This is not a book of Adjectives, this is your guide to better emotional literacy.
Who are the monsters? In a world of knowledge & overly ‘networked’ people we are as disconnected as could be. We fail to understand another’s thoughts & feelings, more so, our own. Often, these thoughts & feelings function in a way that disrupts the normal functioning of a human. They form their own little world inside the head and swim through the nervous system like mischevious monsters spilling tantrums all over the place. When these monsters go out of control, we call them, Mental Disorders. We all have monsters inside us, that we curb & control. It could be caused genetically or due to a traumatic experience. We must understand that a mental disorder is not a Character defect. It cannot be purely controlled by a person’s will. Those monsters need care & crave for a little love. Pills, in some cases but most importantly, Empathy. Understanding how they feel & understanding what you must do to make them feel better. :)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (adhd) This monster is literally all over the place! It doesn’t think twice, it doesn’t give itself time to absorb information, it doesn’t want to learn.. atleast not learn what it doesn’t care about. It’s messy and inconsistent. It can’t focus on a single task. But when the ADHD monster is served with a task it loves, It’s in love! and all at once, it falls. Gets bored. Moves on. A person with ADHD is mostly a brilliant mind but requires healthy understanding at an early stage, to be given a choice of tasks. They are compelled to try everything. They have a lot of thoughts running inside their head which they may offer refer to as a ‘mess’ but they often create beauty out of it. Many of them are creatives. ADHD is most common in children and can be partially treated with medication but why kill a beautiful mind? It’s a difference in cognition, not a disorder.
BIPOLAR DISORDER This monster comes in a pair! For a second they make you feel ecstatic, like there couldn’t be a better feeling and the very next second everything crumbles down and it feels exactly the opposite. Also reffered to as manic depression. In a manic episode, a person experiences extremes of every mood. They have thoughts racing in every direction, making them speak really fast, often not making sense. Need for sleep reduces and the person is constantly inconsistent, hence, indecisive. It is completely treatable with psychotherapy. Manic depression episodes are frequent in shorter periods of time causing a rush of thoughts and feelings back and forth causing intolerable irritability. With the cocktail of emotions they experience, they often try to run away, physically or try to escape mentally. They cannot escape themselves. They can only accept and accept healing.
CANNABIS DEPENDENCE Cannabis, most commonly known as ‘weed’ or ’marijuana’ is the most widely used natural drug which sets the brain on an intergallactic ride. It makes all the senses feel more intensely than usual, colours seem brighter, music seems therapeutic. It distorts perceptions, slows down time. In this rush of life, many fall prey to this addiction.It takes them to a better place in their minds. It wrecks the normal functioning of the brain. An addict constantly has mucus filled cough and blood shot eyes. He is always hungry and often faces short term memory loss. The hardest part of any addiction is withdrawal. It causes anxiety, irritablity, depression, decreased sleep & appetite. To help them we must understand their emotional state and most importantly, giving them an experience more enjoyable than consuming weed.
DYSLEXIA Dyslexia is known to be the most common learning disability among children. Dyslexia is a condition in which a person finds it hard to learn to read.This monster is hard to recognize and often perceived to be dumb or lazy. Dyslexia must be recognised and acted upon at the right stage, i.e. when the child is learning to read. Not only does one see numbers and alphabets in a reversed manner but more often a dyslexic person finds it hard to relate sounds with the letter symbol. People with dyslexia eventually find a way to work around their disability. A dyslexic child may feel embarassed at school, may hold fears of speaking in class. A dyslexic child must be pateintly taught and repeatedly practice their reading and writing tasks with them, until they are better readers. All they need is some extra attention than other students of their age, in that specific area.
EKBOM’S SYNDROME Better known as Delusional Parasites. This monster makes you believe you are infested with parasites, but in reality, its delusion. They mostly injure themselves trying to get rid of the ‘parasites’Trying to convince them, that it doesn’t exist, only just makes it worse and cause them to be more irrItable. A sufferer is likely to seek help from a dermatoligist, veteranarian or a pest controler because they assume the problem persists outside of them. They usually do not consult a psychiatrist .When they aren’t able to convince the people around them about their belief, they go into extreme behaviour. Usually a small object which they interpret as evidence. Women experience menopause are more prone to such disorders and is completely treatable with medicines. Its unlikely, that they are willing to go through psychotherapy because they strongly believe the monster exits outside of them.
FACTITIOUS disORDER We all have faked an illness to get away with appointments at some point. However, when such lies are said for sympathy more than just to get off easy, it’s called factitious disorder. This monster craves for attention, nurturance , sympathy. A ‘patient’ goes out of their way to produce symptoms to prove their illness. They might hurt themselves or overdose on unrecomended drugs. The cause for such a disorder is mostly abuse or neglect when young or may just have a prolonged history and is used to the medical or emotional attention that he/she was receiving. This disorder can be treated by giving them the desired attention not because of their so called, illness but appreaciating other things about them. Encourage them and tell them how much more capable they would be with by being healthy.
GRANDIOSE DELUSIONS Grandiose delusions is a fixed false belief that one posesses a superious qualities such as fame, omnipotence or wealth. They assume that they have some great unrecognised talent or insight that no one is willing to understand or appreciate. Sometimes they recieve special ‘messages’ from god or assume they are a specific historic figure who has taken rebirth, This monster is a creative one. It is mostly an escape mechanism. It is a defensive reaction to the negative happenings. Its their own unique method to protect themseleves from reality. When the monster doesn’t get the desired treatment or attention ,it acts out. They fail to have healthy social relationships .Thus, do not receive help very often. It is treatable by showing them they are worth without the ‘grandness’ they make up, even better so. No pills, just appreciation.
HALLUCINOGEN PERSISTING PERCEPTION DISORDER H.P.P.D. does not generate hallucinations, technically speaking. Sufferers can appreciate that their perceptual aberrations are unreal—that their surroundings only appear blurred by afterimages and trails; shimmered by sparkles and flashed by bright bolts of light; interrupted by transparent blobs of color floating around; electrified by visual snow; magnified or shrunk by “Alice-in-Wonderland” symptoms; adorned by halos around objects, around people’s heads. The pseudohallucinations are ultimately unconvincing, if deeply unsettling. Theres is no definite cure to this. A chronic and debilitating condition, H.P.P.D. warps the perceptual faculties: the external senses are marred by a constellation of mostly visual distortions, while the internal ones are paralyzed by a concoction of dissociative symptoms, panic attacks, and depression.
Insomnia The state of sleep loss. No matter how much you desire dreamland, it refuses you entry. You stand at the gates, whining, crying, but stuck in the world of buzzing activity. lthough insomnia is the most common sleep complaint, it is not a single sleep disorder. It’s more accurate to think of insomnia as a symptom of another problem, which differs from person to person. It could be something as simple as drinking too much caffeine during the day or a more complex issue like an underlying medical condition or feeling overloaded with responsibilities. The good news is that most cases of insomnia can be cured with changes you can make on your own—without relying on sleep specialists or turning to prescription or over-the-counter sleeping pills.Minute changes like Avoiding naps, caffiene, maintaing a sleep diary, stress reduction through exercise are legitimate solutions.
JUMPING FRNEHCMEN OF MAINE SYNDROME Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is an extremely rare disorder characterized by an unusually extreme startle reaction. The startle reaction is a natural occurrence. It is the normal, rapid, involuntary response to a sudden or unexpected stimulus (e.g., a sudden noise or sight). The exact cause is unknown. One theory is that the disorder occurs because of an extreme conditioned response to a particular situation influenced by cultural factors. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine was first identified during the late nineteenth century in Maine and the Canadian province of Quebec among an isolated population of lumberjacks of French Canadian descent.one of a group of culturally specific similar disorders, the startle-matching syndromes, which have been described from various parts of the world. The relationship among these disorders is unknown.
KLEPTOMANIA A Kleptomaniac is a person who is afflicted with Kleptomania, a compulsion to repeatedly steal “worthless” items, such as keychains and small fruit. It is unclear whether it is due to depression, or people who are seeking more control of their life, but there are very few cases where diagnosed kleptomaniacs have stolen expensive items along the lines of jewelry and automobiles. They also have great levels of stress, guilt, and remorse, and privacy issues accompanying the act of stealing. The disorder is frequently under-diagnosed and is regularly associated with other psychiatric disorders, particularly anxiety and eating disorders, and alcohol and substance abuse. Patients with kleptomania are typically treated with therapies in other areas due to the comorbid grievances rather than issues directly related.
LAcunar amnesia Partial memory loss, specifically of an isolated event.Very conveniently (and in some cases thankfully) tends to happen to people after a night of drunken revelry. Scientists believe memories are captured and stored by two separate parts of the brain, the hippocampus, the normal seat of memory, and the amygdala, one of the brain’s emotional centers. People who, due to hippocampus damage, are incapable of forming long-term memories can still form subconscious memories of traumatic events if their amygdala is intact. They are likely to have a feeling of general unease encountering a person who had harmed them in the past, though they wouldn’t be able to put their finger on why. The brain is designed to preserve emotionally strong memories. if you could block that chemical reaction in a human brain while triggering a specific memory, you could make a targeted erasure.
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER issociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is a mental disorder on the dissociative spectrum characterized by at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person’s behavior, and is accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. These symptoms are not accounted for by substance abuse, seizures, other medical conditions, nor by imaginative play in children. Diagnosis is often difficult as there is considerable comorbidity with other mental disorders. Malingering should be considered if there is possible financial or forensic gain, as well as factitious disorder if help-seeking behavior is prominent.
NIGHT EATING SYNDROME Night eating syndrome is an eating disorder, characterized by a delayed circadian pattern of food intake. The person must have awareness of the night eating to differentiate it from the parasomnia sleep-related eating disorder .Three of five associated symptoms must also be present: lack of morning hunger, urges to eat in the evening/at night, belief that one must eat in order to fall back to sleep at night, depressed mood, and/or difficulty sleeping. The age of onset is typically in early adulthood (spanning from late teenage years to late twenties) and is often long-lasting, with children rarely reporting NES. People with NES have been shown to have higher scores for depression and low self-esteem. They often hide and eat in secret. They are ashamed of their habit of indulging into foods their boddy doesn’t need but the taste buds crave for. Night eaters are not necesarily insomniacs either.
OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD) bsessive窶田ompulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry (obsessions), repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety (compulsions), or a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. They include excessive washing or cleaning, repeated checking, extreme hoarding, preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts, relationship-related obsessions, and nervous rituals such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room. These symptoms are time-consuming, resulting in loss of relationships, and often cause severe emotional and financial distress. The acts may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, people with OCD generally recognize their obsessions as irrational and may become further distressed.
PICA Pica is characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive, such as ice, clay, chalk, soil, or sand. They must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate, not part of culturally sanctioned practice and sufficiently severe to warrant clinical attention. The most common, the consumption of ice, can be considered very devastating to the maintenance to the body as there is a high risk of tooth cracking, enamel deterioration, and jaw joint strain. This will make weight gain easier, and adversely weight loss harder, or even impossible. It can be from a cultural tradition, acquired taste or a neurological mechanism such as an iron deficiency, or chemical imbalance. It can lead to intoxication in children, which can result in an impairment . It can also lead to surgical emergencies due to an intestinal obstruction.
REACTIVE ATTACHMENT disorder RAD arises from a failure to form normal attachments to primary caregivers in early childhood. Such a failure could result from severe early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between the ages of six months and three years, frequent change of caregivers, or a lack of caregiver responsiveness to a child’s communicative efforts. Not all, or even a majority of such experiences, result in the disorder. It is differentiated from pervasive developmental disorder or developmental delay and from possibly comorbid conditions such as intellectual disability, all of which can affect attachment behavior. The criteria for a diagnosis of a reactive attachment disorder are very different from the criteria used in assessment or categorization of attachment styles such as insecure or disorganized attachment.
SCHIZOPHRENIA Schizophrenia is scary little monster that echoes. It makes a person have distorted thoughts, hallucinations and paranioa attatcks. They fail to recongnize what is real. They cannot decide, which voice to listen to, the one that is in their head or their own. They often fail to differ from them. Schizophrenia is having a lot of confused thoughts and feelings, it is simply, splitting of mental functions but it isn’t that simple. The causes may be genetic or environmental. An experience that have caused them to make everything feel delusional. They hold beleifs that have no realtion with reality, often like an escape mechanism gone really bad. A schizophreniac has to be patiently diagnosed by giving them other means to éscape’ like a hobby such as drawing or playing an instrument. They are often very creative because they perceive things diffrently than a normal brain.
TRICHOTILLOMANIA Trichotillomania (pronounced: trik-oh-till-oh-MAY-nee-uh) is an impulse control disorder (ICD) that involves strong urges to pull out one’s own hair. An impulse control disorder is a type of psychological condition. Doctors used to believe trichotillomania was rare. But that thinking is now changing as experts gain a better understanding of the condition and more people come forward for help. Trichotillomania affects more girls than guys. Most people who have it develop it during adolescence. But trichotillomania can start in kids as young as 1 year old. Mostly the have no idea why they pull their hair. They just know that they couldn’t stop. Many times, they do it without even thinking doing a normal day to day activity like watching TV or working at the office. They patient feels embarassed and usually has low self esteem.
CLAUSTROPHOBIA Claustrophobia from Latin claustrum “a shut in place” ,“fear” is the fear of having no escape and being in closed or small spaces or rooms. It is typically classified as an anxiety disorder and often results in panic attack, and can be the result of many situations or stimuli, including elevators crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and even tight-necked clothing. The onset of claustrophobia has been attributed to many factors, including a reduction in the size of the amygdala, classical conditioning, or a genetic predisposition to fear small spaces. One study indicates that anywhere from 5–7% of the world population is affected by severe claustrophobia, but only a small percentage of these people receive some kind of treatment for the disorder.
AVOIDANT PERSONALITY DISORDER People with avoidant personality disorder experience long-standing feelings of inadequacy and are extremely sensitive to what others think about them. These feelings of inadequacy leads to the person to be socially inhibited and feel socially inept. Because of these feelings of inadequacy and inhibition, the person with avoidant personality disorder will seek to avoid work, school and any activities that involve socializing or interacting with others. They often vigilantly appraise the movements and expressions of those with whom they come into contact. Their fearful and tense demeanor may elicit ridicule from others, which in turn confirms their self-doubts. They are very anxious about the possibility that they will react to criticism with blushing or crying. They are described by others as being “shy,” “timid,” “lonely,” and “isolated.”
WALKING CORPSE SYNDROME Cotard’s Syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome is a rare mental disorder where sufferers imagine that they are decomposing, dead or non-existent. Those with this condition often describe a loss of blood, organs and/or body parts. So how does one lose touch with their body to that extreme? This distorted reality is caused by a malfunction in an area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus, which recognizes faces, and also in the amygdala, an almond-shaped set of neurons that processes your emotions. The combination is a lack of recognition when viewing familiar faces (even the face of the sufferer), leaving the person feeling disconnected with reality. A cure to Cotard’s Syndrome is currently unknown Common treatments include anti-depressants and anti-psychotics.
ANXIETY There are several types of anxiety disorders including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder.Anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone experiences at times. Many people feel anxious, or nervous, when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or making an important decision. Anxiety disorders, however, are different. They can cause such distress that it interferes with a person’s ability to lead a normal life. An anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness. For people with anxiety disorders, worry and fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be crippling. The exact cause of anxiety disorders is unknown; but anxiety disorders -- like other forms of mental illness -- are not the result of personal weakness, a character flaw, or poor upbringing.
SYNESTHESIA Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people’s names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor. Therefore, synesthesia literally means “joined perception.” Synesthesia can involve any of the senses. The most common form, colored letters and numbers, occurs when someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number. There are also synesthetes who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight. Just about any combination of the senses is possible. There are some people who possess synesthesia involving three or even more senses, but this is extremely rare.
ALZHEIMERS Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. It is predicted there will be more than 520,000 people in the UK with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s . It is a physical disease affecting the brain. During the course of the disease, protein ‘plaques’ and ‘tangles’ develop in the structure of the brain, leading to the death of brain cells. People with Alzheimer’s also have a shortage of some important chemicals in their brain. These chemicals are involved with the transmission of messages within the brain.
Qoute Sources Bipolar Disorder - ‘I am’ Hilary Duff Cannibas Dependence- Gaurav Sharma Insomnia - ‘Insomnia’ Dana Gioia Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder - ‘Spinning’ BlackInk Kleptomania - ‘Stasis’ Ayesha Khan Schizophrenia - ‘Schizophrenic Conversations’ Staind Claustrophobia - ‘Claustrophobia’ Kristen Brown Avoidant Personality Disorder - Inspired by Geroge Tuck Walking Corpse Syndrome - Wattpad IN Dark Poems for Sinious Minds Anxiety - ‘Anxiety’ Alexia Cote Synesthesia - ‘The Sensitive Plant - I’ Persy Bysshe Shelley
Learning Sources Links en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mental_disorders www.psychcentral.com www.mentalhealth.org www.mayoclinic.org www.webmd.com YouTube Channels Dr. Phil by Chris Tamer TEDx Talks CrashCourse DrugAwareCampaign Howcast TED Ed Coventry University Kati Morton Personal Interaction Dr. Anand Nadkarni Founder Institute for Psychological Health www.healthymind.org Mantarang Mental Health Film Festival Institute for Psychological Health
Special Thanks to Mr. Niranjan Mhamane Mrs. Meenakshi Dhamal Rohit Kelkar Gurunath Dhamal Ragini Siruguri