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Psychological Disorders

Psychological disorders which are also called mental disorders are models of behavior or psychological symptoms that influence many different areas of life. Such disorders cause affliction for the individual having these symptoms. Though psychological disorders are in general signalized by some form of strange behavior, sometimes it is hard to find out the abnormality, especially as it differs depending on the culture (Merrell, 2008).

There are some kinds of standard approaches for determining abnormality with the aim to diagnose the disease. The statistical approach has to reckon up behavior by establishing how closely it relates to or differs from that of the most of people. Behavior of an individual can also be determined by whether it corresponds to social norms and cultural standards, an approach that eludes blaming heretics as abnormal for behavior that, while being extraordinary, may not encroach on social rules and may even be appraised in the certain culture.

Personality is the mixture of thoughts, feelings and conducts that makes every individual unique. It's the way people treat, comprehend and relate to the world, as well as how they consider themselves. Personality is formed in childhood subject to the influence of two elements:

- inherited tendencies, or genes, i.e. traits of character which influence an individual’s personality through parents, namely shyness or having a happy outlook which is known also as temperament.

- environment, or life situations, i.e. the place where a person grows up, events that happened in his or her life, and relationships with family and other people. It also embraces such moments as the type of parenting a person had, namely loving or offensive (Coon and Mitterer, 2008).

Personality disorders are considered to be caused by a mixture of these genetic and environmental features. Some individuals may be born with a genetic vulnerability to evolving antisocial personality disorder — and different life situations of a person may initiate its actual development.

There may be a connection between an early lack of sympathy, i.e. realizing the perspectives and problems of other people, including other children as well — and later attack of antisocial personality disorder. A person may inherit such personality problems, so it they can be defined in early stage, it may help make better long-term results.

The other way to evaluate if the behavior is to be considered as normal or not should be made by determining whether it is adaptive or maladaptive, and to what extent it intervenes with the behavior of everyday life of people. There are certain situations when psychologists may also determine the normality exclusively on the grounds of whether or not an individual is made unhappy or uncomfortable by his or her own conduct.

Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by the behavior violating legal and moral standards that are typical for the society. American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is accepted to be the norm for the classification of psychological disorders; its latest edition is referred to as DSM-IV. It has established five axis for determining conduct and conception models, and presented a complete setting in which to determine a person's psychological image (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

According to DSM-IV people suffering the antisocial personality disorder are characterized by constant lying or stealing, conning for profit or pleasure, lack of behavioral self-control, impulsiveness and inability to plan actions and fulfill financial obligations, annoyance, intolerance, assault. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder may also have periodic difficulties with the law, promiscuity, they show tendency to encroach the boundaries and rights of other people, hostile, often cruel conduct; disposition to getting involved in fights, incapacity to permit tedium, neglect for right and wrong, poor or offensive relationships, irresponsible work conduct, indifference for safety etc (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

Antisocial personality disorder has a tendency to be congruous with criminal conduct and is mostly known as sociopathic conduct. Individuals suffering from antisocial personality disorder have lack sympathy and tend to be superficial. In most cases they think very high about their personality while looking down on other people or blaming them for their problems. Besides, it is common for individuals suffering from antisocial personality disorder to show fascination which is helpful for taking advantage of others.

Persons suffering from antisocial personality disorder show no compassion for hurting other people, will easily cheat in order to get profit or some other pleasure, and demonstrate a thoughtless inattention for their or other's safety. In many cases, such people will not have close relationships because of these conduct patterns. As for gender differences, it is proved that antisocial personality disorder affects more men than women at a three to one ratio.

It is known that it is very hard to cure antisocial personality disorder. People suffering from such disorder may not even wish to be treated or think they have such an illness. People suffering from antisocial personality disorder may also need treatment for other illnesses, such as depression, fear or thyroid disorders. Such people may need help of family or primary care doctor, psychiatrist, pharmacist, members of the family and different social workers.

Both psychological and pharmacological interventions for people suffering antisocial personality disorder are not researched enough and direct proofs on the treatment of this population are not numerous. Duggan reports that at least three researchers did not find positive effect of psychological and pharmacological treatment (Duggan, 2009).

There can be some other ways of treatment of antisocial personality disorders such as stress and anger management skills, hospitalization, psychotherapy and medications. It shall be admitted that the effectiveness of anger management is doubted as anger is not a symptom of the antisocial personality disorder. Generally, the choice of treatment depends on the certain situation and severity of symptoms.

DSM-IV informs that psychotherapy is the major kind of treatment of antisocial personality disorder, a general term for the process of treatment by talking about the illness with a mental health provider. The usage of psychotherapy was explained in a number of guidelines. Cognitive behavioral therapy is aimed to reveal unhealthy, negative opinions and conducts and supersede them with healthy and good ones. These guidelines also emphasize on the applying of moral reasoning as an active part of treatment, social information processing approach, and planning in order to prevent relapse. In addition, the treatment should be organized in the way that patients will be not required to tell about their emotional states. Asking them about ‘feeling states’ is not applicable for the patients who have difficulty with assessment of such states, and who may be aggressive if confronted with a potential personal shortcoming. High level of external structure (supervision of the patient and contingent reinforcement of specific pro- social behavior) is likely to lead to improved outcomes in antisocial patients. (Hesse, 2010).

If you have a person you love who is suffering from antisocial personality disorder, it's essential for you to get help for yourself. Mental health professionals can help teach you the way how to protect yourself from the attacks, fury and indignation which are often present in the nature of people with antisocial personality disorder. Mental health professionals can also provide some recommendations about support groups for families and friends influenced by antisocial personality disorder

Nowadays there is no certain way to prevent antisocial personality disorder from developing. The only thing that may help is attempt to determine those most at risk, such as children living with carelessness or insult, and providing early interference may help. Receiving proper treatment in early stage may forestall symptoms from getting worse.

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