Introduction
Mental health disorder entails a clinically significant disturbance in personal emotional regulation, behavior, or cognition. The traumagenic neurodevelopmental (TN) model of psychosis and self-schemas has been chosen as suitable for the case study of Suzanne. The TN model of psychosis evaluates existing knowledge of psychological and biological processes to explain the association between childhood traumas and psychosis. The model recommends increased sensitivity noted among people experiencing psychotic signs and symptoms that can be associated with trauma-induced neurodevelopmental alterations during the critical time of development. The self-schemas theory involves the thoughts and beliefs individuals have about them to organize information concerning the self. Hence, self-schemas are generalizations concerning the self that are abstracted from past encounters and acting in the current situation. Suzanne is a 28-years old single woman who has been feeling depressed and anxious for a longer period. The report uses the case study of Suzanne to explain her distress in light of causal theories/models.
Traumagenic Neurodevelopmental (TN) Model of Psychosis
The model aims to integrate psychological and biological research by outlining the similarities between the functional and structural abnormalities in the minds of mistreated children and adults diagnosed with mental disorders. It incorporates an understanding of the biological sequence of early childhood abuses with the knowledge of the psychological processes connecting early adversity to mental disorders is important both clinically and theoretically (Tomlinson, 2020). Traumatic events in life are a common risk aspect with the development of mental illnesses and are related to the creation of heterogeneous adult symptomatology. People experiencing traumas, for example, severe childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, bullying, mistreatment, and neglect disrupt their normal psychological and neurobiological development leading to mental illnesses (Tschoeke et al., 2022). In this case, Suzanne is experiencing anxiety and depression due to early childhood and adolescence life being full of violence and abuses.
In this case, the TN model relates to a Suzanne condition because of the bullying and violence in the house, she was not a happy child. She was raised in a family where her father was an alcoholic and her mother suffered from depression. She often experienced mistreatment and abuse from her father who used to say she was fat and stupid. The childhood traumas and psychosis are mediated by her loneliness (Tomlinson, 2020). In school, other students resorted to bullying her in a form of calling her name and excluding her from social networks.
Furthermore, emotional sensitivity is increased in psychosis and intensified psychological awareness in daily life activities forecasts the occurrence of psychosis signs and symptoms such as hearing voices. In the case study, Suzanne hears distressing voices due to negative emotional memories during her childhood and adolescents (Woods et al., 2022). She began to hear disturbing voices informing her that she was worthless, sometimes laughing at her appearance and thinking behavior.
Moreover, in line with the TN model, Suzanne feels disrupted in her perceptions and thoughts making it hard to recognize what is real and what is not. She often encounters hearing, seeing, and believing things that have strange and persistent behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. The model posits that early life stress encounters mixed with genetic risks leads to mental disorder. The key premise is the increased stress sensitivity that Suzanne is experiencing leading to a change in her behaviors (Van Os & Guloksuz, 2022). In addition, childhood trauma is associated with a heightened possibility of developing schizotypal traits, mostly with the dose-response association with positive features. Specifically, paranoid suspiciousness and sophisticated social cognitive skills were exhibited to be affected by trauma exposure in early childhood (O’Connor et al., 2022). She was prescribed to take anti-depressants, although this is not the case for her sufferings.
Further, the psychosis experience could be because of her feeling of loneliness. Feeling of anxiety and depression, negative and positive psychosis symptoms, and suicidal suspiciousness are associated with loneliness. This results in Suzanne having to experience low self-esteem, increased stress, and sleep problems. Further, mood disorders and severe stress can leads to psychosis as exhibited in Suzanne (Horowitz & Moncrieff, 2021). One can start experiencing these symptoms during their late teens to mid-twenties in their life.
Self-Schemas Theory
The theory provides a meaningful structure to study the adverse and complex outcomes related to interpersonal trauma. Interpersonal trauma entails any form of a traumatic event in which another person contributes to it, for instance, childhood maltreatment, domestic violence, child abuse, assault, neglect, and emotional abuse (Devendorf et al., 2020). Survivors of traumas tend to have increased rates of psychopathology, for example, depression or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as compared to those with non-interpersonal traumas (Ridley et al., 2020). In this case study, Suzanne has experienced childhood and adolescent maltreatment and abuse in her life. They can be linked with a high risk of her developing psychiatric disorders comprising dissociative, personality disorders, not eating, addiction, and posttraumatic stress and mood disorders (Ross et al., 2018). She witnessed violence in their house as they were living in poverty during her childhood and adolescence.
Moreover, evaluations and categorizations of a person’s behavioral and physical traits made both by the self and others are the ways by which schemas are developed. Suzanne’s hearing of disturbing voices may be explained by negative self-schemas caused by childhood traumas, abuse, and mistreatment at school and work. Early maladaptive schemas (EMS) may develop due to harmful interpersonal experiences. Self-schemas help people quickly organize and interpret information concerning the self (Göğebakan et al., 2019). Traumatic events she encountered during her childhood and adolescents violated the basic needs for guidance, affection, and safety.
Furthermore, self-schemas are connected to a range of psychological disorders typically presented in individuals with histories of interpersonal traumas comprising adult anxiety and depression as seen in Suzanne’s case. Further, in this perspective, a person is experiencing social phobia, anxiety, depression, eating disorder symptomatology, attachment difficulties, personality disorders, and self-harm behaviors (Ross et al., 2018). For example, she has neglected her self-care, lost weight due to failure to eat, she has dissolved most of her social networks, and feels life is not worth living.
Conclusion
The theories presented, self-schemas theory and TN model, are sufficient in explaining Suzanne in the case study. There is no need for additional theories to explain the case. For instance, the self-schemas model shows maladaptive schemas are associated with childhood and adolescent experiences with her father. In addition, childhood trauma is linked to her loneliness after all the social networks that Suzanne established were dissolved leaving her feeling lonely. The TN model, on the other hand, postulates that existing knowledge of psychological and biological processes to explain the association between childhood traumas and psychosis.
References
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