How does a psychological disorder develop?

Often the line between a psychological disorder and normality is very fine, in others it is very thick. Almost no one knows why. Below we explain why psychological disorders arise.

We are used to talking about different mental disorders based on the symptoms that characterize them, but not so much on how they develop, even though it is equally or more important. So, A psychological disorder does not arise out of nowhere nor are its symptoms random.

On the contrary, any disorder forms a puzzle in which its elements are logical and understandable. In this way, we can ask ourselves, What happens for a psychological disorder to develop? What predispositions must there be in our minds? Is there a cause-effect relationship? Here we will see it.

The origin of psychological disorder

Psychological disorder, or mental illness, is a alteration of a person’s behavior and thinking. This disorder causes, in some cases, the inability to lead a normal life or the need for constant treatment to be able to live “normally.”

We speak of a disorder when the problem limits the life of the person who suffers from it and becomes a maladaptive and disruptive syndrome. There are different types of disordersbut the most common are:

Schizophrenia: represents a serious departure from reality, with the presence of delusions and hallucinationsautism: more common in boys than girls, characterized by a developmental deficit that renders the individual unable to communicate, imagine, or planBipolar disorder: Alternates periods of severe depression with others of mania, excitement and euphoria, causing great suffering to the personPersonality disorder: It is a set of disturbances that affect the emotional, affective and social dimension. The best known are antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.Eating disorder: These are those that range from eating more or less than normal, to eating things that are not food, to carrying out exaggerated compensatory behaviors.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Common in children, it is characterized by difficulty concentrating and controlling their behavior.Panic: A very limiting disorder, as it is the physical manifestation of fear (palpitations, difficulty breathing). Anxiety disorder: It basically encompasses 3 types. The first, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); the second, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and, the third, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

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The development of psychological disorder

After seeing the most common disorders, we ask ourselves: What happens in our mind for the disorder to appear? Why do some people develop these types of disorders and others do not?

Trauma

The first idea of the development of a psychological disorder is trauma. A traumatic event experienced in childhood (mistreatment, violence, abuse) can leave consequences, that last and affect adult life, if not throughout life.

There is no specific age for the onset of trauma.What we do know is that it can lead to eating disorders, panic or anxiety disorders or others. As Sigmund Freud already said:

“Traumatic events that come from childhood are in the unconscious and can become conscious at any time and age. In no way does the conscious manage to associate traumatic childhood situations with everyday situations in adult life and this causes a psychological disorder to develop.”

In this sense, We owe a lot to psychoanalysis. It represented a revolution in the way of understanding disorders and made psychology reconsider the importance that the schemes that we have learned and internalized at an early age play in us. Thus, currently, perspectives as recent as NLP (Neuroliguistic Programming) are based on the existence of these schemes to carry out interventions.

The genetic

Some disorders are explained by genetic causes. This does not mean that if someone in our family has had schizophrenia or depression, we will develop it. But there is a greater chance that this will be the case. In particular It can happen more frequently in disorders such as autism, ADHDbipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.

This does not necessarily mean that we develop a mental disorder if someone in our family has suffered from it. There are many factors that come into play that are not the same for all individuals.

Environmental factors

There are some environmental factors that can trigger the development of a psychological disorder. For example, The death of a loved one can trigger, through the stress it generates, a psychotic attack. Likewise, going through a divorce or drug abuse.

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In young people, social or cultural expectations, what is expected of them, can cause disorders such as eating disorders.. The constant advertising that dictates a canon of bodily perfection and beauty causes this problem to be aggravated and the incidence has increased and the age range at risk has widened.

As we have seen, There are several factors that help develop a psychological disorder.. There are others, such as certain infections, brain damage or birth injuries that can favor the development of this type of disorder.