FAD3432: Chapters 7-12

Internalizing Disorder

A mental illness involving a major disturbance in mood and emotions. May include symptoms such as anxiety, sadness, worry, and guilt. Mood disorders and anxiety disorders are the two main types of internalizing disorders.

Externalizing Disorders

A mental illness involving aggressive, impulsive, and/or delinquent behaviors. Can occur as mild of very severe acting out behaviors. Two two main types of externalizing disorders are disruptive behavior disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders.

Adolescence

Ages 13-19. Typically the time period when children develop problems with substance abuse. More than half of children graduating high school have had some sort of alcohol. Substance abuse has declined in the past few decades. Although less middle schoolers are abusing substances, more children graduating high school are doing this. Childhood disinhibition to substances can make a child in adolescence more likely to abuse. Adolescents lacking self control were at greater risk for abuse. Authoritative parenting leads to reduced risk of a child to develop problems.

Age and Mental Illness

As children get older, their chance of developing mental illness increases. In older age, limited mobility can lead to major depression, and diseases like alzheimer's can make individuals feel like a burden on others. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in children ages 10-24. 90% of these children that commit suicide had some sort of mental illness.

Non-Alcohol Specific Effects

Effects of having an alcoholic parent that a are directly tied with alcohol-specific behaviors. These effects represent the family environment related to children's deviant behavior, cognition, and substance use. Supervision, nurturance, and discipline all reflect the operation of non-substance-specific influences. Low income, parental aggression, and low marital satisfaction can also influence and child and make them more likely to abuse substances. Childhood maladjustment can lead to a future of abuse.

EE

Emotional over-involvement among family members and critical displays from family members. Persons with mental illnesses are more likely to relapse after treatment if they have high-EE family members as opposed to low-EE family members. HIgh-EE family members tend to think blame mentally ill family members for their abnormal behavior. Low-EE family members tend to think that the mental illness is out of their control and that their behavior is a product of the illness. Realizing that some factors are within the patients' control and others are not is the healthiest way for the family to approach an illness. Abnormal behaviors are separate from the personality of the family member and are a side effect of their illness.

Bidirectional Processes

Feedback loops can lead to more substance abuse in a parent-child relationship. Ex. Children with alcoholic parents are more likely to have behavioral problems. These behavior problems may influence the parent to drink more, causing an endless cycle of actions and emotions, doing more damage to the relationship. To avoid this cycle, parents may need family support, training in coping responses, and social policies such as parental leave to alleviate parenting stress.

Males vs. Females

Males tend to give in more to the impulsivity/ high sensation seeking side of them more than females. This accounts for higher substance abuse in males in adolescence. Parenting is related to adolescent depression which puts a child at higher risk for substance abuse.

Prevalence

New and existing mental illnesses that have been observed during a set period or during one point in the past.

Mental Health and Mental Illness

Occur on a continuum, opposing each other on opposite ends. Mental health is adequate mental function, fulfilling relationships with others, and ability to adapt and cope with adversity. Mental illness is a health condition characterized by changes in thinking, mood, or behavior that is associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.

Children with PTSD

Often occurs when sexual assault is added to a mix of family alcohol problems, having been a witness to violence, and having been a victim of sexual assault. Sexual assault typically causes a child great trauma and they tend to use avoidant coping strategies such as alcohol use.

Alcohol-Specific Behaviors

Refers to behaviors of parents with respect to alcohol and how their behaviors relate to their child's behavior and cognition. Ex. Children with parents that drank heavily were more likely to currently be not only drinking, but drinking more than others.

Incidence

Refers to the number of new people with a certain illness during a set amount of time.

Epidemiologist

Study disease patterns in a given population in order to determine how many people in the population suffer from any given illness.

Lifetime Prevalence Rate

The number of people who will have a disorder sometime in their lives.

12-Month Prevalence Rate

The number of person who have experienced a certain disorder in the past year.

Prevention and Treatment

The person with the substance abuse problem needs attention and help, but so do the rest of the people in the family system. The stress and coping model highlights the importance of at components- stressors, perceptions, resources, problem-solving skills, etc.- found in families dealing with substance abuse.

Gender Differences in Mental Illness

Women have higher rates of affective (mood) and anxiety disorders. Men have higher rates of substance abuse, impulse control, and antisocial personality disorders. Men commit suicide four times more than women do, but women attempt suicide up to three times more often than men. Men are just more successful. Women are more likely to seek help if they have a mental health issue. Men tend to seek inpatient help, and women seek outpatient. So when men actually do seek help, they are often more successful than women at treating their illness.