(no subject)
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is estimated to be present in up to 60-65% of all children with ADD/ADHD. Although more boys are diagnosed with ODD prior to puberty, the years after puberty, the number of diagnoses between girls and boys even out.
There is also some research to indicate that ODD is a precursor to other conduct and personality disorders which may appear later in life.
It is characterized by consistent disobedience, hostile or defiant behavior toward authority figures. The pattern of behavior must last for more than six months and must be compared to the behaviors of other children of the same age.
Some symptoms include:
*argumentative
*easily loses temper
*blames others for own mistakes
*difficulty making friends or sustaining friendships
*often angry
*uses vindictive behavior towards others
*easily annoyed
*defies adults and authority figures
*often in trouble in school
Often people with BPD have a very hard time controlling their emotions. They may feel ruled by them.
1. Shifts in mood lasting only a few hours
2. Anger that is inappropriate, intense or uncontrollable
Traits involving behavior:
3. Self-destructive acts, such as self-mutilation or suicidal threats and gestures that happen more than once
4. Two potentially self-damaging impuslive behaviors. These could include alcohol and other drug abuse, compulsive spending, gambling, eating disorders, shoplifting, reckless driving, compulsive sexual behavior.
Traits Involving Identity
5. Marked, persistent identity disturbance shown by uncertainty in at least two areas. These areas can include self-image, sexual orientation, career choice or other long-term goals, friendships, values. People with BPD may not feel like they know who they are, or what they think, or what their opinions are, or what religion they should be. Instead, they may try to be what they think other people want them to be. Someone with BPD said, "I have a hard time figuring out my personality. I tend to be whomever I'm with."
6. Chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom.
Traits involving Relationships
7. Unstable, choatic intense relationships characterized by splitting (see below)
8. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
*splitting: the self and others are viewed as "all good" or "all bad." Someone with BPD said, "one day I would think my doctor was the best and I loved her, but if she challened me in any way I hated her. There was no middle ground as in like. In my world, people were either the best or the worst. I couldn't understand the concept of middle ground."
*alternating clinging and distancing behaviors ("I hate you, Don't leave me.") Sometimes you want to be close to someone. But when you get too close you feel like you have to get some space. This happens often.
*Great difficulty trusting people and themselves. Early trust may have been shattered by people who were close to you.
*Sensitivity to criticism or rejection
*Feeling of "needing" someone else to survive.
*Heavy need for affection and reassurance
*Some people with BPD may have an unusually high degree of interpersonal sensitivty, insight and empathy
9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.
This means feeling "out of it," or not being able to rememebr what you said or did. This mostly happens in times of severe stress.
Miscellanous Attributes of people with BPD
*People with BPD are often bright, witty, funny, life of the party.
*They may have problems with object constancy. When a person leaves (even temporarily), they may have a problem recreating or remembering feelings of love that were present between themselves and the other. Often, BPD patients want to keep something belonging to the loved one around during separations.
*They frequently have difficulty tolerating aloneness, even for short periods of time.
*Their lives may be a chaotic landscape of job losses, interrupted educational pursuits, broken engagements, hospitalizations
*Many have a background of childhood physicaly, sexual, or emotional abuse or physical/emotional neglect.
Dysthymia
Dysthymia is a milder, chronic form of depression. It may periodically have episodes of major depression superimposed upon it. When this occurs, it is known as "double depression."
Description:
Depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, as indicated either by subjective account or observation by others, for at least two years. Note: In children and adolescents, mood can be irritable and duration must be at least 1 year.
Presence, while depressed, of two (or more) of the following:
*poor appetite or overeating
*insomnia or hypersomnia
*low energy or fatigue
*low self-esteem
*poor concentration or difficulty making decisions
*feelings of hoplesness
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Most people find they eat and sleep slightly more in winter and dislike the dark mornings and short days. For some however, symptoms are severe enough to disrupt their lives and to cause considerable distress. These people are suffering from SAD.
How does it affect people?
Sufferers have to endure most of the following:
*Sleep problems - oversleeping but not refreshed, cannot get out of bed, needing a nap in the afternoon
*overeating - carbohydrate craving leading to weight gain
*depression, despair, misery, guilt, anxiety - normal tasks become frustratingly difficult
*Family/social problems - avoiding company, irritability, loss of libido, loss of feeling
*Lethargy - too tired to cope, everything an effort
*Physical symptoms - often joint pain or stomach problems, lowered resitance to infection
*Behavior problems - especially in young people
The symptoms tend to start from around September each year lasting until April, but are at their worst in the darkest months.
What Causes It?
The problem stems from the lack of bright light in winter. Researchers have proved that bright light makes a difference to the brain chemistry, although the exact means by which sufferers are affected is not yet known. It is not a psychosomatic or imaginary illness.