Signs and Symptoms - X

Posted by Sam Vaknin Dec 1, 2006

Negativism

In catatonia, complete opposition and resistance to suggestion.

Neologism

In schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, the invention of new "words" which are meaningful to the patient but meaningless to everyone else. To form the neologisms, the patient fuses together and combines syllables or other elements from existing words.

Obsession

Recurring and intrusive images, thoughts, ideas, or wishes that dominate and exclude other cognitions. The patient often finds the contents of his obsessions unacceptable or even repulsive and actively resists them, but to no avail. Common in schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessions in the Narcissistic Personality Disorder - click on this link

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/faq30.html

Panic Attack

A form of severe anxiety attack accompanied by a sense of losing control and of an impending and imminent life-threatening danger (where there is none). Physiological markers of panic attacks include palpitation, sweating, tachycardia (rapid heart beats), dyspnea or apnea (chest tightening and difficulties breathing), hyperventilation, light-headedness or dizziness, nausea, and peripheral paresthesias (an abnormal sensation of burining, prickling, tingling, or tickling). In normal people it is a reaction to sustained and extreme stress. Common in many mental health disorders.

Sudden, overpowering feelings of imminent threat and apprehension, bordering on fear and terror. There usually is no external cause for alarm (the attacks are uncued or unexpected, with no situational trigger) - though some panic attacks are situationally-bound (reactive) and follow exposure to "cues" (potentially or actually dangerous events or circumstances). Most patients display a mixture of both types of attacks (they are situationally predisposed).

Bodily manifestations include shortness of breath, sweating, pounding heart and increased pulse as well as palpitations, chest pain, overall discomfort, and choking. Sufferers often describe their experience as being smothered or suffocated. They are afraid that they may be going crazy or about to lose control.

Paranoia

Psychotic grandiose and persecutory delusions. Paranoids are characterized by a paranoid style: they are rigid, sullen, suspicious, hypervigilant, hypersensitive, envious, guarded, resentful, humorless, and litigious. Paranoids often suffer from paranoid ideation - they believe (though not firmly) that they are being stalked or followed, plotted against, or maliciously slandered. They constantly gather information to prove their "case" that they are the objects of conspiracies against them. Paranoia is not the same as Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is a subtype of schizophrenia.

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