HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Today people live in a fast paced fast changing world. Daily we are assailed by a series of crises ranging from international relations relating to the nuclear arms race and the threat of war to domestic issues such as employment opportunities, crime in the streets, environmental pollution, and the spiraling upward cost of living. 

The list of situations with which we all deal on a daily basis is endless and mind-boggling.

Additionally, we must deal with more personal situations such as working while managing a household. Usually, we all cope with our situations successfully. Sometimes, however, we feel overwhelmed and we become mentally ill. 

Perhaps a physical problem an accident or a chemical imbalance in the body causes mental illness.

Many people have brief periods of mental illness and then seem to recover completely. Others suffer from mental disorders for most of their lives. 

Regardless of the cause or the duration of the mental illness, it is important for you to be able to recognize and treat or refer for treatment any individual with mental health difficulties.

Intense physiological processes are continually taking place in the human body. 

Any disturbance or change from the delicate homeostatic balances in the body will result in severe consequences for the individual. 

Correct diagnosis and correct treatment are both necessary to remedy the situation. 

Characteristics of Normal Behavior

An individual who behaves normally has the following attributes: 

o   He is capable of changing his actions as the situation requires.

o   He has insight into cause and effect. 

o    He is oriented to time, place, and person. He may not know the exact date without looking at a calendar, but he does know the month, year, and where he is. 

o   His perception of reality is such that he knows who he is

o   He may or may not know why he behaves as he does at all times (usually he knows why). 

o   His motivations are purposeful. He does not wander aimlessly through life but is in control of himself and his environment.

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND DEFENSE MECHANISM

Defense Mechanisms are man's way of dealing with the stress good or bad. We live in a complicated world full of many pleasurable events but also full of strains and hassles.

Life strains include chronic conditions of living that are unsatisfactory such as boredom, continuing family tension, job dissatisfaction, and loneliness.

Hassles include irritating, frustrating, or distressing incidents that occur in everyday life such as disagreements with fellow workers, unpleasant surprises.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Defense mechanisms are mental maneuvers, conscious or subconscious, performed by the ego (one's self) in order to decrease feelings of anxiety or stress.

Defense mechanisms begin to operate spontaneously and unconsciously when the self is threatened. If there are too many emergencies for the self, the self may overuse defense mechanisms with the result that the person does not really see reality. 

We all rationalize occasionally, and that is a good thing because rationalization can reduce stress. It is not a good thing to base all our judgments consistently on rationalizations; that would be overuse.

Specific Defense Mechanisms

Specific Defense Mechanisms are as follows:

o    Denial of Reality

Denial of reality is the simplest and most basic of all defense mechanisms.

It is the attempt to blank out any disagreeable reality by ignoring it or refusing to acknowledge it.

o    Repression

In this defense mechanism, the individual uses "selected forgetting." Threatening or painful thoughts and desires are excluded from his consciousness. 

o    Rationalization

An individual justifies his inconsistent or undesirable behavior by thinking up "explanations" which on the surface seem logical but, when examined, are illogical. 

o    Fantasy

Daydreaming or other forms of imaginative activity allow an escape from the real world. 

o    Projection

A person protects himself from the awareness of his own undesirable traits or unacceptable feelings by charging these traits or feelings are characteristic of someone else.

o    Overcompensation

A person covers up a weakness by overemphasizing some desirable characteristic or making up for frustration in one area by over gratification in another area. 

o    Conversion

An individual has emotional conflicts which are expressed in muscular, sensory, or bodily symptoms of disability, malfunctioning, or pain. 

o    Identification

A person tries to raise his own self-esteem by patterning his behavior after the behavior of another person, often his boss. The person may accept his boss's values and beliefs and even vicariously share his boss's victories and defeats. 

o    Regression

A person returns to reaction patterns he has long since outgrown. 

o    Emotional Insulation

Characteristics of this defense mechanism include resignation, apathy, and boredom. 

The individual breaks emotional involvement with the environment; he draws back from any emotional or personal involvement. 

o    Reaction Formation

The individual suppresses his real thoughts and attitudes (the ones which are unacceptable in his group) and vigorously supports the opposite attitudes (ones which are acceptable in his group). 

o    Displacement

An individual can't direct impulses at the appropriate target; therefore, he directs his impulses at a substitute target. 

o    Ritualistic Behavior

Some little act performed by the individual will magically, he thinks, make everything turn out all right. 

o    Negativism

An individual actively or passively resists ideas without consciously realizing he is doing so. 

NEUROTIC AND PSYCHOTIC BEHAVIOUR

The word Neurosis can be defined as emotional maladjustments which damage the individual's ability to think and make proper judgments but which cause minimal loss of contact with reality. The behaviour of such a person is termed neurotic behaviour.

For a person exhibiting neurotic behaviour, the usual ways of coping with daily living are proving inadequate, and the person is relying more and more on extreme defensive reactions. 

These defense reactions may help temporarily, but in the long run they are unsatisfactory. 

·         Types of Neurotic and Psychotic Behavior

Anxiety Neurosis

An individual suffering from anxiety neurosis has exaggerated uncontrollable anxiety and apprehension.

Anxiety disorders are fairly common in our society. Roughly two to four percent of the population has been diagnosed, at one time or another, as having some type of anxiety disorder. 

Signs and symptoms of anxiety neurosis include:

o   A rather constant state of tension,

o   Worry

o   General uneasiness. Such individuals are often oversensitive in people-to- people relationships and frequently have feelings of inadequacy and depression. 

o   Emotional tension frequently leads to physical tensions which cause neck and upper shoulder muscular pain and sleep disturbances of insomnia and nightmares. Decision making is difficult, and after the decision is made, the individual may worry excessively over possible disasters that may occur. 

o   Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - An Obsessive-Compulsive person feels he must do something even though he does not want to do the thing. For example, a compulsion to wash his hands, though there is no logical reason to do so, is typical of a person exhibiting obsessive-compulsive behaviour. 

Hysterical Neurosis

In this type of neurosis, the individual loses emotional control, or develops some physical symptoms, when there seems to be no underlying cause for either. 

For example, student aviators have been found to develop vision problems and hearing problems as well as partial numbness of the tongue although there was no physical reason for such symptoms.

The symptoms were unwittingly developed by the students as a defense mechanism to a stressful situation. Physical illness gave the students an acceptable way to stop flying. Just leaving the flight training program was obviously not acceptable to these students

Phobic Neurosis

A phobic neurosis is a persistent fear of some object or situation that is no real danger to the person or a situation in which the person magnifies a danger out of all proportion to reality. 

Phobic Neuroses should not be confused with normal fears. 

Depressive Neurosis

It is difficult to distinguish between "normal depression" and "abnormal depression" which could be termed depressive neurosis. From time to time, very well adjusted people feel sad, discouraged, pessimistic, and a sense of hopelessness. When these feelings all come together, we say we have the "blues." Such feelings usually go away on their own and we get on with our lives.

A state of neurotic depression is different in that this type of depression is more severe and lasts longer. 

Additionally, a person suffering from a depressive neurosis does not bounce back to normal after a reasonable period of time. 

Usually, a traumatic event led to the depression, an event the person can relate. 

Psychotic Behaviour

Just as there is no real line between "normal" and "neurotic" behaviour, there is no definite line between "neurotic" and "psychotic" behaviour.

A person suffering from psychosis has a severe mental illness marked by loss of contact with reality.

On the other hand, the person suffering from a neurosis has only a minimal loss of contact with reality but has emotional problems that may impair his thinking and judgment. 

Alcoholic Psychosis

There are several alcoholic psychoses. 

They are pathological intoxication, delirium tremens, and acute alcoholic hallucinosis. These conditions are classified as psychoses because there is a temporary loss of contact with reality.

Individuals who experience these conditions may have reactions which last only a short period of time. During such time, these individuals are confused, excited, and delirious.

Acute Alcoholic Hallucinosis

In this condition, the patient appears normal, but he hears a voice.

  

Initially, there is one voice making simple statements. Eventually, there are several voices issuing statements which are criticizing or reproaching the person. 

These voices attack the person's most private thoughts, list and discuss the thoughts, and propose punishments. 

This condition may last several days or several weeks during which time the patient is depressed but otherwise relatively normal.

The psychotic symptoms experienced by the person seem to be triggered by alcohol, but he may have a broad range of inappropriate behavior not part of the acute alcoholic hallucinosis.

Pathological Intoxication

This condition is an acute reaction that occurs in people with a low alcohol tolerance. 

The condition can also occur in someone whose alcohol tolerance is low at the moment from such causes as exhaustion, emotional stress, or other conditions.

For these individuals, consuming even moderate amounts of alcohol can cause the person to suddenly become disoriented and go into a homicidal rage.  

Following the confused, disoriented state, the person usually falls into a deep sleep after which he may not remember anything that happened during the time he was confused.

Delirium Tremens

Otherwise known as the DTs, delirium tremens is an acute mental illness, a psychotic reaction sometimes caused by withdrawal from alcohol. 

A prolonged alcoholic binge, a head injury, or an infection may also trigger delirium tremens. 

 Signs and symptoms of this condition include the following:

• Feeling of disorientation of time and place.  

• Patient may believe he is in a church or jail, will not recognize old friends, but will believe hospital attendants are old friends.

• Vivid hallucinations. An individual may think he sees small, fast- moving animals like snakes, rats, and roaches.

Acute Fear

A person may see these small animals change in form, size, or color in terrifying ways.

Tremors - Marked tremors of hands, tongue, and lips. Hands, tongue, and lips shake uncontrollably and strongly.

Drugs and Poison Intoxication

Both drugs and poison can act as intoxicating agents (intoxicants) causing psychosis (loss of contact with reality). 

Fever and Infection

Both a high fever and/or a severe infection can cause behavioral changes which can be psychotic in nature.  

Syphilis, encephalitis, and meningitis are such diseases.  

An individual with an untreated case of syphilis undergoes both physical and psychological (personality) changes. These changes range from becoming careless and inattentive in the disease's initial stages to spending money on impossible schemes as well as performing antisocial acts publicly in later stages of the disease.

Cerebral Infections

A Cerebrovascular accident, brain trauma, brain tumor, or cerebral arteriosclerosis can result in psychotic behavior.

Damage or even small pressure in the brain may cause marked pressure and cause impairment of the normal functioning of the brain.  

Damage may cause hallucinations and a general impairment in the individual's intellectual processes with the result that he loses touch with reality, behaving psychotically.