Psychological Diseases: Invisible Illness For A Person

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Psychological Diseases Referred to as ‘invisible illnesses,’ psychological diseases can sometimes be the most taxing illness for a person. Whether ignored, misdiagnosed, or frowned upon by society, psychological disorders are difficult to assess and care for. With many other diseases, there are visible physical symptoms, blood tests, and other ways of determining if a patient is affected by something. It is because no such tests exist for the diagnosis of psychological diseases, that this difficulty is established. Much like neurological diseases, the organ that is affected by psychological diseases is the brain. As explained by many researchers and scientists, what differentiates a psychological disease is the irregular activity patterns in …show more content…

Although biological components are important to any disease, psychological disease diagnosis must also include the influence of external factors, which often are the causing agents. In the less physiologic diseases in this category such as anxiety and depression (Weir, 2012), a correct and appropriate diagnosis is less likely attainable. Another element of difficulty for these diseases is the variability of symptoms. “[Psychological diseases] have always been described by their outward symptoms, both out of necessity and convenience. But just as cancer patients are a wildly diverse group marked by many different disease pathways, a depression diagnosis is likely to encompass people with many unique underlying problems (Weir, 2012).” Psychological diseases can be a result of substance abuse, life events, genetics, or chronic stress among the many causes (National Alliance on Mental Illness). People of all ages are at risk of developing a psychological disease. More recently recognized in popular media, is the hidden number of people that harbor a psychological disease, and more specifically a mental illness. Mental illness has become more of an open topic because of this media push and one of the more outstanding diseases, …show more content…

Medication can take up to 5 weeks to have effect on the patient (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Medications are often experimented with and rotated in order to find effective and correct dosages (National Alliance on Mental Illness). There can also be a number of other negative side effects such as “tremor[s], change[s] of muscle tone, and nervousness (Koch, Morlinghaus & Fuchs, 2007).” Another treatment method is psychotherapy that is individualized or in the form of a support group (National Alliance on Mental Illness). In the most severe cases of depression, when medication and psychotherapy are not advancing improvement, electroconvulsive therapy is used, but at a cost. This type of therapy often results in memory problems and in some cases partial memory loss occurs (National Alliance on Mental

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