Three Basic Types Of Emotional Upsets

Emotional upsets may be broadly classified under three basic headings:

(1) The Neuroses.

Less severe, the neuroses may permit a person to go to work daily. But some neuroses are more disabling than others. The neurotic person suffers from "anxiety", a constant feeling of dread and indecision, of being unsettled and distracted. This anxiety may manifest itself in depression, phobias, repetitive thoughts and acts and other such symptoms.

(2) The Psychotic.

The psychotic may be aware of his environment. Although he may be unable to deal with it satisfactorily, he is able to recognise and identify it. In more severe situations, the psychotic substitutes an unreal world of his own making and reacts to that safe and secure world rather than to the real world around him.

(3) Personality Disorders.

These are difficulties in adjustment that manifest themselves in disturbed behaviour, such as we see in the drug addict, the chronic alcoholic and the delinquent. Hypertension, peptic ulcers and ulcerative colitis are frequently associated with this type of disorder. There can be overlapping of these three basic types and a blurring of differences as well. The physician is the only one who can make the diagnosis, and determine if nutritional therapy can be of help.