Psychological Disorders In Elizabeth Cochran's Ten Days In A Mad-House

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A psychological disorder is defined as a deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving (1). This however, was not always the way of viewing psychological disorders. It wasn’t until 1887, when a neurotypical journalist named Elizabeth Cochran lied about having a mental illness to admit herself into a mental health institute or what was previously referred to as and an asylum. Cochran wrote about the awful living conditions of the asylums in her exposè, Ten Days in a Mad-House. This brought attention to mental health and began a revolution in mental health reform. The reform shifted people from viewing mental disorders sufferers as freaks that should be locked up to patients with …show more content…

Phobias are persistent irrational fears of specific items, situations, or activities. An example of a phobia would be ereuthophobia which is the fear of the color red. People that have phobias often develop avoidance behavior. Some phobias are not easy to pinpoint. Social Anxiety Disorder is when someone gets anxious around people. This is a broad statement Social Anxiety Disorder could be caused by being seen by others, being in groups of people, or looking outside the window at people. The trigger is unclear, and in my opinion is most likely a spectrum. When people experience a phobia it is natural to want to escape or avoid the source of the fear. However, doing so reinforces the phobia and therefore makes it worse.

Some mental illnesses are not common. Schizophrenia affects one percent of the U.S population (5). Schizophrenia is a Dissociative Disorder characterized by individuals that are dissociated from reality, have disorganized thinking and emotions, and experience hallucinations. Schizophrenia is also a spectrum. An aspect that most cases of schizophrenia share is hallucinations, a split from reality, and a faint connection with reality. An example of Schizophrenia would be if someone believed that they had died and believed that they are living as a

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