BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (BPD)
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental disorder characterized by disturbed and unstable interpersonal relationships and self-image, along with impulsive, reckless, and often self-destructive behavior. Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder have a history of unstable interpersonal relationships. They have difficulty interpreting reality and view significant people in their lives as either completely flawless or extremely unfair and uncaring. These alternating feelings of idealization and devaluation are the hallmark feature of borderline personality disorder. Because borderline patients set up such excessive and unrealistic expectations for others, they are inevitably disappointed when their expectations aren’t realized.
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POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder, often abbreviated as PTSD, is a complex disorder in which the affected person’s memory, emotional responses, intellectual processes, and nervous system have all been disrupted by one or more traumatic experiences. It is sometimes summarized as “a normal reaction to abnormal events.”
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DEPRESSION
Depression or depressive disorders (unipolar depression) are mental illnesses characterized by a profound and persistent feeling of sadness or despair and/or a loss of interest in things that were once pleasurable. Disturbance in sleep, appetite, and mental processes are a common accompaniment.
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BIPOLAR DISORDER
Bipolar, or manic-depressive, disorder is a mood disorder that causes radical emotional changes and mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows. The majority of bipolar individuals experience alternating episodes of mania (an elevated or euphoric mood or irritable state) and depression.
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ANXIETY DISORDERS
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion triggered by anticipation of future events, memories of past events, or ruminations about the self. Stimulated by real or imagined dangers, anxiety afflicts people of all ages and social backgrounds. When the anxiety results from irrational fears, it can disrupt or disable normal life. Some researchers believe anxiety is synonymous with fear, occurring in varying degrees and in situations in which people feel threatened by some danger. Others describe anxiety as an unpleasant emotion caused by unidentifiable dangers or dangers that, in reality, pose no threat. Unlike fear, which is caused by realistic, known dangers, anxiety can be more difficult to identify and to alleviate. Types of anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Social Phobia.
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DEPENDENT PERSONALITY DISORDER
Dependent personality disorder is characterized by an excessive need to be taken care of or depend upon others. Persons with this disorder are typically submissive and display clinging behavior toward those from whom they fear being separated. Persons with dependent personality disorder are often docile, passive, and non assertive. They exert a great deal of energy to please others, are self-sacrificing, and constantly attempt to elicit the approval of others.
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SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Substance-related disorders are disorders of intoxication, dependence, abuse, and substance withdrawal caused by various substances, both legal and illegal. These substances include: alcohol, amphetamines, caffeine, inhalants, nicotine, prescription medications that may be abused (such as sedatives), opiates (morphine, heroin), marijuana (cannabis), cocaine, hallucinogens, and phencyclidine (PCP).
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EATING DISORDERS
Bulimia
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating and engaging in inappropriate ways of counteracting the bingeing (using laxatives, for example) in order to prevent weight gain. A binge is consuming a larger amount of food within a limited period of time than most people would eat in similar circumstances. Most people with bulimia report feelings of loss of control associated with binging, and some have mildly dissociative experiences in the course of a binge, which means that they feel disconnected from themselves and from reality when they binge.
Anorexia
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of gaining weight and becoming fat. Because of this fear, the affected individual starves herself or himself, and the person’s weight falls to about 85% (or less) of the normal weight for age and height. Anorexia nervosa is a complex eating disorder that has biological, psychological, and social consequences for those who suffer from it. When diagnosed early, the prognosis for anorexia nervosa is good.
