception and thinking may be linked to delusional symptoms. And lastly Environmental/psychological, Evidence suggests that stress can trigger a psychological disorder. Alcohol and substance abuse additionally would possibly contribute thereto. folks that tend to be isolated, like immigrants or those with poor sight and hearing, seem to be additional probably to possess a psychological disorder. Having some of the following symptoms can be a sign of having a delusional disorder.

• hallucinations – disorganized speech – frequent derailment
• incoherence – grossly disorganized – catatonic behavior
• affective flattening – alogia – avolition

Additional features of delusional disorder include the following:

The illness is chronic and frequently lifelong. The delusions are logically constructed and internally consistent. The delusions don’t interfere with general logical reasoning and there’s sometimes no general disturbance of behaviour. If disturbed behaviour does occur, it is directly related to delusional beliefs. The individual experiences a heightened sense of self-reference. Events that, to others, are nonsignificant are of enormous significance to him or her, and the atmosphere surrounding the delusions is highly charged. However, this could not be confused with gaslighting, wherever someone denies the reality and causes the victim to suppose that they’re being psychoneurotic. Sometimes an accurate belief could also be mistaken for a delusion, like once the idea in question isn’t incontrovertibly false however is nonetheless thought-about on the far side the realm of chance. Gaslighting is frequently used by people with an antisocial personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. Sometimes, gaslighting will be unintentional, for instance, if someone or a bunch of individuals aim to lie or conceal a problem, it can lead to the victim being gaslighted as well.

In alternative things, the delusion might end up to be true belief. for instance, in psychoneurotic jealousy, wherever someone believes that their partner is being unfaithful (and might even follow them into the bathroom believing them to be seeing their lover even during the briefest of partings), it may actually be true that the partner is having sexual relations with another person. during this case, the delusion doesn’t stop to be a delusion as a result of the content later seems to be verified as true or the partner truly selected to have interaction within the behaviour of that they were being suspected.

In different cases, the delusion is also erroneously assumed to be false by a doctor or medical specialist assessing the idea, simply because it appears to be unlikely, flaky or held with excessive conviction. Psychiatrists seldom have the time or resources to see the validity of a person’s claims resulting in some true belief to be erroneously classified as delusional. this is often called the Martha Mitchell effect, after the wife of the attorney general who alleged that criminal activity was going down within the White House. At the time, her claims were thought to be signs of psychological state, and solely when the Watergate scandal broke was she proved right (and hence sane).

The cause of the delusional disorder is unknown, but genetic, biochemical, and environmental factors could play a big role in its development. Some individuals with, delusional disorders could have an associate imbalance in neurotransmitters, the chemicals that send and receive messages to the brain. There will appear to be some familial element, and immigration (generally for persecutory reasons), drug abuse, excessive stress, being married, being utilized, low socioeconomic standing, celibacy among men, and widowhood among girls can also be risk factors. Delusional disorder is currently thought to be on the same spectrum or dimension as schizophrenia, but people with delusional disorder, in general, may have less symptomatology and functional disability.

Differential diagnosis includes ruling out alternative causes like drug-induced conditions, dementia, infections, metabolic disorders, and endocrine disorders. alternative psychiatrical disorders should then be dominated out. In delusional disorder, mood symptoms tend to be brief or absent, and unlike schizophrenia, delusions are non-bizarre and hallucinations are minimal or absent. Interviews are necessary tools to get info regarding the patient’s life scenario and past history to assist create a diagnosing. Clinicians usually review earlier medical records to collect a full history. Clinicians additionally attempt to interview the patient’s immediate family, as this could be useful in deciding the presence of delusions. The mental standing examination is employed to assess the patient’s current mental condition. A psychological form utilized in the diagnosing of the mental disorder is the Peters Delusion Inventory (PDI) which focuses on distinguishing and understanding psychoneurotic thinking. In terms of identifying a non-bizarre delusion as a delusion, ample support ought to be provided through truth checking. just in case of non-bizarre delusions, Psych Central notes, ‘All of these situations could be true or possible, but the person suffering from this disorder knows them not to be (e.g., through fact-checking, third-person confirmation, etc.).’

A challenge within the treatment of neurotic disorders or for this instance delusional disorder is that the majority patients have restricted insight, and don’t acknowledge that there’s a problem. Most patients are treated as out-patients, though hospitalization could also be needed in some cases if there’s a risk of hurt to self or others. Individual psychotherapy is usually recommended instead of psychotherapy, as patients are typically quite suspicious and sensitive. Antipsychotics could also be a lot of help in managing agitation which will accompany the delusional disorder., but they do not seem to work very well, and often have no effect on the core delusional belief. Antipsychotics may be more useful in managing agitation that can accompany the delusional disorder. Until further evidence is found, it seems reasonable to offer treatments that have efficacy in other psychotic disorders. Psychotherapy for patients with disturbance will embrace psychological feature medical aid that is conducted with the utilization of sympathy. throughout the method, the expert will raise hypothetic queries in an exceedingly kind of therapeutic Socratic questioning. This medical aid has been largely studied in patients with the persecutory kind. the mix of pharmacotherapy with psychological feature medical aid integrates treating the potential underlying biological issues and decreasing the symptoms with psychotherapy furthermore. Psychotherapy has been aforesaid to be the foremost helpful kind of treatment due to the trust fashioned in an exceedingly patient and expert relationship.

Furthermore, providing social skills training has helped many people. It will promote social competence in addition as confidence and luxury once interacting with those people perceived as a threat. Insight-oriented medical care isn’t indicated or contraindicated; however there are reports of productive treatment. Its goals are to develop a therapeutic alliance, containment of projected feelings of hate, impotence, and badness; measured interpretation in addition because the development of a way of inventive doubt within the internal perception of the planet. The latter needs sympathy with the patient’s defensive position..

Delusional disorders are uncommon in psychiatric observe, though this could be an understatement because of the actual fact that those afflicted lack insight and so avoid psychiatric assessment. The prevalence of this condition stands at concerning 24 to 30 cases per 100,000 folks whereas 0.7 to 3.0 new cases per 100,000 folks are reported per annum. delusional disorder accounts for 1–2% of admissions to patient psychological state facilities. The incidence of 1st admissions for delusional disorder is lower, from 0.001–0.003%.The delusional disorder tends to seem in middle to late adult life, and for the foremost half 1st admissions to hospital for psychological disorder occur between age 33 and 55. it’s more common in women than men, and immigrants appear to be at higher risk.

Those who are at risk of potentially developing schizophrenia could receive an early diagnosis if the early use of brain scans were implemented. Those who have schizophrenia, on average, differ in terms of the total tissue volume and brain activity (Cahn, Hilleke, Hulshoff, & Elleke, 2002). Early intervention of the disease has become important in order to know how best to treat the disorder, therefore a two-hit theory has been established in order to attempt to diagnose the condition sooner rather than later. The two (third) hit theory which is used in physical disorders and has been propounded for the diagnosis of schizophrenia early on, describes damage such as infection during the perinatal period is added as an original genetic weakness (Huttunen, Machon, & Mednick, 1994). This would be described as the first hit which impairs neuronal development, therefore creating the potential basis for onset, throughout adolescence and early adulthood, psychological stressors would cause the second hit as symptoms would be manifesting. Subsequently, exacerbation and recurrence will be repeated making negative symptoms more prominent (Iritani, 2013). These processes are called the critical period, it is believed that the prognosis of the disease could have a different outcome if this period is missed. Missing opportunities for the appropriate intervention during the critical period or being unable to provide appropriate responses is called the third hit, which is believed to accelerate the progression of the disease due to the lack of appropriate support. The theory attempts to explain that a combination of genetic susceptibility together with a distinct developmental problem can potentially prime an individual for a later event that ultimately leads to the onset of a full clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia. It also relates to the hypothesis that thinking and cognitive impairments in schizophrenia are related to abnormalities of the neural network which is composed of axons, dendrites, and synapses (Davis, et al., 2016). Brain structural changes in both grey and white matter prior to illness can indicate where the brain structural anomalies can be seen in chronic schizophrenia and which structures in the brain are affected will be beneficial with MRI predictors on who will develop schizophrenia later on in life. Although, as yet it is not possible to have medication that targets certain areas for treatment, continued research and an understanding of the illness will be able to determine whether early pharmacological treatment, will be able to prevent, the cortical progressive brain changes and if they will have a significant effect on future clinical outcomes (Szöke, Pignon, & Schürhoff, 2019).

In the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, it is being investigated whether cognitive training can remediate impairments. Through the use of a progressive series of computer-based game-like exercises, the principle around cognitive training aims to help those with schizophrenia by targeting the deficits in neuro-cognition. By training areas such as attention, memory, executive functioning, processing speed, and abstraction it is believed that this will significantly improve changes in the functional connectivity, neurophysiological activity and improve the neuroplasticity of specific brain regions of the frontal lobe, occipital cortex, and cingulate cortex (Tripathi, Kar, & Shukla, 2018). Those who have participated in studies in order to develop further cognitive improvement have demonstrated an increased functional capacity with the ability to perform critical everyday living skills (Kar & Singh, 2019). Functional capacity and cognitive performance are strongly related and are considered as an intermediate step between neurocognition and everyday functioning, therefore improving quality of life and the ability to enjoy social and familial interactions. Because cognitive science assumes that skills can develop at any age and can help advance or restore the brain’s capacity for improving cognitive or social performance more detailed knowledge of the meaning and the role of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia has become a relevant target in the care and clinical management of schizophrenia (Bowie, Mcgurk, Mausbach, Patterson, & Harvey, 2012) and to help lower the use of pharmacological treatments.

Typically, the main treatment used for schizophrenia is antipsychotic and antidepressants in order to reduce the psychotic symptoms to allow the patient to function more appropriately (Rogers & Pilgrim, 2014). The use of antipsychotic medicines was introduced in the 1950s, since then new antipsychotics have been regularly introduced. Except for one, clozapine, which is more effective in treatment-resistant schizophrenia, they all share the ability to block D2 receptors and reduce postsynaptic dopamine transmission. Initially, the introduction of antipsychotic drugs brought a revolutionary change in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, despite all the positivity, there was not a significant improvement in the negative symptoms or cognitive impairment. The drugs also caused a variety of adverse reactions such as physical symptoms and over-sedation. This then led to the second generation of antipsychotics (atypical) drugs in the 1970s which were less likely to cause such drastic side effects (Zhang, Mao, & Song, 2018). The new antipsychotics were described as atypical due to them targeting other neuroreceptors other than only dopamine. Normal dopamine transmissions predict the novel rewards and marks and respond to motivationally salient stimuli. Abnormal dopamine transmissions alter these processes and results in an abnormal sense of normality and an inappropriate sense of self which can lead to the experience of psychosis (Kapur, Agid, Mizrahi, & Li, 2006). The use of antipsychotics aims to improve psychosis by diminishing the abnormal transmission by blocking the dopamine D2/3 receptor. By diminishing the dopamine transmission, reduces the salience of the preoccupying symptoms causing the patient to experience a detachment of symptoms and a decrease of the delusions and hallucinations, rather than complete erasure of the symptoms. Significant improvement of symptoms is made within the first two weeks of treatment than in any subsequent two-week period thereafter (Ginovart & Kapur, 2009).

Anxiety refers to a state of worry and fear over an unwanted event, situation or stimulus. It is diagnosed as a disorder when the fear is out of proportion to the stimuli, which inevitably disrupts the individual’s life. If left untreated, anxiety disorders can have a detrimental impact on the individual’s life, such as inability to work, form normal social relationships or develop comorbid disorders, which results in further difficulty to treat the disorder effectively. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental disorders that negatively affect the worldwide population, yet only 30% seek treatment to overcome them (Lépine, 2002). Various psychological therapies have been developed in order to treat those with anxiety disorders, in particular Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is a psychological therapy developed to alter the negative maladaptive thoughts and behaviours of the patient into positive ways of dealing with the fearful situation or stimuli (Beck, 2001) and has become the most popular method used in clinical practice (Craske, M. G., 2010).

This essay will focus on the efficacy of psychological therapies for treating anxiety disorders. Firstly, it will talk about one of the most common and effective methods of psychological therapy CBT and how it can be used to treat various anxiety disorders in particular, GAD. It will also explore the generalisability of this method to other disorders such as PTSD, as well as alternative psychological therapies such as EMDR. This essay will also acknowledge some of the key evidence against psychological therapies and its efficacy, before summarising the strong evidence for the use of such methods.

Firstly, the effectiveness of psychological therapy is in the use of CBT as a means of treating Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). “GAD is a persistent and common anxiety disorder, whereby the patient experiences unfocused worry and anxiety that is not connected to recent stressful events, although it can be aggravated by certain situations” for over 6-months (Tyrer, Balwin, 2006). A clinical trial took place comparing a sample of 65 adults diagnosed with GAD and randomly placed them into 3 conditions: CBT, Applied Relaxation (AR) and wait-list control (WL). Follow-up sessions were in place at 6, 12 and 24 months after, which used the same standardised self-report questionnaires and clinician ratings as the pre-test and post-test, to assess GAD and related symptoms. It was established that CBT and AR were equally superior to WL in the post-test. However, CBT led to a significant decrease in the patient’s level of worry during the treatment and continued to decrease this post-treatment. Therefore, this study supports the effectiveness of psychological therapies on treating GAD (Dugas et a. 2010).

Moreover, individual differences such as age influence the efficacy of psychological therapies (CBT particularly) on GAD. Although CBT is found to be superior in regard to effectiveness when compared to a wait-list control condition, it is in fact inferior to nondirective, pharmacological treatment in treating GAD in elderly patients. This is due to the fact that elderly patients with GAD are more likely to have suffered the disorder for longer and have other coexisting psychiatric disorders, such as depression, which may increase the severity of GAD. These in turn make it harder to successfully treat the individual with the use of psychological therapies (Flint, 2005). Therefore, this research limits the efficacy of psychological therapies due to its inability to be used effectively on other individuals.

On the other hand, research suggests that children may differ to elderly patients in responsiveness to psychological therapies. A study was conducted on the effectiveness of CBT on 16 children and adolescents (ages 7-17) diagnosed with GAD. The CBT was aimed at their beliefs and worry, negative problem orientation, tolerance for uncertainty and cognitive avoidance strategies. A total of 13 participants (81%) lost their diagnosis of GAD (DSM-IV), another 2 participants still had GAD but improved and one participant did not improve from the treatment (Payne et al. 2011). This research supports the efficacy of psychological therapies on treating anxiety disorders in children, specifically GAD.

Furthermore, Psychological therapies have been shown to be effective in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by experiencing a very distressing event and results in the patient reliving the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks. Paunovic & Öst (2001) conducted a study on 16 refugee outpatients diagnosed with PTSD to “investigate the efficacy of CBT and exposure therapy in the treatment of PTSD”. They found that both CBT and exposure therapy resulted in significant improvements after treatment and at the 6-month follow-up. CBT resulted in a 53% reduction in PTSD symptoms, 50% reduction on generalised anxiety and 57% reduction on depression, compared to the results of exposure therapy, providing a 48% reduction on PTSD symptoms, 49% reduction on generalised anxiety and 54% reduction on depression. These results show that there was not a significant difference between the efficacy of CBT and exposure therapy as a treatment of PTSD. This thereby supports that both psychological interventions are effective treatments for PTSD in refugees.

Moreover, many factors influence psychological therapies effectiveness on treating PTSD. Factors such as neuroticism, availability of social support and past history have an effect on the development of chronic PTSD (Ormel & Wohlfarth,1991) and their contribution to the failure of resolving symptoms (McFarlane & Yehuda, 1996). These factors affect the development of PTSD, but they may also affect the efficacy of the treatment. Tarrier et al., (2000) investigated the predictors of clinical outcome for the patients involved and sought to identify factors that may correlate with a positive or negative response to CBT or imaginal exposure treatment for those suffering with PTSD. They found that other factors such as gender, suicide risk, duration of the therapy, comorbid disorders, number of missed therapy sessions, all had large effects on the outcome of the therapy. Those who had a shorter duration of the therapy or a low suicide risk had a better outcome. It was confirmed at the 6-month follow-up, treatment type was not significantly associated with the outcome of treatment (Tarrier et al., 2000). Therefore, this suggests that the efficacy of psychological therapies in treating anxiety disorders, such as PTSD are solely dependent on individual differences and other factors.

Additionally, gender also influences the efficacy of psychological therapies as a treatment for PTSD. Tarrier et al., (2000) also demonstrated that females responded better to the CBT treatment than males. It is proposed that this is associated with the higher psychoticism scores achieved by the males. They were more likely to miss the therapy appointments as well as rating treatment as less feasible. Females are more expressive of their psychological difficulties and tend to engage in psychological therapies more than men. This resulted in the females achieving a better outcome than males (Tarrier et al, 2000). This is supported by Liddon et al., (2017) who found that men are less inclined to seek help for psychological issues and that men and women show significant differences in coping behaviour and help-seeking. Women are more open to sharing emotion and ultimately preferred psychotherapy more than men. Whereas, men are more open to sharing information and thus significantly preferred support groups (Liddon et al., 2017). Therefore, this research illustrates that gender can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of psychological therapies in treating anxiety disorders.

Alternatively, Trauma- Focused CBT (TF-CBT) that was developed by Cohen, Mannarino, and Deblinger (2006) has been successful in reducing PTSD symptoms in children. TF-CBT is similar to the method of CBT in treating other anxiety disorders. However, due to the various factors that influence the effectiveness of psychological therapies on PTSD, it involves trauma-focused exposure techniques to prevent and treat PTSD. (Ramirez de Arellano, et al. 2014). Cohen et al. (2004) investigates the efficacy of TF-CBT and Child Centred Therapy (CCT) for treating PTSD in sexually abused children, in which 89% met the full diagnostic criteria for DSM-IV PTSD. It was found that the children who received TF-CBT had a greater improvement in depression behaviour problems, shame, abuse-related attributions and PTSD than those treated with CCT. Therefore, this study demonstrates the efficacy of psychological therapies on treating PTSD in younger patients. However, this form of CBT was directed to treat children and adolescence who were sexually abused. Consequently, the psychological therapy may be limited in its effectiveness for treating older patients or those who have developed PTSD from other traumatic events, such as terrorism attacks or natural disasters.

Overall, psychological therapies can result in significant improvements in the symptoms of anxiety disorders. As illustrated by the research accumulated in this essay, psychological therapies are the most common yet effective intervention for anxiety disorders, achieving short-term and long-term alleviation of symptoms. This essay is focused on the efficacy of psychological therapies on PTSD and GAD, including the individual differences and factors that may affect the clinical outcome. Therefore, the strength of evidence supporting the use of psychological therapies is directed towards the alleviation of PTSD and GAD. However, these individual differences and factors could potentially be extraneous factors and consequently limit the validity of the research findings. In addition, some of the research reviewed in this essay used a method of self-report in pre-test, post-test and in follow-up sessions, which may result in various biases, further exacerbating the methodological issues that limit the accuracy of the findings.

There are many psychological therapies that have been developed or adapted to alleviate various anxiety disorders. For example, considering the factors involved in PTSD in sexually abused children and adapting the original CBT into TF-CBT to alleviate PTSD symptoms (Cohen, Mannarino, and Deblinger, 2006). This thereby implies that one psychological therapy may not be as effective in alleviating an anxiety disorder in one individual, however, another psychological therapy may lead to a significant improvement. Conversely, in some cases, pharmacological interventions are a more suitable and superior treatment compared to psychological therapies. As mentioned above, pharmacological treatment is more effective in elderly patients diagnosed with GAD, due to the greater severity of the disorder (Flint, 2005). Ultimately, there is strong evidence that supports the use of psychological therapies in treating individuals diagnosed with GAD and PTSD, which thereby concludes that there is strong evidence for the use of psychological therapies in treating anxiety disorders.

In Indian society, thirdgender are stigmatized and marginalized to an outsized extent. Such stigmatization may also compromise the mental health of thirdgender possibly giving rise to varied mental health issues. The socio-cultural aspects of thirdgender have frequently been the difficulty of research by psychologist and sociologists. Thirdgender people face multiple sorts of oppression. This paper focuses to summarize the varied issues faced by thirdgender by using the psychological aspects, family and social rejection. Individuals who identify as thirdgender tend to experience higher rates of mental health issues than the overall population. Thirdgender experience high rates of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Family and social rejection can have variety of negative outcomes both for the rejected person’s own health and well-being, also as their interpersonal relationships. Thirdgender people face psychological distress thanks to social rejection and violence and undue to their identity. Contemporary social psychologists study rejection in an array of forms and contexts. Rejection could also be active or passive and involve physical or psychological distancing or exclusion. for instance, individuals could also be actively rejected when others voice negative views of them or tell them that their presence isn’t wanted. as compared, individuals could also be passively rejected when others pay little attention to them or ignore them altogether. Physical exclusion from a gaggle elicits feelings of rejection in most circumstances , and psychological exclusion is additionally experienced as a rejection. Family rejection associated with identity is an understudied interpersonal stressor which will negatively affect health outcomes for third gender and gender nonconforming individuals. a far better understanding of the role of close relationships in both risk and resilience for third gender individuals is critical within the development of effective public health interventions for this community.

Family rejection is that the loss of a previously existing relationship between relations, through physical and/or emotional distancing, often to the extent that there’s little or no communication between the individuals involved for a protracted period. it’s going to result either from direct interactions between those affected – including traumatic experiences of violence, abuse, neglect, parental misbehavior like repetitive explosive outbursts or intense marital conflict and disagreements, attachment disorders, differing values and beliefs, disappointment, major life events or change, or poor communication – or from the involvement or interference of others. The rejection is usually unwanted, or considered unsatisfactory, by a minimum of one party involved.

Social rejection occurs when a private is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. an individual is often rejected by individuals or a whole group of individuals. Furthermore, rejections are often either active, by bullying, teasing, or ridiculing, or passive, by ignoring an individual, or giving the ‘silent treatment’. The experience of being rejected is subjective for the recipient, and it are often perceived when it’s not actually present. The word ostracism is usually used for the method.

Mental health is that the level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental disease. it’s the state of somebody who is ‘functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment’. From the perspectives of positive psychology or of holism, psychological state may include a person’s ability to enjoy life, and to make a balance between life activities and efforts to realize psychological resilience. consistent with the World Health Organization (WHO), psychological state includes ‘subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others.’ The WHO further states that the well-being of a private is encompassed within the realization of their abilities, dealing with normal stresses of life, productive work and contribution to their community. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines ‘mental health’.

Mental health problems may arise thanks to stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety, relationship problems, death of a beloved, suicidal thoughts, grief, addiction, ADHD, self-harm, various mood disorders, or other mental illnesses of varying degrees, also as learning disabilities. Therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners or family physicians can help manage mental disease with treatments like therapy, counselling, or medication.

Third gender or third sex may be a concept during which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. it’s also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term third is typically understood to mean ‘other’; some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth, fifth, and ‘some’ genders. The term ‘third gender’ has also been used to describe the hijras of India. The hijras of India are one among the foremost recognized groups of third gender people.

Biology determines whether a human’s chromosomal and anatomical sex is male, female, or one among the uncommon variations on this sexual dimorphism which will create a degree of ambiguity referred to as intersex. However, the state of personally identifying as, or being identified by society as, a man, a woman, or other, is typically also defined by the individual’s identity and role within the particular culture during which they live. Not all cultures have strictly defined gender roles.

Since a minimum of the 1970s, anthropologists have described gender categories in some cultures which they might not adequately explain employing a two-gender framework. At an equivalent time, feminists began to draw a distinction between (biological) sex and (social/psychological) gender. Contemporary gender theorists usually argue that a two-gender system is neither innate nor universal.

Ongoing or long-term rejection may have deep and lasting psychological effects which can include:

• Trauma: Long-term rejection or rejection that leads to extreme feelings may contribute to trauma and may have serious psychological consequences.

• Depression: Rejection has been linked to the event of depression face to face. That numerous negative effects, including depression, stress, eating disorders, and self-harming behaviours.

• Pain response: consistent with research, equivalent brain pathways that are activated by physical pain also are activated by social pain, or rejection.

• Anxiety and stress: Rejection might often contribute to pre-existing conditions like stress and anxiety or cause their development. Similarly, these and other psychological state conditions can exacerbate feelings of rejection.

The PAR theory proved to be a useful guide for interpreting transwomen’s perceptions of acceptance–rejection. almost like other studies that have used PAR theory to explore the child’s experience of rejection—acceptance by parents and other close relations, the info presented here indicate that the child’s relationship to oldsters also as grandparents, aunts and uncles, and siblings may shape the child’s perception of their acceptance–rejection.

Although the negative respones of relations to their transgender child’s gender presentation and identity are well documented, these reactions aren’t universal. Many parents admire their child for his or her bravery and courage in handling such a difficult situation. Unlike many parents of transgender children who believe that their child’s identity may be a results of bad parenting, some parents view their child’s ability to steer from conventional ideas of identity without shame is a sign of how well they raised their child.

The disclosure or discovery of a child’s transgender identity features a powerful impact on the family as an entire. Initial shock doesn’t necessarily denote disapproval or rejection, and a period of adjustment could also be needed. Often acceptance requires a period of family grieving for the loss of their son or brother before accepting their new daughter or sister. Many relations can also fear for his or her loved one’s safety, because they’re conscious of the stigmatized status that transwomen have in society, and like many families, they need their loved ones to possess an equivalent opportunities as everyone else. the method of disclosure and transitioning are often psychologically demanding and straining for transwomen and their families alike.

A study from Boston, published in 2015, within the Journal of Adolescent Health, reported that 180 transperson youth had a two-fold to three-fold increased risk of psychiatric disorders – including depression, mental disorder, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-harm without lethal intent – in comparison to an impact group of youth.

This study is that the first, to our knowledge, to look at the association between family rejection and negative health outcomes among a national sample of transgender and gender nonconforming persons. Most studies on transgender health address the negative consequences of discrimination by nonclose others (e.g., strangers, healthcare workers), institutions, or social systems. In contrast, this study explores the associations between family-based stigma and discrimination with health risks for transgender individuals.

Rejection are often extremely painful because it’s going to have the effect of creating people feel as if they’re not wanted, valued, or accepted. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, having experienced high levels of family rejection was related to almost three and half times the chances of suicide attempts and two and a half times the chances of substance misuse, compared to those that experienced little or no family rejection. Having experienced only moderate levels of family rejection was related to almost twice the chances of suicide attempts and over 1.5 times the chances of substance misuse. These findings suggest the importance of investigating and addressing stigmatization experienced by transgender persons by close others, not only by broader society, structures, and systems In the field of mental health care, rejection most often refers to the emotions of shame, sadness, or grief people feel once they aren’t accepted by others.

Rejection could also be emotionally painful due to the social nature of citizenry and therefore the need of social interaction between other humans is important. Abraham Maslow and other theorists have suggested that the necessity for love and belongingness may be a fundamental human motivation. consistent with Maslow, all humans, even introverts, got to be ready to give and receive affection to be psychologically healthy. Psychologists believe that straightforward contact or social interaction with others isn’t enough to satisfy this need. Instead, people have a robust motivational drive to make and maintain caring interpersonal relationships. People need both stable relationships and satisfying interactions with the people in those relationships. If either of those two ingredients is missing, people will begin to feel lonely and unhappy. Thus, rejection may be a significant threat. In fact, the bulk of human anxieties appear to reflect concerns over social exclusion. Being a member of a gaggle is additionally important for social identity, which may be a key component of the self-concept. Mark Leary of Duke University has suggested that the most purpose of self-esteem is to watch social relations and detect social rejection. during this view, self-esteem may be a sociometer which activates negative emotions when signs of exclusion appear.

The experience of rejection can cause variety of adverse psychological consequences like loneliness, low self-esteem, aggression, and depression. It also can cause feelings of insecurity and a heightened sensitivity to future rejection. Despite these limitations, this is often the most important sample of transgender individuals enrolled so far and provides vital information to guide the efforts of public health officials, Mental Health and welfare work providers, researchers, and policymakers. The implications of those results are important for developing interventions and services for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals and their families. If family rejection is found to be a contributing factor toward the negative health-related consequences faced by this population, service providers could help to spot potential avenues for intervention. These findings suggest that providers serving the transgender community consider the role of families when assessing a transgender person’s social, emotional, and physical health.35 Providing emotional and informational support to families may help make a critical difference in decreasing the danger and increasing well-being for transgender individuals.

Future research is needed to look at for the protective factors related to both social and familial support which will assist in mitigating the negative effects of the structural and institutional discrimination and violence experienced by transgender people.

The third gender are an integral a part of Indian society but have continued to be marginalized in terms of education, economic opportunity, and access to quality health care. Health care professionals are less equipped to affect the mental health issues pertinent to those communities without population-specific data. generally, the third gender community remains unaware of the psychological interventions and services potentially available to assist in management of their stress and mental health needs. Existing literature tells us that we’d like further research into the mental status of the third gender, which can allow researchers to raised understand determinants of their mood. Health care professionals can repose on these studies by designing interventions which will reinforce the resilience and coping strategies of those women, while ameliorating the factors that negatively affect their psychological state.

The third gender population is direly suffering from mental health problems like depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and self-harm. The statistics and knowledge available are staggering and alarming. there’s always some sort of a stigma attached to seeking help for mental health troubles, and to feature thereto, the severe stigma attached to belonging to the trans community makes it harder for people of the community to succeed in out for help. If they are doing so in the least, there are chances of them being mistreated or not treated in the least. Third gender were for the longest period of your time considered to be pathologically ill. it’s within the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-V that the diagnosis of identity Disorder was replaced with Gender Dysphoria. The worldwide medical fraternity not refers to thirdgendre individuals as having an illness, but rather that they need a choice and right to make a decision their way of living. this is often all nice and fine on paper, but the tough and haunting reality is that the misguided and ignorant views of the overall population on people belonging to the third gender community.

Have you ever heard about virtual reality applications in the field of psychology? Virtual reality (VR) enables interaction with a 3D world by creating a simulated environment, immersing users in the experience. While VR is often associated with the video game industry, there have been trials exploring its use in the healthcare sector. Neurophysiologists Ronald Melzack and Patrick D. Wall developed the ‘gate control’ theory of pain in the 1960s, linking pain perception to brain functions. Doctors conducted experiments with burned patients, using virtual reality to distract them from pain while receiving treatment for their wounds. The results of these experiments were positive, suggesting that virtual reality applications could also benefit individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after injury. They claim that virtual reality can alleviate both physical and psychological pain (Hunter & Hoffman, 2004).

Scientists have been conducting experiments using virtual reality technology in the field of psychology since the early 1990s. Virtual reality applications for human research and clinical intervention first emerged in the early 1990s, and after encouraging findings from clinical testing, training, and treatment within highly proceduralized virtual reality simulation environments, it became a useful direction for psychology and rehabilitation to explore (Lange et al., 2012). Despite promising results, ongoing experiments seek to address unanswered questions and concerns among both the public and scientists regarding this subject. Additionally, virtual reality applications in psychological treatments are not yet common. Even in video games, it is a new and evolving technology, with discussions about its affordability and other metrics. However, scientists continue to research side effects and other argumentative issues regarding virtual reality treatment. Despite the question marks in people’s minds, there are really promising results from the trials with people who have overcome their psychological issues thanks to VR applications.

According to recent estimates of the US population, the current 12-month prevalence for anxiety disorders is 18.1%, whereas, in Europe, a 13.6% lifetime history of any anxiety disorder was found (Opris et al., 2012). This result shows that anxiety disorders are a significant part of the population suffering from mental issues. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most popular treatment for anxiety disorders, focusing on thoughts, feelings, senses, and physical actions. Virtual reality-based treatment has a powerful real-life impact, similar to classical evidence-based treatments (a form of cognitive behavior therapy) (Opris et al., 2012). The application of this subject is based on showing patients graphic simulations of their feared object, situation, or environment, and like other kinds of exposure therapy, virtual reality treatment involves gradually introducing patients to these stimuli (Hoffman, 2004). One notable application involves a woman with an anxiety disorder from spider phobia. Her condition worsened, and due to her fear, she was not able to leave the house. After only ten one-hour sessions with virtual reality-based therapy, her fear of spiders greatly reduced, and her obsessive-compulsive behaviors also disappeared. Her success was unusually dramatic: after treatment, she was able to hold a live tarantula for several minutes with little anxiety (Hoffman, 2004). According to this example, we can easily say that virtual reality-based treatments have the same logical background as classical treatments, and the results of both treatments are not different.

The various assets offered by virtual reality, including increased ecological validity, objectivity, and assessment in interactive and functionally relevant scenarios, could support several opportunities for applications in both the clinical and research domains of neuropsychology (Schultheis et al., 2002). According to an article named ‘Designing Informed Game-Based Rehabilitation Tasks Leveraging Advances in Virtual Reality,’ virtual reality can offer safe and effective use in the rehabilitation context and home-based functional activity in daily life for clinical treatments. Virtual reality-based treatment offers some advantages, such as being performed inside the therapist’s office, a convenient and safe environment in itself, and the therapist having better control over the content and pace of the exposure. Also, the exposure can be repeated as much as needed (Opris et al., 2012). This treatment way could be more beneficial for both patient’s and therapists’ safety. Especially, while patients with post-traumatic stress disorder face their problems, it could be really important to create a safe yet realistic environment for them. Also, virtual reality usage during psychological treatment offers patients greater control, variety in response options, presentation of stimuli in three dimensions, the creation of complex scenarios, the generation of varying levels and combinations of multimodal sensory input potentially allowing audio, haptic, olfactory, and motion to be experienced simultaneously to the graphically rendered environment or objects, the possibility for participants to respond in a more ecologically valid manner, the precise and independent manipulation of the geometric and photometric relationships between objects, the possibility of examining sophisticated complex participants’ behaviors, such as avoidance, and the study of situations which can be impractical, dangerous, or ethically questionable to be created in real life (Wilson & Soranzo, 2015). I believe each of these factors is important to create a successful therapy process. In addition to that, it could allow therapists to create simulations like some environments which real-life possibilities cannot offer if needed.

Despite all of these benefits, some people think that initial findings may be provocative; an analysis of the cost-benefit issues for the application of virtual reality technology is needed to better determine. Their thoughts might be right; eventually, virtual reality is something that can be offered by technology, and technological devices could sometimes have unpredictable outcomes. Also, there are allegations about the minimal risk of side effects that can occur during virtual reality applications. The most common risk of application is simulator sickness. Simulator sickness and motion sickness are similar in symptom constellation. Possible symptoms include vertigo, dizziness, headaches, and sweating. Although the rate of simulator sickness in clinical populations is not well known, prior studies reviewed herein have reported minimal negative reactions in participants with MS and TBI (Schultheis et al., 2002). Also, as another risk, some people mention the concept of presence. Virtual reality applications can make the participant feel as if the virtual objects are “really there” and respond accordingly; physical and psychological side effects from exposure to virtual reality-induced side effects. Differences in the perception of color, contrast, space, and movement, when compared to real life, can be a concern if the goal is the exact replication of perception in the physical world or an advantage when trying to create “impossible scenarios” (Wilson & Soranzo, 2015). Besides these problems, there is one more matter about its affordability according to Schultheis et al. (2015). Virtual reality is a new evolving technology, so it can be seen as expensive for some parts of the community. However, large clinical trials are also needed to determine the value of virtual reality. So far, the research has shown that the program poses little risk and few side effects. Because patients use the program in addition to traditional opioid medication, the subjects who see no benefit from virtual reality are essentially no worse off than if they did not try it. Virtual reality may eventually help to reduce reliance on opioids and allow more aggressive wound care and physical therapy, which would speed up recovery and cut medical costs. The high-quality virtual-reality systems that are recommended for treating extreme pain are very expensive, but doctors are optimistic that breakthroughs in display technologies over the next few years will lower the cost of the headsets. Furthermore, patients undergoing less painful procedures, such as dental work, can use cheaper, commercially available systems (Hunter & Hoffman, 2004). At the end of this discussion, there are some risks and problems; however, with better determination, virtual reality treatment can offer patients a more effective and quick way for treatment. Also, some companies support this case, and it is possible to find more sponsors for this epochal treatment.

In conclusion, despite the negative arguments, virtual reality applications are not so different from classical treatments as backgrounds and reasons to apply matter. In addition, they have variable benefits and conveniences during therapy. I believe it is important to provide both patient and therapist with a safe environment in which they can feel more secure and relaxed. Also, giving therapists the chance to change variables according to therapy manner provides more comfort and control in case of a crisis. Another opportunity virtual reality can offer is that it can easily use both home-based therapy sessions and in-office environments; besides, it can be repeated as much as the patient needs or the therapist deems sanction. For these reasons, I believe virtual reality applications should be conducted on patients with psychological problems to provide them with better treatment.

References

1. Hoffman, H.G., (2004). Virtual reality therapy. Scientific America.com https://www.behavioralassociates.com/pdf/scientificamerica.pdf
2. Opris,D., Pintea,S., Palacios,A.G., Botella,C., Szamosközi,S., & David, D., (2012). Virtual reality exposure therapy in anxiety disorders: A quantitative meta-analysis. Depression and Anxiety. (p.85-93) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/da.20910
3. Lange, B., Koenig, S., Chang, C.Y., McConnell, E., Suma, E., Bolas, M., & Rizzo, A., (2012). Designing informed game-based rehabilitation tasks leveraging advances in virtual reality. Disability & Rehabilitation .https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09638288.2012.670029
4. Schultheis, M.T., Himelstein, J., & Rizzo, A., (2002). Virtual Reality and Neuropsychology: Upgrading the Current Tools. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. https://journals.lww.com/headtraumarehab/Abstract/2002/10000/Virtual_Reality_and_Neuropsychology__Upgrading_the.2.aspx
5. Wilson, C.J., Soranzo, A., (2015). The Use of Virtual Reality in Psychology: A Case Study in Visual Perception. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cmmm/2015/151702/

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that causes a difference in how one perceives and experiences the world around them. Medically, it is thought of as the impairment of the ability to learn or discern information. The difficulty those on the autism spectrum have with interacting with society is reflected in the adversity they potentially can encounter in certain situations, such as with handling emotions or communicating and expressing themselves. As a result of these difficulties, those without intellectual impairments may perceive or discriminate against those with them. However, the contemporary social model of understanding intellectual impairment seeks to change these misconceptions. The social model refers to those on the autism and intellectual impairment spectrum as neurodivergent: those whose thought processes and perception of things may differ from others. The intersectional studies of disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder embody the idea that bodily experience differs from person to person and that people, regardless of physical difference or impairment, will inevitably have different ways of going through society. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, the protagonist Christopher (who is understood to have Asperger’s Syndrome and is on the Autism Spectrum) is challenged by his interactions with others in his life as a result of normative societal perceptions of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Christopher presents his narrative through his own eyes, allowing us to view the world as he views it in his unique way. The narrative is written in a simplistic, factual language: a stylistic approach taken by Haddon to emphasize the narrative being Christopher’s own words and thoughts. The textual clues provide insight into the differences someone on the autism spectrum might have in their thought processes from someone who may not have intellectual impairments. Understanding the individual needs of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder for support and agency allows us to further delineate what steps we can take in supporting and accommodating those with impairments. By providing a supportive and accepting environment for all people regardless of impairment or difference, we can alleviate some of the difficulties those with Autism Spectrum Disorder may face in society, and potentially even erase negative or disabling stereotypes or prejudices against those with intellectual impairments. Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time presents Christopher’s narrative as an outsider to normative society. By understanding and empathizing with Christopher, we can better understand how those with Autism Spectrum Disorder can differ, and in turn, address the discriminatory society we live in to better provide an equal and supportive environment for all.

The protagonist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher, is understood to be high-functioning on the autism spectrum and has Asperger’s Syndrome. While it is never directly stated, we can indirectly ascertain this by looking at the way he interacts with the world and with others. Christopher mentions his difficulties with recognizing facial expressions and emotions, as seen when he works with Siobhan, his teacher. “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant… and I took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying” (Haddon 3). Here, Christopher is understood to be having difficulty understanding people’s facial expressions when they talk, which is a sign of a person with Asperger’s Syndrome. A clue to Christopher being high-functioning on the autism spectrum is how Christopher structures his sentences and thoughts. Throughout the story, Christopher’s narrative is presented with simple, logical sentences. He forms his thoughts and words based on his idea of order and becomes uncomfortable when things don’t align with his rules. He structures his day based on things like the number of red cars in a row: “4 red cars in a row made it a Good Day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a Quite Good Day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a Super Good Day” (Haddon 47). While it is a sign of Asperger’s Syndrome that Christopher faces slight difficulty in expressing himself in long, eloquent sentences, based on the medical model of intellectual impairments, Christopher is understood to be on the high-functioning side of the autism spectrum. He is logical and clear and even demonstrates an advanced understanding of mathematics, shown by his drive to pass his A-level math exams, or how he organizes chapters in his book by prime numbers, of which he knows “every prime number up to 7,057” (Haddon 2). Uta Frith and Francesca Happe discuss in their work “Language and Communication in Autistic Disorders” how Christopher shows what they call “theory-of-mind,” which is “the ability to attribute independent mental states to self and others to explain and predict behavior” (Frith and Happe 98). Christopher demonstrates the theory of mind in the sense that he almost always attributes reason and logic to his experiences. However, this is only insofar to his simple sentences. Frith iterates that “subjects diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome do not show the striking failure on theory-of-mind tasks typical of other autistic subjects” (Frith and Happe 101), highlighting the medical model’s viewpoint that intellectual impairments are on a one-dimensional axis, with high-functioning and low-functioning people with Autism Spectrum Disorder to be two ends of the spectrum. Christopher’s lack of understanding of expressions or context coupled with his being on the “high-functioning end of autism” is what leads his narrative to present the mystery, and the solution, to the reader, before Christopher himself does. We understand that despite Christopher’s Asperger’s Syndrome, he still is very capable of thought and reason as the rest of us are, even if he goes about it differently. Utilizing the social model of autism and intellectual impairment, we can argue that Christopher is neurodivergent, rather than “high-functioning autistic.” Medically, he is diagnosed with autism for his “impairments in verbal and non-verbal communication” (Frith and Happe 98), but socially, he is an independent boy who goes about solving mysteries in his way. Rather than relegating those with mental impairments and labeling them as “disabled” intellectually, we should look to change how we perceive those with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

If we look at Christopher’s interactions with people in his life, we see that many do not care to see or understand his different way of expressing himself. As seen with his violent encounter with the police officer, others do not seem to express any care for Christopher’s differences. After being discovered with the dead dog, “[the police officer] was asking too many questions” (Haddon 11) to Christopher, who began to be stressed. When the police officer reached out to Christopher, he hit him in response. The police officer’s failure to recognize Christopher’s distress and inability to communicate properly is just a part of how society often overlooks that those with intellectual impairments process things differently than others may. Ironically, Christopher himself recognizes that everyone learns differently: “Everyone has learning difficulties because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult, and also everyone has special needs… and none of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs” (Haddon 71). Christopher, recognizing his differences, understands that people learn at different speeds, and everyone has individual needs. Despite Christopher’s understanding seemingly coming from maturity, society as a whole lacks this understanding. Dara Shifrer, in a study “Stigma of a Label: Educational Expectations for High School Students Labeled with Learning Disabilities,” states how “youth with LDs (Learning Disabilities) is deviant in that they are sometimes perceived as lazy or stupid… because of their nonnormative response to the educational institution” (Shifrer 463). Shifter argues that young people with intellectual impairments, such as Christopher, are labeled under the medical model and thought to be intellectually disabled because of their differences in learning ability. Discrimination is also a major obstacle that those with Autism Spectrum Disorder often have to face. In the novel, Christopher is discriminated against for his Asperger’s Syndrome and is thought to be not capable of taking his A-level maths despite showing extreme prodigy in the subject. “Mrs. Gascoyne didn’t want me to take [A-level maths] at first… they didn’t want to treat me differently from everyone else” (Haddon 71). Christopher faces obvious prejudice as a result of his neurodivergence. He is told that he would “only ever get a job collecting supermarket trollies” (Haddon 47), which we understand to be people assuming Christopher is incapable of thinking for himself and can only be expected to do menial work. This active discrimination against people with intellectual impairments is a large reason why society today remains so inaccessible and unaccommodating to neurodivergent people. The perpetuation of stereotypes and failure to acknowledge or understand people and their individual needs and differences creates a prejudicial and unequal world. As Shifrer puts it, “Power and stereotypes are products of culture and social structure, and locating the origins of the learning disabled label is a precursor to understanding which actors enable the learning disabled label to stigmatize” (Shifrer 465). We need to understand that the failure to acknowledge the differences of those with intellectual impairments is a product of our culture and that discrimination against neurodivergent people denies them their rights to an equal and accessible society.

Fortunately, however, if we can recognize that the problem is our society, then that implies that there is a way to potentially address this issue. We understand that the medical model is a large part of why those with intellectual impairments struggle so much in society. Labeling people with differences all under one umbrella as “different” is inherently incorrect and ironic- we acknowledge that people have differences and that they may function differently than others as a result of that difference, however, we refuse to see further than that. In “A Case for the Autistic Perspective in Young Adult Literature” Rachel F. Van Hart, author, explains how “understanding among different groups of people is fostered by awareness of each other’s perspective” (Van Hart 27). We can derive that the social model is better suited to acknowledging and understanding people’s differences. Contemporary society also rejects the idea that someone on the autism spectrum’s differences and incapabilities may lead to strengths. “Public discourse on autism… ignores the possibility that an Autism Spectrum Disorder individual’s weaknesses may also function as strengths. More recently, however, a neurodiversity model… acknowledges that many of the difficulties autistic individuals encounter are a product of ‘living in a society designed for non-autistic people’” (Van Hart 27). Van Hart is reiterating our social model to be expanded to the idea that neurodivergence is a gift, not the impairment the medical model and our current society sees it as. “The personal and social challenges faced by [ASD individuals] highlight positive aspects of their unique cognitive outlook” (Van Hart 28). Christopher also recognizes his differences as strengths. When he is explaining how he notices things about the world and is called clever, he simply responds “I wasn’t clever. I was just noticing how things were… that was just being observant” (Haddon 47). Simply by changing our viewpoint and discourse on intellectual impairment, we can much better support, and even empower neurodivergent people for their differences. By embracing a more open social model of disability, and by investing more time into understanding each other’s differences, we can create a better community in which prejudiced-against groups can be treated equally with the current norms.

Today, we have made significant efforts towards improving the quality of life of those who are treated as impaired or disabled under the currently enforced medical model of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was an act passed for the protection against discrimination for people with disabilities. In his work “Models of Disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Richard K. Scotch works to identify what exactly has been disabling those with intellectual impairments. He finds that “disability has been defined in predominantly medical terms as a chronic functional incapacity… [and] was the natural product of their [people with Autism Spectrum Disorder] impairments” (Scotch 214). In tune with our understanding of the perpetuation of the medical model, Scotch points out that the Americans with Disabilities Act was created to address that fact. However, even with the modern attempt to introduce the social model, “the opportunities of people with disabilities are limited far more by a discriminatory environment than by their impairments” (Scotch 214). Society assumes what those with intellectual impairments are and are not capable of, and in turn, enforces its own prejudicial and often incorrect judgment onto neurodivergent people. Denied opportunities based on these assumptions, people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and those with intellectual differences are unfairly discriminated against. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) seeks to end this discrimination by preventing businesses or groups from denying people opportunities to work or isolating them based on disability. Scotch reaffirms that “the ADA can be seen as… a policy commitment to the social inclusion of people with disabilities” (Scotch 215). While it is a small step, the ADA embraces the social model of disability and advocates for the inclusion of neurodivergent people. We can further take steps in improving our prejudicial society as the ADA has by individually reaching out and getting to understand others, regardless of differences.

Acknowledging that everyone is different is something we’re taught in modern social discourse from a young age. Yet people with intellectual impairment still face discrimination for their differences, whether it be actively being prevented from accessing certain opportunities, or unintentionally discriminating against neurodivergent people by labeling them all under one umbrella. If society as a whole were to recognize the different needs that each individual has and understand that neurodivergence is just a different way of thinking, we would already take great strides in providing a less hostile environment for people with intellectual differences to be in. We can delineate what steps we can take to better enable those with impairments by embracing a social model rather than a medical one regarding disability. This is reflected in many works involved with the discourse of intellectual impairment, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Christopher is, despite his Asperger’s Syndrome, clever and intelligent. His narrative provides readers a greater understanding of how, despite his intellectual difference, he is simply going about life and experiencing things in a different way than others may. He turns adversity into strengths and utilizes his neurodivergence to arrive at an answer to a mystery he discovers and solves himself. Accompanying him on his journey, we can gain a better appreciation and respect for the viewpoints of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder. If society as a whole were to recognize the need to embrace a social model and change, to work to end discrimination and labeling of people on the autism spectrum, and to take time to understand and draw parallels between oneself and someone with intellectual differences, we could improve the quality of life for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and recreate society to be fair, equal, and unprejudiced for all.

Works Cited

1. Frith, Uta, and Francesca Happe. “Language and Communication in Autistic Disorders.” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, vol. 346, no. 1315, 1994, pp. 97–104. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/56024.
2. Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Alexandria Library, 2007.
3. Scotch, Richard K. “Models of Disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act.” Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, vol. 21, no. 1, 2000, pp. 213–222. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/124051164.
4. Shifter, Dara. “Stigma of a Label: Educational Expectations for High School Students Labeled with Learning Disabilities.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 54, no. 4, 2013, pp. 462–480. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43186869.
5. Van Hart, Rachel F. “A Case for the Autistic Perspective in Young Adult Literature.” The English Journal, vol. 102, no. 2, 2012, pp. 27–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23365394. 

Shirley Ardell Mason

Shirley Ardell Mason also is known as (Sybil) was quietly living in Lexington Kentucky, and had run an art business out of her home in the 1970s. She later died on Feb 26, 1998, from breast cancer due to declining treatment. There was a movie based on Shirley Ardell Mason Life called “Sybil” which came out in 1976, her real name wasn’t used in the book or movie because she wanted to protect her identity. The movie depicted what Shirley had gone through a child, which included physical, emotional, and severe sexual abuse of the hands of her mother who was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Due to Shirley’s trauma as a child, she was diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder also called dissociative personality disorder, which consisted of 16 distinctive personalities in 1973 diagnosed by her therapist Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. Shirley Ardell Mason was born on January 25, 1923, in Dodge Center, Minnesota. Her parents Walter Mason and Martha Alice Hageman raised Shirley in Dodge center where they were well liked by others. However, Shirley’s mother had a strange laugh, which caught others off guard. At times to get back at other neighbors she would sneak into their back yards and do malicious acts while Shirley was there. Shirley suffered from child abuse severely from her mother when she was a toddler up till she was a young teen. Shirley never knew why her mother would do such vicious acts to her. Shirley’s father was the breadwinner but still neglected Shirley at the same time. When Shirley was a young child her mother had a miscarriage, which caused her to go into a deep depression state and became sick for a while. Shirley’s father had buried the fetus in their backyard due to feeling ashamed about the situation; Martha was unable to take care of Shirley. The father had Shirley’s grandmother move in to take care of her while he went to work. Shirley cherished good times with her grandmother because she felt that she was more of a good loving mother vs. her mother who was unstable. As Shirley got older her mother would be very cautious of her and wouldn’t allow her to socialize with because she felt they were up to no good. Shirley had her first boyfriend at 16 and his name was Tommy but sadly she had witnessed him in a terrible accident. Years later, Shirley soon then had grown into a beautiful young woman and became intrigued by art, and soon became an artist. She was a student at Columbia University in NY studying art in 1957. Soon enough Shirley started to have these blackout episodes that would lead her to break glass, or have emotional breakdowns randomly, she would just do things that were out of the ordinary, which had taken over her life. Shirley was very concerned with her mental state and so she reached out to a psychotherapist named Dr. Cornelia Wilbur and had explained her concerns. Dr. Wilbur could tell that Shirley had been through something but she couldn’t quite figure it out what. Shirley met with Dr. Wilbur every week but it became more frequent due to Shirley’s behavior becoming worse.

To treat this problem, Wilbur wrote a prescription for a powerful drug. Seconal to help her sleep, Daprisal for her cramps. Later, these drugs were so addictive that they were banned, but in the 1950s Wilbur sometimes gave Mason more drugs than the average amount. Also, for years, Wilbur injected Mason with pentothal and recorded the sessions. Wilber frequently made house calls, even on evenings and weekends. Sometimes she crawled into bed with Mason to administer electric shocks with a special machine. Wilbur was preserving the recording file and this proves that Mason was really abused by her mother.. Also, Dr. Wilbur used some of Sigmund Freud’s techniques to help Shirley face her deep emotions and to talk about her troubling childhood. Due to the severe abuse from her mother, Shirley never felt loved at all only from her grandmother who had passed away when she was young. Shirley basically suffered from abandonment, neglect, abuse, and trauma in the result.

Meanwhile, some people thought Mason’s diagnosis had been challenged. Psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel saw Mason for several sessions while Wilbur was on vacation and felt that Wilbur was manipulating Mason into behaving as though she had multiple personalities when she did not. Spiegel suspected Wilbur of having publicized Mason’s case for financial gain. According to Spiegel, Wilbur’s client was an hysteric but did not show signs of multiple personalities; in fact, he later stated that Mason denied to him that she was ‘multiple’ but claimed that Wilbur wanted her to exhibit other personalities.

Wilbur counsel with her and found that Mason had 16 personalities. The names of these selves were also changed to ensure privacy. The first personality is Sybil Isabel Dorsett, the main personality. Second is, Victoria Antoinette Scharleau, nicknamed Vicky, self-assured and sophisticated young French girl. 3th is Peggy Lou Baldwin, assertive, enthusiastic, and often angry. 4th is Peggy Ann Baldwin, a counterpart of Peggy Lou but more fearful than angry. 5th is Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett, a thoughtful, contemplative, and maternal homebody. 6th is Marcia Lynn Dorsett, and extremely emotional writer and painter. 7th is Vanessa Gail Dorsett, intensely dramatic, fun loving, and a talented musician. 8th is Mike Dorsett, one of Sybil’s two male selves, a builder and a carpenter. 9th is Sid Dorsett, the second of Sybil’s two male selves, a carpenter and a general handyman. Sid took his name from Sybil’s initials. 10th is Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin, interested in politics as fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and intensely afraid of Roman Catholics. 11th is Sybil Ann Dorsett, listless to the point of neurasthenia. 12th is Ruthie Dorsett, a baby and one of the less developed selves. 13th is Clara Dorsett, intensely religious and highly critical of Sybil, 14th is Helen Dorsett, intensely afraid but determined to achieve fulfillment. 15th is Marjorie Dorsett, serene, vivacious, and quick to laugh. 16th is the blonde, a nameless perpetual teenager with an optimistic outlook.

Did Mason have 16 personality traits because he was abused as a child? I think that’s possible enough, but I also think there’s a cause for the drugs she took in her treatment with Wilbur. I analyze that she did not spontaneously form multiple personalities but embraced clinical multiple personalities through interaction with doctors.

Works Cited

1. Nathan, Debbie. “A Girl Not Named Sybil.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/magazine/a-girl-not-named-sybil.html
2. PeoplePill. “Shirley Ardell Mason: American Artist (1923-1998) – Biography and Life.” PeoplePill, peoplepill.com/people/shirley-ardell-mason/.

Shopping addiction is a mental disorder that many people overlook. The majority of the population doesn’t consider this to be an actual thing but to many people, it is. This study is aimed to assess the level of shopping that individuals do regularly. This research paper will open a new pathway to the gates of shopping addiction. As well as the physical and mental work behind the decision-making. Gender differences are foreground, we imply that women are the ones who do the most shopping which involves the emotional connection to it, but men buy things that are needed not wanted. These people experience numerous damaging effects at all levels of life, which makes them feel anxious, uneasy, unhappy, guilty, etc. A variety of prompts encourage one to buy constantly. Everybody loves to shop, and the question is what goes behind it, so 6 participants will be divided into two different groups, the compulsive shoppers and the necessity shoppers and we will collect monthly shopping statements from each individual. Doing so we can look back at impulse shopping they may have done or controlled, necessity shopping. The findings that were collected indicated that people don’t shop smart as much as they think they do.

Introduction

Shopping is the action or activity of purchasing goods from stores. Especially with all the different ways we can shop, the high rise of temptation to buy something is sky-rocking when online shopping comes into play. The usage of credit/debit cards to buy products instead of paying cash is a scapegoat when you do not have the money but want something right now and badly. Compulsive buying disorder (oniomania) is a severe problem that is growing by the day. Since the consumer market is continuously expanding, traders have become progressively more focused on how consumers can be persuaded to buy more. The decision-making when buying something can be based on the levels of essentials of an item or just buying something based on a whim. For some people, the problem is impulsivity. Impulse spending is based on psychological nerves of our wants and needs. I want to understand why we buy the things we buy and what are the types of buying behavior.

Given the information above people may wonder, how do I know if I’m a compulsive shopper? One of the indicators is too much shopping, which is buying something that is not essentially needed, and goods that fall into this category can be of any kind: cuisine, fashion, journeys, toys, etc. Many shopping addicts are so obsessed with piling up new things that they run out of storage space in the house, which leads to a tendency to hide purchases. They will end up jamming the objects into their original boxes, into closets (Robbins & Clark, 2015). What determines the impulse to buy is the feeling one gets at the time of the purchase, it is the most important, and it is not what an ordinary buyer feels about the object that is bought.

Over the years, many psychologists and psychiatrists have provided definitions for compulsive buying disorder which is oniomania; one such example is the definition provided by Bearden and Netemeyer (1999) who argue that oniomania is “a chronic, repetitive manifestation that becomes a primary response to negative events or feelings”. This can include the hours spent shopping and the feeling of being desperate to walk into a store and obligated to buy something whether you like it or not. Despite the financial issues you may have, some people disregard their debt just to satisfy their needs.

If we take into account things such as addiction awareness and the ability to recognize it, we can classify people into three categories: those who do not realize that they have a problem and deny warning signals about their buying compulsion; those who do not have the power to recognize that they lost control and are ashamed to recognize their dependence on others; and, the category with the fewest people, the ones who identify the problem in their lives and agree to do something about it.

Methods

The method is used to compare two compulsive and non-compulsive groups in a real-life purchasing situation. They concluded that the two groups differ in six ways, depending on the characteristics of the choice, the behavior of the search, the number of funds that are spent, the searching of stores, the money spenders, the budget consciousness, the availability of credit cards and the emotional responses to the excess spending.

Discussion

Shopping addicts experience a large array of negative effects, and in time worsening of the situation is destroying their lives. It is important that a person recognizes these behaviors of compulsive shopping disorder and will strive to overcome addiction following the rules with his or her therapist: to spend more time with family, which before had neglected altogether; to keep a buyer’s diary in which to record all purchases; to make shopping lists before leaving home and respect it; to avoid being alone in the stores, if it was a habit before, etc.

This data that has been collected can influence possible compulsive shoppers and direct them away from this disorder. Possibly to identify their issues and take control. Having this disorder can shy you away from friends, family, and yourself. You must find your true happiness and not in something like money or buying worldly things. It is not surprising at all that people tend to overdo it when it comes to shopping. We are around advertisements, credit cards, and influences every day, so it’s hard to not give in.

An article that I selected to support my data was “An Experimental Examination of Cognitive Processes and Response Inhibition in Patients Seeking Treatment for buying-shopping Disorder.” This article pinpointed my exact experiment to show the views of compulsive buying disorder. This study helped me to strengthen and prove my theory.

References

1. Bearden, W. O., & Netemeyer, R. G. (1999). Handbook of marketing scales: Multi-item measures for marketing and consumer behavior research. Sage.
2. Robbins, T. W., & Clark, L. (2015). Behavioral addictions. Current opinion in neurobiology, 30, 66-72.

Shopping addiction is a mental disorder that many people overlook. The majority of the population doesn’t consider this to be an actual thing but to many people, it is. This study is aimed to assess the level of shopping that individuals do regularly. This research paper will open a new pathway to the gates of shopping addiction. As well as the physical and mental work behind the decision-making. Gender differences are foreground, we imply that women are the ones who do the most shopping which involves the emotional connection to it, but men buy things that are needed not wanted. These people experience numerous damaging effects at all levels of life, which makes them feel anxious, uneasy, unhappy, guilty, etc. A variety of prompts encourage one to buy constantly. Everybody loves to shop, and the question is what goes behind it, so 6 participants will be divided into two different groups, the compulsive shoppers and the necessity shoppers and we will collect monthly shopping statements from each individual. Doing so we can look back at impulse shopping they may have done or controlled, necessity shopping. The findings that were collected indicated that people don’t shop smart as much as they think they do.

Introduction

Shopping is the action or activity of purchasing goods from stores. Especially with all the different ways we can shop, the high rise of temptation to buy something is sky-rocking when online shopping comes into play. The usage of credit/debit cards to buy products instead of paying cash is a scapegoat when you do not have the money but want something right now and badly. Compulsive buying disorder (oniomania) is a severe problem that is growing by the day. Since the consumer market is continuously expanding, traders have become progressively more focused on how consumers can be persuaded to buy more. The decision-making when buying something can be based on the levels of essentials of an item or just buying something based on a whim. For some people, the problem is impulsivity. Impulse spending is based on psychological nerves of our wants and needs. I want to understand why we buy the things we buy and what are the types of buying behavior.

Given the information above people may wonder, how do I know if I’m a compulsive shopper? One of the indicators is too much shopping, which is buying something that is not essentially needed, and goods that fall into this category can be of any kind: cuisine, fashion, journeys, toys, etc. Many shopping addicts are so obsessed with piling up new things that they run out of storage space in the house, which leads to a tendency to hide purchases. They will end up jamming the objects into their original boxes, into closets (Robbins & Clark, 2015). What determines the impulse to buy is the feeling one gets at the time of the purchase, it is the most important, and it is not what an ordinary buyer feels about the object that is bought.

Over the years, many psychologists and psychiatrists have provided definitions for compulsive buying disorder which is oniomania; one such example is the definition provided by Bearden and Netemeyer (1999) who argue that oniomania is “a chronic, repetitive manifestation that becomes a primary response to negative events or feelings”. This can include the hours spent shopping and the feeling of being desperate to walk into a store and obligated to buy something whether you like it or not. Despite the financial issues you may have, some people disregard their debt just to satisfy their needs.

If we take into account things such as addiction awareness and the ability to recognize it, we can classify people into three categories: those who do not realize that they have a problem and deny warning signals about their buying compulsion; those who do not have the power to recognize that they lost control and are ashamed to recognize their dependence on others; and, the category with the fewest people, the ones who identify the problem in their lives and agree to do something about it.

Methods

The method is used to compare two compulsive and non-compulsive groups in a real-life purchasing situation. They concluded that the two groups differ in six ways, depending on the characteristics of the choice, the behavior of the search, the number of funds that are spent, the searching of stores, the money spenders, the budget consciousness, the availability of credit cards and the emotional responses to the excess spending.

Discussion

Shopping addicts experience a large array of negative effects, and in time worsening of the situation is destroying their lives. It is important that a person recognizes these behaviors of compulsive shopping disorder and will strive to overcome addiction following the rules with his or her therapist: to spend more time with family, which before had neglected altogether; to keep a buyer’s diary in which to record all purchases; to make shopping lists before leaving home and respect it; to avoid being alone in the stores, if it was a habit before, etc.

This data that has been collected can influence possible compulsive shoppers and direct them away from this disorder. Possibly to identify their issues and take control. Having this disorder can shy you away from friends, family, and yourself. You must find your true happiness and not in something like money or buying worldly things. It is not surprising at all that people tend to overdo it when it comes to shopping. We are around advertisements, credit cards, and influences every day, so it’s hard to not give in.

An article that I selected to support my data was “An Experimental Examination of Cognitive Processes and Response Inhibition in Patients Seeking Treatment for buying-shopping Disorder.” This article pinpointed my exact experiment to show the views of compulsive buying disorder. This study helped me to strengthen and prove my theory.

References

1. Bearden, W. O., & Netemeyer, R. G. (1999). Handbook of marketing scales: Multi-item measures for marketing and consumer behavior research. Sage.
2. Robbins, T. W., & Clark, L. (2015). Behavioral addictions. Current opinion in neurobiology, 30, 66-72.