Blog Post #12

According to the book, mental health workers believe that a psychological disorder is classified as something that is an ongoing pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions that are deviant, distressful, and/or dysfunctional. Just because a person is different, however, doesn't mean they have a psychological disorder. Some people simply think in different ways or have a different outlook on life than what is considered 'socially normal.'

I cannot really think of anyone in my life that suffers from a psychological disorder. A disorder I found interesting to read about was schizophrenia. This disorder literally means split mind. People with this disorder suffer from disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. Schizophrenic people often babble to themselves about random thoughts that pop into their heads. They sometimes suffer from delusions and usually have selective attention. They also have hallucinations and usually hear voices in their heads that tell them to do bad or inappropriate things. Schizophrenic sufferers may also exhibit improper emotions, like crying when something is funny or getting angry for no apparent reason. Life with this disorder would be very difficult and I would not wish it on anyone. The people suffering from it are often disconnected from reality and act totally unlike themselves. I would hate to have this disorder. Life would be really strange and depressing, in my opinion.

The most interesting thing I read about in the book was the thing about the Genain quadruplets. Twin sisters Nora, Iris, Myra, and Hester Genian are all genetically identical. The four sisters all suffer from some sort of schizophrenia. The chances of any four random people being diagnosed with the disease are 1 in 100 million, yet these sisters all have it.