Behavioral disorders

What is (ab)normal behavior?"
What is Abnormal?
Before we can write about specific behavioral disorders, we must define 'abnormal'. And what is normal behavior?
The following criteria are used to determine wheter a persons behavior is abnormal or not:
1. Deviation from statistical norms;the word abnormal means 'away from the norm'. Many population facts are measured such as height, weight and intelligence. Most of the people fall within the middle range of intelligence, but a few are abnormally stupid. But according to this definition, a person who is extremely intelligent would be classified as abnormal. Thus in defining abnormal behavior we must consider more.
2. Deviation from social norms; every vulture has certain standards for acceptable behavior; behavior that deviates from that standard is considered to be abnormal behavior. But those standards can change with time and vary from one society to another.
3. Maladaptiveness of behavior; this third criterium is how the behavior affects the well-being of the individual and/or social group. Examples are a man who attempts suicide, an alcoholic who drinks so heavily that he or she cannot keep a job or a paranoid individual who tries to assasinate national leaders.
4. Personal distress; the fourth criterium considers abnormality in terms of the individual's subjective feelings, personal distress, rather than his behavior. Most people diagnosed as 'mentally ill' feel miserable, anxious, depressed and may suffer from insomnia.
In the type of abnormality called neurosis, personal distress may be the only symptom, because the individual's behavior seems normal.
None of these definitions provides a complete description of abnormal behavior. The legal definition of abnormality declares a person insane when he is not able to judge between right and wrong, but this criterium is not used by psychologists.
Consequences of Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a great problem, it is estimated that in the United States 9 million people are alcoholics or problem drinkers, in Holland there are about 650,000. The costs for medical care are enormous, in Holland this is about 5 billion every year. Other consequences of alcoholism are criminality, traffic problems and suicide.
"What causes alcohol addiction?"
Definitions
There are various definitions of alcoholism, but they all include the fact that the alcoholic is inable to abstain alcohol, and lack of control over themselves.

Test your Drinking
The following test you can do yourself to determine whether you might have a drinking problem or not:
Below are some questions that will help you how dependent you are on drinking:
1. Has someone close to you sometimes expressed concern about your drinking?
2. When faced with a problem, do you often turn to alcohol for relief?
3. Are you sometimes unable to meet home or work responsibilities because of drinking?
4. have you ever required medical attention as a result of drinking?
5. Have you ever experienced a blackout-a total loss of memory while still awake- when drinking?
6. Have you ever come in conflict with the law in connection with your drinking?
7. Have you often failed to keep the promises you have made to yourself about controlling or cutting your drinking?
If you answered -yes- to one of the questions above, you might consider to do something about it before it gets worse.
(source: National institute on Alcohol abuse and Alcoholism, 1977).

Stages in Drinking
Becoming an alcoholic you describe the following stages: the prealcoholic stage, individuals drink socially and to relieve tension and to forget problems. The prodomal stage, drinking becomes furtive and the individual drinks more and more. The crucial stage, once the individual starts drinking he cannot stop untill he is getting sick. This stage is called crucial because when the individual do not get help in this stage, he will get into the next stage. The last stage is the chronic stage, drinking is now continual and the individual can get medical problems as the result of alcohol.

Causes
There is no generally accepted theory of alcoholism. Some evidence suggest it is something hereditary, others say that children having alcoholic parents have a big change of becoming an alcoholic.
The common-sense view is that people drink to reduce anxiety, often as the result of problems, and to relieve tension. This might be a reason why people start drinking, but this is no explanation why people continue drinking. Another motive for start drinking for young people is to keep up with their peers.


What is Alzheimer's disease?
Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain now considered a leading cause of dementia. Alzheimer's disease was first described by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, it affects an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the number of individuals with this condition is estimated to rise to over 1 million by the year 2010. Percentage rates (cases per 100 individuals of 65 years and over) worldwide vary considerably between 0.6 in China to 10.3 in Massachusetts, United States. The incidence of the disease increases with advancing age, but there is no evidence that it is caused by the aging process.
"Patients suffering Alzheimer's disease lose nervous cells in parts of the brain involved in cognitive processes."
Cause and Diagnosis
The average life expectancy of people with the disease is between five and ten years, although many patients now survive 15 years or more due to improvements in care and medical treatment. The cause of this disease has not been discovered, although palliative therapy is available. The ability of doctors to diagnose Alzheimer's disease has improved in recent years, but this remains a process of elimination and final diagnosis can be confirmed only by post-mortem.

Alzheimer's patients show nerve cell loss in the parts of the brain associated with cognitive functioning. The hallmark lesions of Alzheimer's disease include the formation of abnormal proteins. Alzheimer's disease is also characterized by profound deficits in the brain's neurotransmitters which has been linked with memory function.
What is Autism?
Autism (from the Greek word autos, which means self) is a severe infant disorder of behavior that develops before the age of three. The term is used to describe many types of mental disorders, but, as originally named in 1943 by the American child psychologist Leo Kanner, early infantile autism describes a rare cluster of symptoms. Its incidence is approximately 1 in 2,500.
"A child suffering autism is unable to use language in a meaningful way and to process information in the proper way."
Characteristics
An autistic child is unable to use language meaningfully or to process information from the environment. About half of all autistic children are mute, and those who speak often only repeat what they have heard. The term autism refers to their vacant, withdrawn appearance, but its connotation of voluntary detachment is inappropriate.
Other characteristics of autism include an uneven pattern of development, a fascination with mechanical objects, a ritualistic response to environmental stimuli, and a resistance to any change in the environment. Some autistic children have precocious ability, such as mathematical skills.

Cause, Prognosis and Treatment
The cause, prognosis, and treatment of autism are still under study. Research suggests a genetic defect as the cause of the disorder, which may be some form of autoimmune disease or degenerative disease of nerve cells in the brain. The best treatment is special education, stressing learning in small groups, and strict behavioral control of the child. Treatment with drugs such as fenfluramine and haloperidol is also being tested. In general, prognosis is poor for those autistic children who remain mute past the age of five. Children who speak fare better, and some of them recover.
What are Phobias?
Phobias are excessive fears in specific situations when there is no real danger or fears that are totally out of proportions. Most of the time the person with a phobia realizes that his fear is irrational and illogical but he still feels anxiety. Avoiding the feared situation can only relieve this anxiety.
"Phobias are extreme fears in specific situations in the absence of a real threat."
Most of us are afraid for something; snakes, heights, doctors, injury or death are the most reported fears. But a fear is different from a phobia.
A fear is usually not diagnosed as a phobia unless it causes big problems in the person's daily life. An example of this is a woman with a phobia for enclosed places, she will notice her phobia when she want to use elevators.

Explanations
There are a number of explanations about how phobias develop. Some phobias may result from frightening experiences. For example, you might develop fear for flying after experiencing a near air disaster. Once such a phobia develops, the individual may go to great lengths to avoid the feared situation, and so eliminating a possible fear.
Other phobias may be learned through observation. fearful parents tend to produce children who share their fears. This phobia might be inherited, but it is more likely that parents provide a model and that the children imitate that model.
Other phobias might develop because they are rewarded. When a child is afraid of going to school because he will be separated from his parents for a while, he will say he has a stomachache or something like that. Then his parents reward him with the comfort of staying home with his parents.

Treatments
Behavioral techniques have proved successful in treating phobias, especially simple and social phobias. One technique, systematic desensitization, involves confronting the phobic person with situations or objects that are feared. Exposure therapy, another behavioral method, has recently been shown to be more effective. In this technique, phobias are repeatedly exposed to the feared situation or object so that they can see that no harm befalls them; the fear gradually fades. Antianxiety drugs have also been used as palliatives. Drugs to treat depression have also proved successful in treating some phobias.