Chapter 11

ABNORMAL REACTIONS TO FRUSTRATION

Introduction
Frustration is mans emotional response when where is a hindrance towards his
goals. It may be in the form of disappointment or anger. If it becomes so intensed
and defense mechanisms become inadequate, he may develop abnormal
reactions and if these reactions become disorganized and exaggerated then it
would lead to abnormal behavior. But if he is successful in overcoming these
hindrances, then that makes his existence on earth more colorful and
meaningful.

Frustration Defined
Mosbys Medical Dictionary defined frustration as a feeling that results from
interference with ones ability to attain a desired goal or satisfaction.
Frustration occurs if there is hindrance or opposition to the attainment of
individual will. The higher the obstacle and the higher the will, the more the
frustration is likely to be.

Factors that Causes Frustration

The different factors that cause frustrations are as follows:
1. Environmental Frustration This is caused by conditions that are
beyond the control of an individual from fulfilling his desires.
2. Personal Frustration This is due to inadequacies and disabilities that
impede individual goals.

Forms of Abnormal Reactions

An abnormal reaction has two forms. They are neurosis and psychosis:

1. Neurosis as defined by Websters New World Dictionary is a chronic

disorder featuring irritability of the nervous system and characterized by
anxiety and/or extreme behavior dedicated to avoid anxiety situations.

There are different types of psychoneurosis. These are the follows:

1.1 Anxiety Neurosis It is a mental disorder characterized by extreme fear
or panic for no obvious causes. The most common forms of anxiety
neurosis are neurasthenia and hypochondria.
Neurasthenia is a condition characterized by irritability, fatigue, headache,
and insomnia that believed to be a product of depression, emotional
stress, or conflict.
Hypochondria is a mental disorder characterized by excessive and
irrational fear concerning the health condition of someone even in the
actual/physical symptoms of the disease or absence of medical
examination.
1.2 Phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by irrational and
unjustifiable fear of an object or situation that causes panic and
avoidance. Phobias can treated with cognitive behavior therapy, using
exposure and fear-reduction techniques.
1.3 Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD) is an anxiety disorder
involving repetitive thoughts and urges to perform certain rituals.
1.4 Neurotic Depression This is a form of depression characterized by
overreaction to distressing event with more than usual sadness and failure
to recover within reasonable period of time.
1.5 Conversion Reaction This is a form of hysterical neurosis in which the
impulse causing anxiety is converted into functional symptoms of the
special senses or voluntary nervous system. Examples are:
a. Hysterical Paralysis inability to move the voluntary muscles.
b. Hysterical Motion inability to speak or move the mouth to speak.
c. Hysterical Deafness inability to hear even there is no cause for it.
d. Hysterical Anesthesia loss of sensitivity or the sense of touch.
e. Hysterical Blindness inability to see although medical findings show that
nothing is wrong with the eyes.
1.6 Dissociative Reactions - A neurotic disorder leading to unpleasant
disorganization of the personality. It may take the form of the following:

a. Amnesia It refers to loss of memory of events as result of traumatic

experiences.
b. Fugue It is a dissociative disorder characterized by a sudden loss of
memory accompanied by actual physical fight.
c. Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)/ Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
is the most famous dissociative disorder characterized by the presence of
two or more distinct personalities, which alternate in consciousness to one
individual.

Maladaptive Behavior Related to Neurosis

1. Alcoholism A condition characterized by uncontrollable consumption of
alcoholic beverages.
2. Drug Addiction A condition in which a person becomes physiologically
and psychologically dependent on drugs and uses them habitually.
3. Sexual Deviation It refers to any group of psychosexual disorders
characterized by sexual fantasies, feelings, or activities involving a
nonhuman object, a nonconsenting partner such as a child, or pain or
humiliation of oneself or ones partner. There are different classifications of
sexual deviations such as:
3.1 Passive sexual disturbances A sexual activity done privately to avoid
harm to other people.
3.2 Aggressive sexual behavior A sexual activity that causes injury or
damage to other people like sadism, exhibitionism, and necrophilia.

2. Psychosis is a condition involving critical mental disorders that causes

people to lose contact with reality or incapable to function on a daily
basis.
Symptoms of Psychosis
1. Disorders in Personal Orientation also known as hallucination. The
first sign of persons loss of contact with reality is disorientation.
2. Disorders of Perception also known as delusion. It is the perception
of objects, which have no reality, or of sensations, which have no
corresponding external cause, arising from disorder or the nervous
system, as in delirium tremens (shaking frenzy).

Forms of Hallucination
1. Auditory Hallucination It is a characterized by wrong perception of
sound, song or melody, noise or a voice.
2. Visual Hallucination It is a characterized by wrong visual perception.
3. Somatic Hallucination It is a characterized by wrong perception of
sense of touch.
4. Olfactory Hallucination It is a characterized by wrong perception of
sense of smell.
5. Gustatory Hallucination It is a characterized by wrong perception of
sense of taste.
6. Disorders of Thinking are convictions contrary to reality and which
firmly holds despite its lack of evidence, irrationality, and impossibility
which is known as delusions.

Types of Delusions
1. Delusions of Grandeur a person thinks that he is a supernatural
being like a deity or illustrious like a monarch.
2. Delusions of Reference a person may interpret events as something
that gas direct connection to him.
3. Delusions of Persecution a person believes that there are people
who planned to hurt him or even kill him.
4. Disorders of Emotion some individual show exaggerated reaction of
sadness, joy, fear, and anger.

Coping Mechanism to Frustrations

In order to face anxiety, stress, depression, and trauma, people have undertaken
coping strategies or mechanisms as their temporary action. Some of these are
done unconsciously while others are dine deliberately. Some mechanisms are
premeditated; some are practiced or mastered, while some are learned. Some
coping mechanisms are beneficial while others are not, some are even
destructive.

Sigmund Freud identifies these mechanisms as follows:

1. Denial Refers to non-acceptance of an event that has occurs.

2. Displacement It is when a person shifts his/her impulses from an
unacceptable or undesirable target to a more acceptable or desirable one.
3. Intellectualization It is means of protecting oneself from stress, anxiety,
and conflict through the use of logic and reason.
4. Projection In this defense mechanism, uncomfortable thoughts or
feelings are ascribed to another person.
5. Rationalization Is a defense mechanism that involves justification of an
unwanted behavior or feelings in a reasonable manner, diverting to the
real reasons for the behavior.
6. Reaction Formation Is a type of defense mechanism wherein a person
hides his real emotion, impulse, or behavior by doing or behaving in the
exact opposite manner.
7. Regression Is a defense mechanism wherein a person reacts or
responds to unwanted stimuli in a childlike way of thinking, feeling, or
acting.
8. Repression Is a defense mechanism wherein an individual buries
unpleasant thoughts in an extremely far area of the subconscious mind.
9. Sublimation Is the conversion of unwanted impulses into something
that is not destructive or injurious to others.