Video Transcript: Disorders
I love you, I love you, I hate you, I love you. I hate you. I love you. I hate you. I love you. Oh, I hate you. I am the President of the United States, and everybody knows it. Close. Don't come close to me. You're You're the devil. You don't no disorders, psychological disorders. Throughout this course, we've been talking about the psychology of the human being, the study of the mind, and the mind, as we have affirmed earlier, is complex and dynamic. You see, the mind is so intricate. We know this because we are created in God's image. We are created in God's likeness, and all the characteristics and attributes of God are in our mind. The center of the mind is the heart, and the biblical worldview gives us a proper framework of how the mind operates, including sin, including brokenness, including disease and death, pain. Today, we want to look at the abnormality of the brain when Adam and Eve made their choice based on the pride and the eyes of temptation and touching and eating the fruit and disobeying God and opening the door for the brokenness to set into the creation. It affected the mind as well. And we see it all throughout history, all throughout the Bible, starting with Adam and Eve now we look at the example of Cain and Abel. And then we look at the example of well, the examples are legion, especially speaking of Legion Mark 5 and the demoniac not only is it biochemical, but it's also spiritual. It is both which, of course, leads us into a whole other discussion, maybe a debate, about the spiritual, spiritual warfare, and also looking at the whole issue, of of course, the actual biochemical imbalance in the brain, and also the sickness, the illness in the brain, the mental illness. We have to consider all of it. But to begin with, let's look at the basics and the foundation of mental health, mental illness, abnormal psychology. What is abnormal psychology? How do we define psychological disorders? We begin with this definition. It is the application of psychological science to understanding and treating mental disorders. Our definition here of abnormal psychology as defined in your textbook, again, the application of psychological science, the study of psychology, the study of the mind, to understand and treat mental disorders. So as we understand mental disorders, we understand how this affects a person's behavior, how it affects the outcomes of and the consequences of someone's choices and also behaviors, maybe not because of what's really who they are, but because of the illness in the brain. And they need hope. They need help, they need treatment, they need recovery. We continue to look at all the different kinds of abnormal psychology, including the definition of psychological disorder. You know, as you look at that passage in Mark 5, we look at how Jesus placed that man, that demoniac in his right mind, as opposed to being in this place of mind, an ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion and behavior that causes significant distress and that is considered deviant in that person's culture or society. Now the demoniac obviously had demons inside of him, tormenting him and living in the tombs and, of course, causing chaos everywhere. But also how Jesus healed those who had other
mental disorders, other maladies, physical and again, mental, especially since people had mental disorders that they thought of maybe was a demon, but they just didn't understand in the ancient world what exactly was going on in the brain. For today, thanks to modern study of the mind, thanks to Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers and others before them, as look at the history, albeit from 1700s of the 1800s but then, of course, in the late 1800s into the 1900s with Freud and so on, we then have more clarity on what actually is going on, and Also how, like I said, earlier consequences or deviance in a given culture. For instance, maybe in your culture it's okay to act out crazy. Most cultures it isn't, but you get what we mean here. Deviance is deviating from the norm or the set of expected rules, expected norms, expectations of a given culture whats commonly accepted. Hence disorder. Well, we go from here to then looking at a model of illness to help us give more clarity, more structure to the approach of psychological disorder and mental disorder, the bio-psychosocial model illness says this a way of understanding disorder that assumes that disorder is caused by biological, psychological and social factors. It isn't just one cause, it is many, albeit may have sometimes or you have one cause happening, there's that there's that evidence of bio of that imbalance of chemicals in the brain. On the other hand, you also have other people maybe acting out of order and causing someone else to trigger someone else to act out of order as well. And and then other things are triggered in the brain. And and then something physical starts to begin to happen. And and distress and and things just become a perfect storm. But what this model of illness tells us is that there are many factors, not just one, to consider, and that's the point. So as we look at this biological, psychosocial model of illness, we bring us into the different components. We begin with a social component. The social component talks about the influences on disorder due to social and cultural factors such as socioeconomic status, homelessness, abuse and discrimination. As you can see in this visual, you have a bribe being given. Perhaps you live in a country where bribes are considered normal, and maybe it's not normal to not accept a bribe. I've been to many countries and to places where bribes are expected, as opposed to here the United States, well, bribes are done, but they're not expected and they're not necessary, due to the structure and norms we have in general here in the United States, bribes are not common. However, they do still happen and they're illegal. But coming back, we look at the definition here of how behavior is influenced by socioeconomic status, or consider another example, how we in modern psychology, then see, oh, okay, it then lastly, makes sense that if someone is hungry, they're going to probably go steal or do something else to satisfy their need. Hence, this is out of order, a disorder. And so we look at the social component, economic component, and how this all interacts biological, psychological and social cultural influences. So biological influences look at genetic makeup, brain structure, psychological influences, response to stress, patterns of negative
thinking, social cultural influences, cultural expectations. Definitions, normality, definitions, what is a disorder in that given culture, stigma, prejudice, homelessness, abuse, we need to consider this. So for example, if you have someone in your congregation who is acting out or maybe even stealing or or being verbally abusive to other parishioners. You might want to consider what has happened before. Now, most of us know, and it's been pretty common knowledge for quite some time, that if someone has been abused, abused, people tend to abuse other people, albeit verbally or physically. But this, of course, gives validation, it gives a firm confirmation of exactly what happens to a person after as a consequence, as a byproduct of abuse and other social factors the social component, then we consider the next component that is being maladaptive. Let's say, for example, you have been in an abusive family of origin, and mom and dad were abusing you, physically, sexually, emotionally, all the above, and maladaptive means the extent to which it causes distress, that is pain and suffering and dysfunction, which is impairment in one or more important areas of functioning to the individual, and it caused maladaptation you you are unable to adapt well unless you work on your issues as you get help with your issues as you heal from your issues, and then, of course, learn how to adapt to new situations, how to adapt to situations that are expected to be common. For instance, just going to the coffee shop, going to a restaurant for dinner. For some people, they're deathly afraid of crowds, or they don't know how to act appropriately or to act respectfully to the waitress or the waiter, or that a tip is expected after you pay the initial cost of the meal. Maladaptive has many applications here. Well, for maladaptive, we go to the next general topic of comorbidity. Comorbidity refers to when people who suffer from one disorder also suffer at the same time from other disorders. This is also likened to dual diagnoses. In other words, you have two things going on at the same time, and they also interplay. They overlap. They They maybe mute one one another in some ways, but also enhance one another in other ways. For some people, for example, they'll have a problem with substance use disorder at the same time they have schizophrenia, and both diagnoses are side by side and interact big time. So there isn't one single cause, there isn't one single thing to consider or one label to put on somebody never do that. What we can do is identify and clarify what a person may be going through and most likely comorbidity applies to everyone. Something is going on at the same time, and of course, what we tell a dual diagnosis that has to do with actual diagnoses that are then documented and also declared by a psychiatrist. More importantly, comorbidity. I use that a little more nonchalantly, more broadly here a minute ago, just to say we all have something going on and a few things going on all the same time, and we can't just assume one thing, then there's the problem of stigma. Well, stigma, our old friend, a disgrace or defect that indicates that person belongs to a culturally devalued social group. Those who struggle with addiction often are
stigmatized. We say they are then placated. They are then labeled as those people and becomes us and them, a divided situation between one group and another group, even in the church, stigma is a very large issue, because as we stigmatize and replace stigma Based on this definition, a disgrace or defect on another person, we then begin to divide, and we then are caught in our own denial having to do with our own issues that we can be we can be stigmatized by another group, another class. System. For instance, the elite class in a given culture may look at the lower class of a given culture, there is high class looking down at the lower class saying, oh, there are those people. They're so inferior and we are superior. From the Bible, we're all on the same plane. Anyway, you get the point stigma. And from stigma, we then come to understand how we can then point out, how we can then label again, given that we're certified, licensed, and also we have the credentials to be able to do this, because not just anyone can then make this determination. And also when it comes to pastors and and lay people, we we can't do this that protects us, but we can use this tool to understand the tool I'm about to tell you now we can understand better what these these disorders are about, what they are, and that's the DSM, the DSM 5, or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is the Bible, if you will, the main document that provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. You see when I spoke of earlier, of the licensed person, the credentialed person, that psychiatrist or that licensed therapist, legally that protects us as church leaders, because we tend not to be licensed people by the state or by whatever system gives us that licensure and legally, that can be okay, because then we can focus more on the other things in ministry and helping that person. However, as I mentioned, this helps us to understand we have clarity of what the person is going through. If they say, Well, yes, I'm dealing with schizophrenia, or yes, I'm dealing with bipolar disorder, or yes, I'm dealing with maladaptive issues. The DSM version five now gives us some definition as to what they're talking about. Well, for the DSM, we then get into other disorders. So we can be aware this one is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, very common, very popular, very much talked about in the media, and of course, in many communities, the proper definition of ADHD is this a developmental behavior disorder characterized by problems with focus, difficulty maintaining attention, and inability to concentrate, in which symptoms start before seven years of age. And we do give validation to this. This isn't just someone said, Oh yeah. He's ADD, can't you see, oh my goodness, I just see it right away. Hold on a minute. That's us making an assumption and projecting on someone something that may not be true, even though we see the telltale signs, as we say. And maybe if we see this person's behavior and we get the DSM 5 out and say, Oh yeah, see, first, find out, then work with a person, never assume, always verify. And these definitions help us to verify, but also to support and help from ADHD, we then go to autism. Autism, of course, is a well known
well. More and more we're getting to know it, but more understood disorder, and also, shall we say, we're more aware of this disorder, which is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and by restrictive and repetitive behavior, and in which symptoms begin before seven years of age. Again, a lot of these, these social disorders tend to show up in childhood, both autism, of course, we look at the social interaction, there is more of a focus that they have, focusing in the very laser focus on some things, not everything, and they tend to not be as social. They need to learn how to connect with the outside world. And that's autism, and autism, we have another cousin of autism, a similar disorder to autism called Asperger's. Asperger disorder is a developmental disorder that affects a child's ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others, and in which symptoms begin before seven years of age, not as severe as autism. However, it is in fact, a disorder that is similar to autism that again, brings us into the understanding of how that child, that person, is feeling a bit disconnected and also acting out, and we need to understand better what's going on there. Well, we go from those disorders having to do with developmental disorders to other disorders that may have to do more with the chemicals in the brain. Let's start 1, 2, 3, here we go, generalized anxiety disorder. Now, generalized anxiety disorder is a psychologic disorder diagnosed in situations in which a person has been excessively worrying about money, health, work, family, life or relationships. So it's Generalized Anxiety Disorder. You could say, Wow, that's me every morning, I just don't want to get out of the house. People stress me out. Well, that may be more temperament issues. There are people who have this disorder in a genuine manner where they the social anxiety is very strong, a ton of fear when it comes to people, places and things, decision making and so on. So generalized, then we get into something more acute. That is the panic disorder. Don't panic, we like to say, however, there are many who have this disorder, where it's a psychological disorder characterized by sudden attacks of anxiety terror that have led to significant behavioral changes in the person's life. Now imagine you've had a panic disorder before, if you feel like, the world's closing in, you sweat and you you your breathing increases and so on, you have a reaction towards a traumatic experience or stress or all the above. Now take that experience and apply that to every day, maybe even once an hour, for some people or many times during a given day, for those who have what's called the panic disorder, and some of us have this too, the phobia, a specific fear of a certain object, situation or activity. Some people are generally afraid of spiders, arachnophobia, or other phobia, such as this one, the social phobia, extreme shyness around people or discomfort in social situations. Then there's agoraphobia, anxiety about being in places or situations from which is escape. Might be difficult or embarrassing or in which it may help may not be available. You think of yourself, where are the nearest exits get me out of here help? I
don't trust people. They freak me out, agoraphobia. And imagine you've experienced once or twice in your lifetime. I know I have more when I was younger. Others of us when we're older or anytime in our lives, agoraphobia, but for some people, as I mentioned, this is a recurring disorder. This is something that is diagnosed and yet, with proper help and therapy they can, they can overcome it. Well, from agoraphobia, we then come to Aha, the famous one, obsessive compulsive disorder. OCD, in other words, a psychological disorder that is diagnosed when individual, an individual, continuously experiences distressing or frightening thoughts, engages in obsessions, repetitive thoughts or compulsions, repetitive behaviors in an attempt to calm these thoughts, or rather to calm anxiety, Stress, the effects of trauma or a sense of chaos inside their soul, and if they wash their hands 10 more times, it'll go away if they touch the door again and again and again, okay now and I'm okay if they scratch your nose 20 More times or drink 10 more cups of coffee, I'm all better for the moment. OCD, then another famous one, post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD, a medical. Syndrome that includes symptoms of anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares and social withdrawal. This is not only for those who have dealt with trauma because of abuse at the home or again, spousal abuse either way or other things. Quite often you find this in military vets, veterans. Historically, it's been called shell shock, and thankfully, we have a better term for this. But as I mentioned, PTSD can be anything traumatic stress disorder, after the event, after the experience, and again, getting the therapy and help to work through those issues. In addition to PTSD, we also look at dissociative disorder, a condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness and identity. Now this used to be called multiple personality disorder, but now it's called DID for short, or dissociative disorder, and people will black out that they'll lose track of time, any sense of time, for hours on end, then jump back to reality, or they revert back to they go, they assume a different identity. For instance, my name is Mark, but maybe I'm Jack for now, or Tom or Herbert or Henry. Or who am I? And I assume maybe a childhood form, a childhood personality, another personality that is maybe a teenager, where I'm acting more out like an adolescent. All a defense mechanism, going back to Freud, remember back in our defense mechanism talk in the other video, defense mechanisms trying to cope with the anxiety and situation. Now I meant and dissociative disorder is the extreme. Is the most acute version of our defense mechanisms going to overdrive and then getting into other reverting back to other personalities so that we can cope, but then losing track of time, stepping out of reality for a while and jumping back in only by God's grace. Well, there's also dissociative amnesia as well. It keeps breaking, going on other forms. This one is a psychological disorder that involves extensive but selective memory loss, but in which there is no physiological explanation for forgetting, there's no way of explaining. I felt this image properly explains and that picture is 1000 words, but it's as if you kind of
lose yourself, you lose that your mind for a minute towards the memory and or selective memory, and you just don't know why. Hence that disorder and from dissociative amnesia to dissociative fugue, where you truly lose touch of yourself, a psychological disorder in which an individual loses complete memory of his or her identity and may even assume a new one, often far from home, maybe assuming the identity of a shop owner or of a person who is or of a lawyer, and you find yourself in another city, another town, sounds extreme, but it has happened, or maybe in your own hometown, and You assume another identity in your mind, just goes there, and you just lose complete connection with your true person. Well, from that dissociative disorder, that's a mouthful, isn't it? Disassociative to dissociative identity disorder and the DI D we talked about that earlier. Again, another form of this, going back to dissociative disorder in general. This is, of course, the same way, but here's more specific, a psychological disorder in which two or more distinct in the image of interpersonalities exist in the same person. Now this is the multiple personality disorder I was talking about earlier. The other term that I talked about was more general. This is more specific, an extreme memory disruption regarding personal information about the other personalities. Now, by comparison, we have, again, the general definition, a condition that involves disruptions. Breakdowns of Memory Awareness, as I said, Now we look at DID in specific. We looked at fugue amnesia, and now with DID, this is where we say specific. Yes, you have other personalities. Yes, there's evidence that you are you are then switching personhoods identities, personalities, and you need help by getting back integrating those personalities. But then there's one more, and this is the host personality. This is what we from the whole study of what was of a woman named Sybil, and as we look at her, this personality in control of the body most of the time, where you have one of those personalities that we talked about earlier, again with with DID here, then you have this here. And what happens here is that you have an identity that completely takes over. Now you can make the argument that this could be demon possession, or just the fact that there is, in fact something in the brain that switches, and the brain is again complex. Do not take it lightly. Take it seriously, that there's in fact, something that switches, that takes over and becomes, there's a different host in the brain controlling that person could very well be spiritual, therefore demonic possession, as opposed to oppression, oppression, of course, Being just oppressed by demons, as opposed to then possessed by an actual demon, like Mark the Mark 5 example. But here we're looking at the psychological term and definition of what has been observed, critiqued, peer reviewed and also documented, as far as human behavior, where we don't necessarily see a demon speaking through that person, but what we see is we see another identity speaking to that person, like the adolescent identity, or maybe the child identity, or maybe it's a whole different identity who is of the same gender or the opposite gender, and a
person then behaves within that identity, and it's a total takeover, hence the host personality. So there's a lot to consider, a lot to take in. I'm sure that as you consider psychological disorders and ministry, these things will then become more understand. We have a part two coming up here in the next video that will help us look at mood disorders, bipolar and so on. Looking forward to it. See you then you.