According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), pyromania is typically diagnosed after multiple episodes of deliberate and purposeful fire setting. People with this disorder are extremely fascinated by fire and are often regular “watchers” at fires, may set off false fire alarms, and receive…
Tourette’s Disorder is a continuous, hereditary neuropsychiatric (attributed to the nervous system) disorder that involves bodily and vocal spasms/tics that first started in childhood. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)* has made a distinction between the incessant/chronic tics and those tics that have existed for…
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)*, Inhalant Use Disorder is diagnosed when people use inhalants (aerosols, gases, nitrites and solvents) for a psychoactive effect. (The chemicals that are misused as inhalants are contained in a variety of household products.) People inhale the chemicals…
Gambling continuously and repeatedly to the point where it causes problems in a person’s life and anxiousness is deemed a Gambling Disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)*. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), it is estimated that two million—or one…
Cocaine is made from the leaves of a coca plant native to South America. A powerfully addictive stimulant, its use has serious short and long-term health effects. In addition, there’s risk of great harm when cocaine is taken with alcohol, heroin and other substances. One of the most frequent and…
The urge to steal items can’t be resisted, and they really don’t need or even want the things they steal. They can afford to buy the items, but there’s an impulse to steal, and it’s out of control. Kleptomania is a type of impulse control disorder that, in spite of…
You watch it on television, where a person can barely walk in his house because of stacks of papers and boxes piled on top of one another. The person sometimes can’t use the kitchen or living room, because there are so many things covering every square inch of the floor…
Individuals with Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) usually have prevalent distrust and suspicion of other people that has lasted for a long time. They will almost always distrust other people’s intentions, sometimes even thinking their motives are evil. While there is no evidence to support their beliefs, people with the disorder…
Personality disorders are described as long-standing and lasting patterns of behavior. It is uncommon for them to be diagnosed during childhood or in adolescence primarily because at this age the individual is in development, is undergoing personality changes and is maturing. That is why Adult Antisocial Behavior (AAB) (DSM-5)* is…
Pica is an eating disorder in which someone suffers from the recurring urge to eat non-food items. Many of these compulsive cravings involve harmless items, but in some cases, pica disorder can cause fatal reactions to poisonous objects and substances that someone eats. Adults may be aware of the risks…
As it relates to the DSM-5, the most important thing to understand about diagnosing Autism is that it’s now “Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This means that Autism (as described in the DSM-IV), Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder have been replaced with one umbrella diagnosis: autism spectrum disorder…
My name is Alicia Potts and I have two sons with autism. When my older son, Nicholas, was two we noticed he was not talking. The doctors told us he could just be a late talker and to see how the next six months went. Six months later, there was…
