Understanding Stress and its Impact

• Stress serves as a natural response to overwhelming situations.
• The fight or flight response is a physiological reaction to stress.
• The tend and befriend response involves caring for others and seeking social connections, predominantly observed in women.
• The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) illustrates the body's response to stress in three stages: the initial stressful incident, resistance, and exhaustion.
• Eustress refers to positive stress that acts as a motivator along a continuum with distress.
• The diathesis-stress model explains how stress interacts with predisposition to cause certain conditions.
• ACES stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences.
• Individuals with 6 or more ACES may also experience chronic physical health issues.
• Epigenetic changes, alterations to DNA, can be passed down through generations, demonstrated by rats passing down higher stress levels after experiencing neglectful mothers.
• The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is used to classify and label psychological disorders.
• Such classifications can lead to stigmas.

4 D's of Disorder

• Deviance: Behavior that goes against social norms.
• Danger: Risk of harm to oneself or others due to the disorder.
• Dysfunction: The extent to which the disorder interferes with daily life.
• Distress: Subjective awareness of suffering due to the disorder.

Treatments

• An eclectic approach is used in care, combining both biomedical and psychotherapy interventions.
• Biomedical interventions involve medication.
• Psychotherapy includes cognitive, dialectical, or talk therapy without drugs.

Anxiety Disorders

• Behavioral therapy is a common treatment.
• Anti-anxiety medications can also be used.
• Serotonin plays a role in anxiety regulation.

Panic Disorders

• Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is the best treatment for depression.
• Talk therapy is another option.
• Antidepressants, especially SSRIs that affect serotonin levels, are often prescribed.
• These eclectic approaches aim to radically improve mood.

Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia has a genetic component.
• Positive symptoms include auditory hallucinations and delusions.
• Antipsychotics are used to manage these symptoms.
• The dopamine hypothesis suggests that too little dopamine is associated with Parkinson's, while too much is linked to schizophrenia.
• Tardive dyskinesia involves permanent long-term motor problems.

DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

• DID arises due to trauma or current stressors, where individuals cope by dissociating from reality and creating new identities.
• Amnesia, or forgetting one's identity, can occur.
• This leads to trouble with interpersonal relationships.
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is used in treatment.

Personality Disorders

• Examples include antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders.
• Dialectical behavior therapy is used.
• This therapy focuses on accepting the reality they are in.

Positive Psychology

• Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them.
• Learned helplessness occurs when individuals feel they have no control over negative events, contrasting with learned hopefulness.
• External locus of control attributes outcomes to external factors, whereas internal locus of control attributes outcomes to one’s own actions.
• Research-based interventions involve practicing gratitude and focusing on character strengths to improve mood and self-esteem.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders/Syndromes

• These involve differences in thinking or behavior that cause cognitive conflicts.
• ADHD and autism are examples, impacting the ability to focus and learn.

Eating Disorders

• Examples include anorexia and bulimia.
• Anorexia has specific symptoms.