Psychological problems: symptoms, prevention of development

September 02, 2022

Where and how do various psychological problems ? I would like to answer this question based on my experience and describe in simple language the main causes of psychological problems. I will deliberately write as simply and clearly as possible, because my task is to highlight this issue not to specialists in the field of mental health, but to ordinary citizens who have these very problems. I will start from early childhood and talk about possible events due to which psychological problems – hereinafter referred to as “mental trauma” – can be formed.

Problems with mom. According to psychoanalytic tradition and theory, the very first events of a traumatic nature are the child-parent relationship. Psychological problems originate from early childhood until the end of puberty, when a teenager becomes a conditionally adult. However, not all teenagers, as well as physiologically mature people, manage to become adults and mature. Here I mean the mental immaturity of the individual. That is, a person can be 30 or 40 or more years old, and his psyche and behavior can be like that of a teenager. Why does this happen and what are the reasons for such phenomena? I will try to answer this question in this article.

The essence of psychological problems

The essence of difficulties is that they are felt, but not realized. Internal conflicts result in unwanted emotional reactions and behavior that upsets the person himself. He is not happy with himself and does not understand why he reacts to some life situations the way he does.

In some cases, a person seems to understand the reason. However, the work of the subconscious is so complex that it often turns out that in fact the problem lies in something completely different. For example, defiant behavior in adolescents actually reflects an unmet need for attention.

Another example. A woman thinks that her overeating is the result of stress, an irregular work schedule, and weak willpower. In fact, the unmet need for love is to blame; the woman experiences emotional hunger. And it happens that a person eats right and plays sports, but fails to lose weight. The reason is an unmet need for security (weight protects). However, this already has something to do with psychosomatics.

Current problems of modern psychology: age aspect and pedagogy

There are quite a lot of problems considered by modern psychology, but not all of them and do not always concern individual people. Only a few aspects of psychological science seriously affect the minds of the lion's share of the planet's inhabitants. One of them is the upbringing of a new generation, instilling in its representatives moral, ethical and other norms without erasing valuable individual characteristics and personal differences between individuals.

Age and crisis phenomena

If we touch upon the problems of developmental psychology, the specifics of mental development at each stage of life, the metamorphoses with priorities and life attitudes that occur at this time, become particularly important. Psychologists usually raise the topic of crises of a certain age, which, when creating favorable conditions, can play a creative role in personal formation. Such a crisis phenomenon is aimed at mastering new skills or social roles: defining the boundaries of freedom, the concept of duty, the ability to think critically, integrating into society, summing up what has already been achieved.

Educational measures and development

The main problems of educational psychology are interconnected with the previous factors influencing the development of personality. Psychologists and teachers realize the importance of teaching young members of society new knowledge, taking into account the characteristics of mental development. They try to time the use of certain educational and educational measures during sensitive periods, when the body becomes especially sensitive to specific types of external influence: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. Specialists take into account the different degrees of giftedness of children and their readiness for learning, including school education.

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Psychosomatics

Psychosomatics is a branch of medical psychology that studies the relationship between illness and stress. According to this theory, any internal conflict, suppressed emotions and needs result in bodily diseases. You can suspect a connection between the psychological and the somatic by analyzing a person’s speech:

• “Doesn’t let you breathe peacefully” – ac – gastrointestinal diseases;
• “I can’t digest it” – bowel disorder;
• “My backbone will soon break” - fatigue due to the abundance of responsibilities, hyper-responsibility.

At first glance, it seems that the psyche and physiology are in no way connected, but this is not so. Illness is the last desperate attempt of the subconscious to point out the problem. For example, sick leave allows you to take a break from work. And the disease allows a person to stop caring about others and get at least a little attention himself. Childhood illnesses can also be an attempt to reconcile parents.

The principle of the development of psychosomatics is this: internal conflict turns into chronic stress, which leads to hormonal disruption and depletion of the body’s main systems. The general immunity weakens, various diseases arise. And it happens that there are no physical disorders, but the symptoms are felt - this is also psychosomatics.

Accelerated pace of life

People began to cover long distances in a short time, which means that they are more likely to engage in any type of activity. Scientific development has made it possible to save time on some things, but at the same time it has also given the opportunity to spend the saved time on others. In the modern world, dependence on computer games and social networks is growing. And in this way, people only increase the stress on the psyche instead of resting; the brain is increasingly overloaded. This is confirmed by many psychological studies. Psychological problems caused by the fast pace of life in society are a real scourge of our time, psychologists say.

We should not ignore the painful signals of our psyche and engage in the prevention of psychological disorders. If there is no way out of a problematic situation, then it would be optimal to simply switch to something distracting and more useful. Sometimes an excellent solution to psychological problems is to visit a psychologist.

Types of psychological problems

There are dozens of types of neuroses, syndromes, and disorders. It is not possible to list them all. Let us draw attention to the main socio-psychological problems of the individual, the relevance of which is noted by modern experts (current requests in the psychologist’s office):

• complexes;
• low self-esteem;
• diffidence;
• phobias;
• indecision;
• impulsiveness and unpredictability;
• tired of life;
• increased anxiety;
• loneliness;
• betrayal and conflicts in the family;
• dependence on other people's opinions;
• pathological attachment, falling in love;
• addictions;
• depression;
• crises;
• destruction (self-destructive behavior);
• dysmorphophobia (non-acceptance of one's appearance).

In a broad sense, the following groups of conflicts can be distinguished:

• difficulties in the field of communications;
• family troubles and family crises;
• age-related crises, for example, during the teenage crisis, the risk of behavioral disorders increases;
• failures in the labor sphere;
• difficulties in interacting with the opposite sex;
• complexities of personality development and formation.

In psychology, there is no generally accepted classification of types of psychological problems. Let's look at some of them. What are the psychological problems and difficulties:

1. By level of manifestation: cognitive, emotional, behavioral.
2. By their nature: primary (the cause of other disorders) and secondary (the consequence of other difficulties).
3. By time of manifestation: old, new and chronic.

By nature, difficulties can be obvious or unobvious. The subject guesses about the presence of the former. If we are talking about hidden conflicts, then a person, as a rule, does not notice them. For example, few people understand that they are programmed for self-destruction. In this case, there seems to be no conflict, because the person himself is not aware of it, but in fact there is a contradiction.

A specific type is contrived difficulties. This is similar to hypochondria: a person invents symptoms for himself, makes diagnoses and believes in it.

Interesting! In 2019-2020, the phenomenon of making up diagnoses became especially popular. In youth circles, it is considered fashionable and cool to have psychological disorders; every second person has panic attacks, depression, bipolar, or the like. Of course, this is not true in reality, but some people sincerely believe it. Self-hypnosis can provoke the development of a real disease.

I also work with problems such as:

• Difficult life situations;
• crisis situations, which may include the loss of loved ones, breakups, divorces, loss of beloved animals and something valuable to you;
• family conflicts;
• feeling of apathy;
• depressive states;
• increased anxiety;
• loss of meaning in life;
• fears and phobias;
• panic attacks;
• inadequate self-esteem (low self-esteem or too high, divorced from reality);
• problems in professional fulfillment (conflicts at work, lack of understanding of what to do next and what to do, stay in the old place or look for a new place of work, the issue of self-determination, the issue of personal development);
• lack of self-confidence and constant avoidance of responsibility.

If something resonated with you while reading the text and it seems to you that the situation and symptoms described in the article are similar to your case, and you would like to solve this problem, contact me - psychologist, psychoanalytic therapist Andrei Filippov . I will be glad to be of assistance to you.

I am always near.

Structure of psychological problems

There are socio-psychological problems of different structures. Psychologist N.D. Linde identified the following problem structures:

1. A person’s feelings are aimed at achieving a goal, but something interferes with this. In this case, the goal and obstacle can be both real and fictitious.
2. The feeling is aimed at getting rid of the obstacle. In this case, the obstacle can be real or imagined, internal or external.
3. There are no obvious obstacles on the way to the goal, but the person himself cannot decide whether he needs it or not, he experiences conflicting feelings (he cannot decide).
4. A person experiences two equally strong feelings in relation to two contradictory and incompatible objects (cannot choose).
5. The feeling is aimed at getting rid of the obstacle, but for this you will have to interact with another unwanted object (subject, conditions). A person has to choose the lesser of two evils; he cannot avoid the choice.

Thus, the structure of a psychological problem includes a person, a goal, feelings and an obstacle. To determine the psychological nature of the problem, you need to focus on its origins; they are always connected with the inner world of the individual (beliefs, ideas, needs). For example, if in his dreams a person is successful, but in real life this is not the case, then he becomes disappointed, dissatisfied with himself, and angry.

Concept and essence

In psychology, the concept of “problem” has several meanings.
To identify difficulties that are psychological in nature, you need to focus on the root of their occurrence. For a psychological problem, it is internal: it is associated with a person’s idea of ​​the world, himself, and interpersonal interactions. Psychological problems often have subtle symptoms and interfere with implementation in several areas of life. There are 4 main zones that affect psychological problems:

1. Individual difficulties. Closely related to physicality. A person who has disorders in this area often has physical health problems. He has obvious or imaginary flaws in appearance, sexual dysfunction, and may have a disability or chronic illness.
2. Subjective difficulties. Associated with the implementation of purposeful actions. People who have problems in this area have a weak will, a low level of intelligence, and they do not have enough motivation for self-development. Subjective problems not only limit opportunities, but also prevent them from looking for ways out of difficult situations.
3. Personal difficulties. They prevent a person from being a full-fledged member of society and participating in social life. Such people have low self-esteem and do not feel part of the group.
4. Individual difficulties. Associated with self-realization. The most difficult type of problem to understand because it is difficult to describe and classify. Such problems include fears associated with life losses: the sudden death of loved ones, illness, a feeling of emptiness, loss of the meaning of life.

Almost every person has psychological problems, but the level of psychological literacy remains low. Often a person lives with a problem all his life, not realizing that he can get rid of it. Therefore, it is important to be able to notice the symptoms and get rid of them in time.

Losing the meaning of life

Causes of difficulties

Difficulties have psychological, social and physiological prerequisites.

Psychological reasons include:

• unmet needs;
• living against one's nature;
• systematic suppression of feelings, emotions, desires.

In simple words, a person either worries that he is missing something, or suffers from the fact that he cannot get rid of something. One way or another, we are talking about self-suppression. This is what makes the individual unhappy.

Interesting! For most people, the habit of suppressing emotions, feelings and desires appears in childhood, when parents keep repeating: “Don’t scream”, “Don’t cry”, “You’ll get by”, “This is impossible”, “I don’t want a lot of things either, but necessary".

The second group of psychological prerequisites is strong emotional shocks or many minor experiences. For example, the death of someone close is a strong shock. An example of frequent minor shocks is systematic humiliation, insults, and beatings.

Social and psychological reasons include:

• poverty or unstable income, delays in payments, dim prospects;
• unemployment;
• unstable situation in society;
• drastic changes in life (divorce, move, job change, dismissal, wedding, retirement).

In addition, physiological causes of psychological problems can be identified. Prolonged or severe illness, head injuries, tumors, intoxication, hormonal imbalance can also cause disturbances. Abnormal functioning of neurotransmitters leads to depression, anxiety disorders, apathy, irritability and other problems.

Low self-esteem

The main psychological problem, according to most psychologists, is the low self-esteem of a huge number of people.

Low self-esteem can affect various aspects of a person's life. People with low self-esteem tend to say a lot of negative things about themselves. They may criticize themselves, their actions and abilities, or joke about themselves with sarcasm. People with low self-esteem tend to doubt themselves or blame themselves when they encounter any obstacles along the way. They may also not recognize their positive qualities. When someone with low self-esteem receives compliments, they may simply think that they are being flattered or that their positive qualities are being exaggerated.

These people don't value their abilities and focus on what they haven't done or the mistakes they've made. People with low self-esteem may expect that they will not succeed. They often feel depressed and anxious. Low self-esteem can affect your performance at work or school. People with low confidence achieve less than people with adequate self-esteem because they believe that they are less worthy and capable than others.

This category of people tends to avoid problems, fearing that they will not cope. People who do not value themselves may work very hard and force themselves to overwork because they believe that they need to hide imaginary shortcomings. They have a hard time believing any positive results they receive. Low self-esteem makes a person shy and very shy, not believing in his own abilities.

Symptoms

You can suspect the presence of psychological problems by the mental and somatic reactions of the body:

• headache and dizziness;
• nausea;
• loss of appetite (overeating or refusal to eat);
• dyspepsia;
• numbness and icing of the limbs;
• periodic tingling or pain in different parts of the body;
• gastrointestinal disorder;
• sleep problems (insomnia, frequent awakenings, trouble falling asleep);
• apathy and lethargy, especially in the morning;
• chronic fatigue;
• frequent colds;
• exacerbation of chronic diseases;
• chills and tremors;
• sexual dysfunction (decreased desire, impotence, inability to get pleasure, etc.).

Interpersonal conflicts

Another area that is studied by both practical and scientific (theoretical) psychology is various kinds of conflicts.

Open and unobvious conflicts with other people are harmful to a person’s mental activity and represent a serious problem of a socio-psychological nature. These conflicts can be classified:

• Family conflicts (different values, problematic relationships with children, sexual dissatisfaction, feelings of misunderstanding and resentment, betrayal, divorce).
• Conflicts in the workplace (conflict situations, emotional stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress, dissatisfaction, aggression, the feeling that this interferes with mutual understanding, work and career advancement).
• Conflicts with friends and family (psychological irritation, envy, painful jealousy, resentment).
• Conflicts with strangers (street conflicts, in vehicles, indoors with strangers).

Diagnosis of mental state

The best diagnostic method is consultation with a psychologist. During the conversation, observing the client’s reactions and analyzing his answers, the specialist identifies the true reason. Ancillary tests are used to confirm the diagnosis. By the way, testing can also be done at home. However, it is important to remember that a diagnosis is never made based on the results of one test.

Important! In some cases, the problem is hidden so deep in the subconscious that it can only be identified through hypnosis.

Like diagnostic methods, technology for solving psychological problems is selected on an individual basis. In general, to solve the problem, the psychologist builds interaction with the client according to the following algorithm:

1. Establishing contact, building trust.
2. Client's confession. A detailed story about what worries him, a description of problems and feelings.
3. Clarifying dialogue. The psychologist asks questions, clarifies what the client said, gives hints, guides him to solve the problem and helps the person understand himself.
4. Solution to the problem. The client himself realizes and finds a way out of the current situation.

Thus, during psychotherapy the client receives the following:

• awareness of true problems, cause-and-effect relationships;
• release of emotions;
• searching for and making an adequate decision;
• accepting what cannot be changed and adapting to it;
• personal growth and the ability to better understand oneself and others.

The specific rehabilitation plan depends on the nature of the situation and the individual characteristics of the client. A psychologist has hundreds of different methods in his arsenal.

EARLY RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHOICE

A conscious choice is an important acquisition for a growing person. In this way, we can ease our experiences in a given situation. However, choosing your future profession, choosing which subjects a student will have to take in exams is often very difficult. Can this situation be changed?

Situation No. 6: “Where to go to study”

Yana is 15 years old, she is a 9th grade student. At the beginning of the year, the class teacher announced that now all students are adults, and therefore they need to make an independent choice of the subjects that they will take in the final exams and which will allow them to decide on a profession in the future.

For Yana, this issue turned out to be difficult. Her parents never talked to her about her future life and were not interested in what she wanted to be. Communication with parents always came down to everyday problems. And then there’s the choice... Yana turned to her class teacher for help, but heard in response: “With your knowledge, you’ll become a janitor, you’re a mediocre girl.” The circle is closed.

When analyzing the results of psychological diagnostics, it turned out that the girl could not choose either subjects for exams or her future profession. Yana herself noted that she was very afraid of the end of the school year and the upcoming exams, and she would no longer consult anyone other than a psychologist.

Why did it happen so?

Parents showed passive participation in this work. In their opinion, Yana herself will decide who to be and what to become, and will choose an educational institution.

What to do?

I called my parents. I had to put a little pressure on their feelings and experiences at this age - and it worked!

The girl’s mother suddenly opened up and said that the only reason she didn’t have an education was because her parents never talked to her about it. Her tactics have changed. She started talking with her daughter about different professions, even went with her to some educational institutions so that Yana could see for herself what student life is like and understand that studying is not scary, but even interesting!

Joint viewing of thematic programs, reading books and discussing various situations related to the formation of independent choice led Yana to decide on the profession of a nurse.

How to make an independent choice for your child? The answer is simple. Help the student choose the field of activity that he likes. Talk to your child about the future, because... your passivity will negatively affect his future life, and it shouldn’t be that way.

Prevention of the development of psychological problems

To prevent the development of psychological problems, you need to increase your awareness, learn to understand your true needs and satisfy them, learn to understand and express your feelings and emotions, and adapt to those circumstances that cannot be changed.